History & heritage

Port Broughton’s ornately decorated hotel and its stately Norfolk Island pines, the Alford Institute Hall, churches at Bute and a farmhouse at Mundoora are among 46 sites which could be heritage listed by Barunga West Council ... Council has proposed new planning rules to protect the area’s local heritage, which would make it the first council to utilise South Australia’s code amendment process for this purpose.

The exhibition is of Orthodox icons and includes pieces from eleven Australian collections, including six public institutions: Mona, Art Gallery of Ballarat, Art Gallery of South Australia, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, the University of Sydney, and the Abbey Museum of Art and Archaeology, Caboolture.  Contributions from private collectors come from Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney, and London ... This exhibition is the most significant collection of Orthodox icons presented in Australia that can be recalled ... The overall effect is surely one of surprise for the uninitiated and awe inspiring for the person who understands the genre.

Back in 2021, the Birchip Cemetery Trust received $22,000 from the Department of Health’s Cemetery Sector Governance Support Program to upgrade the original lawn cemetery and a further $18,000 from the “Cargill Cares Cropping for the Birchip Community” program ... concrete plinths could be installed in all six rows of the initial lawn cemetery to rehouse the plaques that used to sit on individual concrete blocks or directly on the lawn.

Corryong College teacher, Stephen Learmonth ... has undertaken his own project to record the biographies of other servicemen from the region and the Corryong Courier will be printing a selection of these stories in the lead up to Remembrance Day this year on November 11 ... Frank Leslie Butler was born on the 13th of April, 1919 at Tallangatta, Victoria.

The Vintage Drivers Club of Victoria organised a tour through parts of Western NSW with a stay of a couple of days in White Cliffs. The Club had liaised with the White Cliffs Historic Vehicle Club and met for an evening meal at the Pub.

Patrick Goldsmith. They came in their thousands to celebrate 150 years of the Edithburgh jetty across Saturday and Sunday ... Those who had wandered down the street, or driven from further away, to join the celebrations were met with a hive of activity, including shearing and diving demonstrations, museum open days and market stalls offering an array of food and drink options.

Excitement is building for this year’s Dunolly Gold Rush Festival to be held on Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 October. The weekend will kick off on Saturday 21 October with the Dunolly Gold Rush Music Festival ... There will be a variety of stalls, prizes, great music in the Rotunda, the favourite “Hold the Gold” competition, Festival merchandise sales, displays of classic cars ...

The Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) (Queensland Section) is marking the momentous 80-year anniversary of its Charleville Base this October. Established in 1943, the Charleville Base services a waiting room of more than 622,000 square kilometres, connecting the residents of this significant South-West Queensland region to leading, and often lifesaving, health services ... As part of the 80-year anniversary, the RFDS (Qld) will also celebrate the individual 20-year anniversary of two of its nurses, Joanne Mahony and Diane Dowrick.

Gale force winds, icebergs and sheer mind-numbing monotony ... for a few thousand of Australia’s WWI servicemen, this was their war. An endless round of escort and blockading with the ever-present threat of a torpedo from underneath. I am of course referring to those clean-cut young men from the Royal Australian Navy.

The cover of the newly released Maldon Museum 2024 calendar is a photograph of a beautiful watercolour of the Beehive Mine by David Relph Drape ... The Maldon Museum has a unique photograph collection and the calendar has a distinctive photograph of Maldon for each month.

Police officers have an important, but sometimes dangerous job in the community; for this reason Police Remembrance Day marks those officers who have either been killed on duty or died whilst serving. First commemorated in 1989 it occurs on 29 September each year.

A draft strategic plan to bolster the Hume and Hovell Track has been released ... [following] consultations and workshops with tourism groups, community members, local councils, Aboriginal organisations, and agencies including the National Parks and Wildlife Service and NSW Forestry Corporation.

The red dust at Barellan is a long way from the sparkling water of a pool but former Olympic swimming champion Shane Gould was taking a keen interest in the sound of a single furrow plough slicing through the clay at the Barellan Good Old Days Festival at the weekend ... She was a keen spectator at the single furrow ploughing completion on Sunday at Barellan, drawing heavy horse and bullock teams.

The Rockliff Liberal Government is a proud supporter of Legacy and this week we proudly welcomed the Legacy Centenary Torch Relay to Tasmania ... “It was an honour to be in Pozieres, France, as part of the Frank MacDonald Memorial Prize Tour when the Legacy Centenary Torch Relay began on April 23": Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, Guy Barnett.

The Goomburra Town Hall is inviting local families who may have family members who served for their country to donate a paver for the Memorial Garden. There are two Honour Boards in the hall and the committee are replicating these by developing a memorial garden with named pavers of service personnel.

Will Hunter. It is feared a historic crane located on an allotment listed for sale as part of a Department for Infrastructure and Transport land disposal in Port Wakefield may be at risk. The allotments … were listed for sale with Ray White Yorke Peninsula after Wakefield Regional Council advised DIT it had no interest in acquiring any of the land identified for disposal.

Ted Cavanagh. Following the Church Service at St Pat’s the Cavanagh families moved into the grounds of the School for photos and lunch. St Patrick’s brought back many memories for the Cavanagh children who attended the School over the years.

It's hard to imagine now how many people lived in the Boyeo area 100 hundred years ago. With small farms and large families, 4 local schools all within 5 miles and more not much further away, the Boyeo recreation reserve was a constant venue of activity.

Known as the biggest gathering of teamsters in the nation, the 2023 Good Old Days Festival drew 6000 visitors for the unique working heritage display of blade shearing, chaff cutting, harvesting, ploughing, log snigging, log obstacle course, shoeing, blacksmithing, butter churning, Furphy rebarrelling, working yard dogs, whip cracking, dog jumping, billy boiling and the Australia Light Horse display.

Ian Hutton. Since 1978 the Lord Howe Island Museum has acquired many valuable artefacts reflecting the long human history story of the Island ... Libby Baker, regular visitor to the Island and the Museum, has arranged for her family foundation the KEDJE Foundation to sponsor an Island resident to carry out this project putting the LHI Museum artefacts on eHive Lord Howe Island Museum.

Two 50-year time capsules buried beneath Murwillumbah library are now available for public viewing before they are retrieved in the coming weeks. The capsules were buried in 1973 at the start of the construction of the Murwillumbah Civic and Cultural Centre, which includes the library.

Members of Donald History Society Inc. mustered in the car park behind the mall ... then proceeded in five cars to the outskirts of Lake Batyo Catyo to visit “The Argyles” ... The History Society visitors drove into the entrance road to Lake Batyo Catyo, where the water glistened through the trees and looked very much as it did in its glory days of being a summer oasis, where countless families from the local area camped, boated, and fished throughout the warmer months.