History & heritage

John McNamara and Sue Spence. Strolling across the grassy threshold of Pilot Hill towards the lighthouse you feel you are entering a timeless realm steeped in history and unspoilt natural beauty. The stark white tower is a spectacular sight up close, especially when you look up at it against a bright blue sky; it defies its humble beginning. When the Pilot Station was established in 1854 crossing the river bar was a major obstacle to navigation.

Alba Brockie. Perhaps you have wandered past the old cream coloured building between the Uniting Church and the Butcher and wondered “what goes on in there?”, “what is the story behind this old place?” The current Aladdin’s Cave that is the Uniting Church Op-Shop is located in Tennant Creek’s oldest still used building, the Australian Inland Mission Welfare Hut.

Sheryl Lowe. Father Woods Park statues will be the focus of discussions between Wattle Range Council and the Penola Catholic Community in coming weeks ... Cr Price successfully moved for Council to approach the Catholic Church leaders at Penola to see if they would support the relocation of the statues to Penola due to the safety concerns at the current site.

Workers from the EPIC (Employment Preparation and Inclusion in the Community) program have been assisting in the restoration of Porcupine Village since July this year. The group, which rotates its participants through the village twice a week, initially began by clearing out the historic buildings, and are now focused on doing a number of other jobs around the place, including yard work.

This year marks 100 years since the first subsidised air-mail service in Australia, and Geraldton holds a rich history in the momentous milestone. In 1921, Major Norman Brearley, a decorated pilot with the Royal Air Force, was awarded a Government tender to deliver the country’s first subsidised air-mail and passenger contract. Tragically, during the inaugural flight, one of the three planes flying from Geraldton to Carnarvon met with disaster near Murchison House Station. 100 years later, that milestone is being commemorated with an RAAF aerial acrobatics display and the launch of a historical booklet.

Member for Wannon, Dan Tehan said he was delighted to launch the 160 km world-class hiking trail Grampians Peaks Trail, starting at Mt Zero in the north, passing through Halls Gap and with highlights including Redman Bluff, Major Mitchell Plateau and Mt Abrupt before reaching Dunkeld in the south.

If you, like Kookaburra, have antecedents who hailed from the sheep and cattle country of the Yorkshire dales, you might well be interested in this fascinating website - Swaledale history. The website is put together by the appropriately named Will Swales.

Commended in the Local History Small Publication Award, 2019 Victorian Community History Award. This award recognises the best small publications or or e-books which feature Victorian local, cultural or social history. The fascinating story of the establishment and development of the Art Gallery of Ballarat has been told in a book by noted Ballarat historian Dr Anne Beggs-Sunter.

The biggest sporting and cultural event of its kind will come to regional NSW for the very first time when thousands come to see knights and vikings battle it out at the Medieval Faire in Orange next year, thanks to the NSW Government’s Regional Events Acceleration Fund. Deputy Premier and Minister for Regional NSW Paul Toole said a $200,000 grant will deliver the world-class two-day Orange Medieval Faire, where visitors can wander through a historical village featuring viking battles, archery, birds of prey displays and a giant medieval catapult.

Last Saturday proved ideal for the second of SteamPacket’s railway platform Blues Masters gigs. The Master this time being the Mistress of the Blues Guitar, Fiona Boyes, who accomplishes the almost impossible task of singing highly expressive lyrics while playing highly complex blues licks at the same time with astonishing ease. (Something B.B. King, Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton never mastered. They sing, then they play: or vice versa.)

Apart from brief periods during April, May and August the Maldon Museum has been closed to the public for most of this past year. Volunteer activities have continued during this time however, and much has been achieved behind the scenes in the way of conservation, cataloguing and indexing. The planned re-opening of the museum is eagerly awaited by the museum’s volunteers who have created a special informative display of Maldon’s mines from days long gone.  

Mountain bike events should be held on private property to avoid conflicting use with culturally-important Noongar sites and fragile biodiversity. So says University of WA professor of biodiversity Stephen Hopper, a view which traditional owner of Koorumdinup (Mt Hallowell), Menang man, Larry Blight shares.

Patricia Gill. Noongar man Larry Blight can feel the presence of spirits at culturally-significant sites and experiences a racing heart in those for ‘women’s business’ ... Larry was speaking at a Denmark Environment Centre-presented field trip at Koorumdinup on November 7 along with professor of biodiversity at the University of WA, Stephen Hopper.

A special morning tea event at Sunshine Coast Council’s Nambour and Heritage Library has celebrated the venue’s contemporary and vibrant new look. Division 10 and Community Portfolio Councillor David Law said the Nambour and Heritage Libraries formed an integral part of our hinterland community, with more than 87,000 people coming through their doors during the past 12 months.

Avoca’s iconic War Memorial will be celebrated this week, following months of restoration work ... Built in 1921, the Avoca War Memorial was constructed by the local community to remember those who fought in the First World War. The memorial was later rededicated in 1988 to also commemorate soldiers who served in the Second World War.

The whole landscape needs maintenance by mild fire. But academics and fire chiefs talk of asset protection zones, strategic zones and management zones with different fire regimes. They just don’t get it. Firebreaks don’t work in extreme weather. They can’t stop firestorms and long-distance ember showers. If you need to reduce accumulated fuel, you haven’t been maintaining the landscape properly.

Kaiser Reef Limited (ASX:KAU) is extremely pleased to announce the first exploration results for the high-grade Maldon historic gold mine.  Managing Director, Jonathan Downes stated, “We are delighted that we are finding high-grade gold in our first trial drilling campaign.  Maldon is one of the great goldfields and it has received extraordinarily limited modern exploration."

As always, Tennant Creek RSL held a heartfelt service to honour the fallen, with wreaths being laid by Barkly MLA Steve Edgington, Mayor Jeffrey McLaughlin, as well as students from local schools and other organisations in town. For those who were unable to attend the RSL, or those who are interested in the history of Australia in battle there will be a semi trailer cinema session at the IGA car park from 7pm till 9.30 tonight.

The Castlemaine and Maldon Railway Preservation Society, the operator of the Victorian Goldfields Railway, would like to ask the residents of Castlemaine and Maldon to be more mindful of the trains ... One child was playing extremely close to the line ... most probably would have been struck by the locomotive, had the locomotive crews not taken prompt action to bring the locomotive to a halt approximately three to four metres from the child.

Christopher Creek and Deborah Benson have have owned and run the Eaglehawk Motel since January 2013. They have now secured a buyer for the motel after having it on the market for the past three to four years ... Chris is excited to settle down in Maldon and is hoping to spend his time completing a revised edition of Rich Vein, to try and include more of the First Nations’ account.  

Peter Rutherford, SETA. ... evidence that the three dimensional fuel loads, which have become the norm in much of the NSW forested landscape, are an artefact of over 200 years of fire management neglect and are not representative of the of up to 60,000 years of evolution, shaped by the intelligent use of fire in the Australian landscape.