In this issue:
calendar
Reports:
Cataloguing
Excursion
Updates:
Tuesday Afternoon
Speakers
2008 Membership
Back issues of Newsletter:
click here
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Calendar
of Activities 2008
(items added and/or revised -
please disregard previous copy)
|
Day |
Date |
Activity |
Time |
Venue |
| Monday |
7/07/2008 |
Committee
meeting |
7.30pm |
Maffra
Library |
| Tuesday |
15/07/2008 |
Tuesday
Speaker |
1.30pm |
Maffra Beet
Museum |
| Monday |
4/08/08 |
Committee
meeting |
7.30pm |
Maffra
Library |
| Monday |
1/09/08 |
Annual
Luncheon |
noon |
tba |
There is a workshop and research session held every Monday
afternoon from about 1.00pm in the Maffra Library, during which
members work on the cataloguing of the archives or on their own
researches. Occasionally arrangements have to be changed at short
notice; if you
are a regular, or wish to become so, you might like to ask to be put on
the emailing list. Contact Linda at
kapana@netspace.net.au
Visitors are very welcome to come along and either join
in or request help in your own research. This is an opportunity
for members of the public to have access to the archives, including the
photographic collection. You can check first by ringing Maffra
Library (03) 5147 1052.
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Reports
Cataloguing the Dairy Display at Winnindoo
The cataloguing team descended upon the Robotic
Dairy display centre on Saturday 15th March intent upon recording and
cataloguing all our collection out there. Linda soon had everyone
busy with their allotted tasks and after a concentrated day interrupted
only by lunch, all our artifacts have been photographed and initially
recorded. Having our records on the new lap-top helped immensely
here. The records are now being progressively fine tuned during the
regular Monday sessions.
Autumn Excursion
- Walhalla
Combining with Stratford and Rosedale Historical
Societies proved to be an excellent idea; individually, each society would
have been pushing to fill even a small bus but collectively we were able
to afford one comfortable coach and share costs as well as companionship.
As it happened we made such good time that we were much
too early to catch the first scheduled train from the Thomson River Bridge
station. But as luck would have it, a train was at the station ready
to be taken up to Walhalla for the day's first official journey.
After some friendly negotiation we were allowed to board and virtually had
the carriages to ourselves. The winding trip across the narrow Thomson
River bridge and then hugging the cliff faces along the equally narrow
Stringers Creek valley caused us to marvel at the engineering skills of
the original builders and the later restorers.
Our coach picked us up again at the Walhalla station and we were joined by
one of the local storekeepers who gave a running commentary as we
progressed along the main street. Returning to the centre of town,
it was time for coffee, lunch, a wander and a museum visit.
In the afternoon we gathered at the foot of the hill
below the cemetery, which looked dauntingly high above us. Those fit
enough walked up the track while others were ferried up by vehicles
provided through the Walhalla Cemetery Trust. Yolanda Reynolds, the
Trust's secretary, spoke to us about the cemetery itself, about the
difficulties of preserving such a fragile site and about
 the
difficult decisions to be made when the pine trees, which are a feature, intruded upon and began to destroy the graves. She
also put to rest the rumour that bodies were buried vertically because of
the steepness of the hillside. This was not so; instead graves were
built up using available rocks so that they give the impression of a
series of terraces curving up and down the gullies.
Updates
Tuesday Afternoon speakers
In April we took the opportunity to introduce everyone
to the refurbished museum, to gauge their reactions and to listen to
constructive suggestions. One request was that future Tuesday
Afternoons be held at the Museum and not the Library. Other
suggestions include provision of a site map to indicate the location of
the beet factory in relation to the present town, the marking of steps at
the entrance for the safety of people with failing eyesight and the
filling in of blank spots high up on the walls with more pictures.
All of these will be attended to.
It was appropriate that our speaker was Anne Napier,
who elaborated on the theme of heritage presentation which she had
introduced in her earlier talk. Various ways of bringing a
location's heritage before the general public were discussed and the
difficult matters of funding and responsibility were aired. One
Catch-22 situation we face is that although our museum building is quite
clearly an historic one, it cannot be listed as a "heritage" building
because it is not on its original site. And consequently we
cannot get "heritage" funding to develop it as our means of presenting
Maffra's heritage even though, had it stayed where it was, it would have
been bulldozed. The one hope we have is that there's probably a way
round the dilemma if you know what words to use.
Tuesday 15th July at 1.30 at the Museum (McMahon Drive):
Our next speaker will be Jim Hood, a long time member and office
bearer of the Traralgon Historical Society. Jim is our Gippsland
regional representative on the committee of the Royal Historical Society
of Victoria. He will be telling us about the current roles of the
RHSV and about the services available to members of affiliated societies
(of which we are one). Just a tip from last meeting - bring a
cushion.
Society Membership
We would like to offer our sincere thanks to all
those people who have supported us again in 2008. Just a
reminder that as an incentive, all paid-up members automatically receive a 10%
discount on all Society charges, whether this be for the luncheon, for items
purchased (eg. books, photo reproductions) or for excursions.
If you would care to join for the remainder of 2008 you should write to the address below or, if you
are reading this on-line, you could click here.
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