Author: digitalbarn

There was an historic event for South Australia on Kangaroo Island recently when a reunion of the descendants of the families that arrived there 175 years ago on the sailing ship Solway took place.

The Solway, a 3-masted, wooden sailing ship of 337 imperial tons, left the German port of Hamburg, on 3 June 1837 with around 70 passengers on board.  These were some of the first German settlers to arrive and remain in South Australia.  The South Australian Company had sent the first settlers to South Australia via the Duke of York the previous July.  The company found that they required some labourers to ensure the survival of the colony and asked the German government if they would allow German families to immigrate to South Australia.  Hence the Solway was sent to Hamburg to collect the passengers who were to undertake the gruelling four and half month voyage to the other side of the world.

The reunion coincided with the landing day on 16 October 1837 at Reeves Point, Kingscote. 120 people, representing thirteen of the 28 original families attended the Gala Dinner at the Aurora Ozone Hotel on Saturday 13 October plus descendants of the Solway’s first Officer Louis Hanson.

Only two months after its arrival in Australia the Solway, which was anchored at the South Australian Company’s station at Rosetta Harbour, Encounter Bay (near Victor Harbor), was unfortunately wrecked after breaking from its moorings and driven over a reef during a storm.  Sue Pender, who has been researching the history of the Solway, spoke on the remains now sandbagged for safekeeping in Rosetta Harbour.  Evan Kleemann (a fifth generation attendee) entertained the gathering with ‘a bit of German’ humour. The story of the first Officer Louis Hanson was related by one of his descendants, Allen Clark, telling how Hanson remained in South Australia after the Solway’s demise and went on to purchase and sell a considerable amount of land around the State.

A commemorative Church service was held on Sunday morning in the Kingscote Institute followed by a light lunch.  Tables of memorabilia were displayed in the hall for all to catch up on family history.  Each family then presented stories of their forefathers and families, as they knew them, hoping to fill in some of ‘the gaps’. There are plans to put some these stories into a booklet to preserve this special history.

Monday was free for sightseeing; for example, to visit the historic mulberry tree on the slopes of Reeves Point,  possibly the same mulberry tree that was planted in the memory of one of the Solway’s passengers, Mrs Maria Kleemann who had died 2 days prior to landing and was buried in the pioneer cemetery nearby.

On the Tuesday morning, the group gathered at Reeves Point where Deputy Mayor Peter Clements and 91 year old Colin Gramp, a descendant of one of the passengers, Johann Gramp unveiled a commemorative plaque, marking the 175^th celebrations.  Sue Pender gave a ‘picture in words’ of what Reeves Point looked like in 1837 and the event concluded with a prayer of thanks.

David Christian and Jan Heppner should be congratulated for such a successful event.  Jan from Waikerie reports that attendees came from all over South Australia and the Eastern states and that she has received emails regarding the reunion from Australia-wide, the USA and the UK and is still receiving correspondence from descendants who missed out.  

The event was reported here in The Islander, Kangaroo Island’s local newspaper

 

 

A biography of William Cade (1883-1957), the founding conductor of Adelaide Symphony Orchestra was launched last week at the Grainger Studio in Hindley Street, the home of the ASO. The new book, called The Flying Conductor was written by his granddaughter Avril Dalby, and part-funded by a History SA 2011-12 South Australian History Fund.

As well as the founding conductor of the ASO in 1936, William Cade played a significant role in expanding the musical life of 20^th century Adelaide and was instrumental in setting up a 75 member Students’ Orchestra, the first in Australia.

Paul Blackman, ASO’s Human Resource Manager who also looks after ASO Heritage, introduced the event which featured a wonderful duet written for Cade in 1933 which had been only recently discovered in the University of Adelaide library. It was performed by ASO orchestra members Minas Berberyan (violinist) and Imants Larsens (violist and Associate Principal), while Minas later performed another exquisite piece with ASO member Suzanne Handel (harpist and Associate Principal).

Jo Peoples, Curator for the Performing Arts Collection in South Australia officially launched the book.

The launch party was well attended by family, friends and members of Adelaide’s performing arts community. Avril was kept busy signing books, while light refreshments were served courtesy of Adelaide Hills U3A Family History group who had played an important part in encouraging Avril with her writing project, her first published book.

The Flying Conductor is printed by Hyde Park Press and costs $50 and available via the author through her website

Today I went along to support volunteers Di and Marg from the Embroiderers’ Guild of SA Museum who were taking part in the Open Day at Resthaven Aged Facility in Malvern. Their newly created ‘Memory Box’ was having its first public airing.

Their box contained a variety of embroidered items mainly from the first half of the 20^th century that were not part of their accessioned collection but had been sourced particularly for this purpose.  There was a beautiful silk nightdress, made in China as part of a trousseau in about 1910 with exquisitely embroidered blue birds and the owner’s Christian name on the bodice.  A baby’s layette set; various doilies; a hot water bottle cover and an embroidered table cloth celebrating the coronation of George VI in 1937.  There were also some quaint needle cases dating from the 1920s and 30s.

There was a great deal of interest in the items as they were being laid out ready for the Open Day, prompting memories of childhood, and making instant connections between people.

Memory Boxes, containing items to stimulate memories and encourage conversation and engagement are increasingly being used as part of reminiscence therapy amongst the elderly and those suffering from dementia.   Museums, particularly in the UK, are establishing memory boxes as part of their outreach programs, using objects in their collection that are surplus to requirement.

Prompted by talks Allison Russell and I have given outlining reminiscence projects we had worked on together as well as research we had done overseas, the Mile End-based Embroiderers Guild Museum decided to create their own Memory Box program.  Their next visit will be to the Helping Hand Residential care home in North Adelaide when they will be presenting their Memory Box to a small group of residents. 

It would good to perhaps see more collaboration between community museums and aged care facilities.  It gives museums an opportunity to repurpose their surplus items so that they may be used to improve wellbeing amongst the aging.  While at the same time the conversation generated during such a program might reveal useful information about an item’s history and use, and establish valuable networks.

Please call Embroiderers’ Guild of SA Museum Curator, Di Fisher on (08) 8234-1104 if you would like to know more about their Memory Box program.

The St John Ambulance Museum has moved from its old building, a 1969 ambulance depot when St John ran the ambulance service in South Australia, to a new address.  Located in a charming cottage quite close to the St John State Office headquarters, the museum is now at 72 Edmund Avenue, Unley. The interior of the cottage has been re-painted and the floors either polished or carpeted. The cottage will provide space for displays, storage, office and workspace.

The museum is not yet ready for visitors as yet but is expected to open in the first quarter of 2013.

Moving a museum is no small undertaking. Some idea of the task confronting members of the St John Historical Society can be gained from the photo of the interior of the cottage. There are scores of boxes to be unpacked that contain the hundreds of items in the collection. It will therefore be several months before the museum will be ready to open. An announcement will be made in “Open Airways”, the St John newsletter when it is open for visitors again.

Members of the St John Historical Society wish to thank members of the St John Board and Sharyn Mitten, CEO and her staff for providing such excellent accommodation for the museum.

You can read more about the history of St John in South Australia here

 

 

 

 

 

 

History SA/Veterans SA’s travelling exhibition Bravest of the Brave, which tells the moving stories of the 8 South Australians awarded the Victoria Cross in the First World War, has now arrived at its third venue.  State Member for Schubert, Ivan Venning kindly transported the touring display to Two Wells RSL this week from Crystal Brook RSL where it has been displayed since early September.  Community History Officer and curator of the exhibition, Pauline Cockrill helped set up the exhibition with Two Wells RSL secretary John Allen.   

Affectionately known as BOB, the exhibition consists of 7 doubled sided pop up banners and 4 wooden crates which double up as plinths to display the framed citations and replica medals belonging to the 8 men.

The RSL Club rooms are on the Main Street of Two Wells.  The display is there until 7 November and can be viewed on Wednesdays from 10 – 2 pm or by arrangement (call John on 0411 894 245).  The club rooms are also open for meals on Fridays from noon until late when the information panel on the son of Two Wells, James Park Woods will be available to view. 

James Park Woods was born in Two Wells in 1886, the son of a local blacksmith and grandson of Irish migrants who came to Australia and settled in Two Wells from Armagh in 1838. When a small boy, his mother died in childbirth aged just 40.  She is buried in Two Wells Cemetery.   ‘Jimmy’ Woods tried to enlist when WWI broke out but was rejected by the army because he was too short.  He was accepted later as height restrictions were dropped.  He was awarded his Victoria Cross for conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty near Le Verguier, north west of St Quentin on the Western Front on 18 September 1918. Unfortunately his father never knew of his son’s award for he had died the previous year.

The first of many projects that are being prepared worldwide to commemorate the centenary of the First World War in 2014, Bravest of the Brave is available from History SA free of charge to travel to schools, RSL clubs, museums, libraries, aged care facilities, community centres etc. There is also a schools resources kit.  In the first instance it is being offered to locations from where the 8 men were local heroes. 

The display will be going to Coventry Library in Stirling in November and after that is booked up to travel to a variety of venues in South Australia throughout most of 2013 and even 2014. Enquiries regarding the exhibition’s availability should be made on 08 8203 9888.

More photographs of the exhibition at Two Wells and at other venues including its launch by the Hon Jack Snelling MP in April 2012 can be seen here

Almost 1300 entries in the 32nd Bay to Birdwood Run gathered at Barratt Reserve on Adelaide Shores along with around 5000 spectators in the early morning of Sunday 30 September for the start of what is described as the world’s largest most continually held historic motoring event.

Before the official start the spectators joined the cars and their drivers for breakfast giving all an opportunity to wander among the entries, admire polished chrome, innovative outfits as well as share stories and motoring memories.

 At 8.30 am City of Holdfast Bay’s Mayor Ken Rollond along with a representative from the Premier’s office cut the ribbon and the race began.  Each car was waved off with a flamboyant wave of the chequered flag by lithe Glen Dix in his mustard yellow blazer, who had performed this task in a similar showy manner when the Grand Prix was in Adelaide from 1985-1995.

Three antique planes, including two monoplanes performed a flypast over the Reserve to add more historic flavour to the proceedings.  George Lucey’s 1926 bright yellow Phantom I Rolls Royce was the first car to leave.  It had featured on the Bay to Birdwood’s publicity material as this year’s theme was the Roaring Twenties.

Thousands then lined the 72 km route to cheer on the old cars as they made their way through the city and up to the Adelaide Hills for further revelries at the finish at the National Motor Museum in Birdwood. 

The run is open to cars built before 1956 and alternates with the Bay to Birdwood Classic which is open to vehicles manufactured between 1956 and 1977.  Next year’s Bay to Birdwood Classic will be held on Sunday September 29.

More images from the Breakfast with the Cars can be seen here

 

 

Nominations have opened for the UNESCO Australian Memory of the World Register. The Australian Register, founded in 2000, is part of the international Memory of the World, a UNESCO program aimed at preserving and providing access to valuable archival holdings and library collections around the world. There are currently 37 collections inscribed on the Australian Register, from the journals of Captain Cook to the Sorry Books signed by tens of thousands of Australians in 1998. South Australian material on the Register includes the 1836 South Australia Company Deed of Settlement, the William Light Collection and the Mountford-Sheard Collection.

Now is the time to start thinking about nominating your significant documentary heritage to the Australian Memory of the World Register.

Nominations for the next round close on 30 October 2012, and successful inscriptions will be announced publicly in Adelaide in May 2013.

Nominations can be for individual documents or collections, and can be made by institutions or individuals.

All the information you need can be found on the “How to Nominate” page on the Australian Memory of the World website.

Last week I caught up with Peter, Roger, Colin and Lindsay at the Southern Fleurieu Historical Museum, to have a chat about some collection management issues. The museum is fairly new and while much of the existing collection comes from a few local sources, since opening their premises on the Port Elliot showgrounds they are getting many more offers and accepting many more items. The Museum has an agricultural focused collection with a lot of general history items as well, including a sulky that brought one of the first young married couples to Mount Compass and a 100 year old wheat bag stencil.

It’s always great to work with a museum when they’re just starting out, and even though the task is a bit daunting, the museum is keen to put some basic procedures in place for recording the items that they have collected so far and to work out some basic policies for guiding future collecting. The best time to get cataloguing started and donation forms in use is when a museum is young!

The Museum had intended to be based at Mount Compass, but the location at Port Elliot is a real bonus. In neat, easy to find premises behind the Port Elliot Primary School (whose students have already done some restoration work on a couple of large objects), it’s a great spot with opportunity for expansion down the track.

The Museum is open on Thursdays and other times by arrangement.

 

The Australian Historical Association Conference will be held on the North Terrace campus of the University of Adelaide from 9 to 13 July 2012. This is Australia’s premier history conference and comes to Adelaide only once every decade or so and features many of the country’s leading historians. The full program for the conference is now available from the conference website.

The keynote speaker is Cambridge Professor Sir Christopher Bayly, speaking on Distant Connections: Empire, Race and Nationality in India and Australia. The conference includes a range of topical plenary panels including:

• Australian History in its Asian Contexts
• The Future of Teaching and Learning in History
• Disasters in Social and Cultural Perspective: Impact, Response, Memory
• Writing National Histories in Transnational Times

It is a large program featuring over 300 papers on a diverse range of topics. While most of the papers focus on Australian history, the conference encompasses all fields and periods of history.

The conference also includes specialist streams of history:

• The Religious History Association
• The Australian Women’s History Network
• The ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions

This promises to be an exciting conference and 2012 conference convenor, Robert Foster encourages all those interested in history to come along. You can register via the conference website.

Yesterday I was involved in a Working Bee at History SA’s store at Hindmarsh along with the Community History Unit curators Mandy and Jude as well as the Migration Museum curators Catherine and Vedrana.

It offered a good opportunity to share here some basic collection management issues that might be of help to those working in small community museums.

First up is general housekeeping.  It’s so important to keep storage areas clean at all times.  As well as being unsightly, dust can do considerable damage to some items in the long term while insects can attract more insects or other pests, some of which literally eat away parts of your collection.  Last year we had a carpet beetle infestation so regular vacuuming is a must and a good vacuum cleaner, preferably with a HEPA filter, is an essential piece of equipment for your organisation to own.  Ours is a Nilfisk Extreme X250. It’s highly efficient air filter can trap very fine particles like dust mite faeces and pollen which can trigger asthma and allergies.

We set aside a space for a work area – clean tables for examining, cataloguing or numbering objects.  We moved museum objects to easily accessible rows and ensured that where necessary, large objects were raised up from the ground.  This is important in the event of a flood, for example.  Wooden or plastic palettes are useful for achieving this.

And talking of disaster, we made sure our Disaster Bins – wheelie bins are ideal – were stocked up and easily accessible.

Moving large heavy objects can be a problem and shouldn’t be attempted on one’s own.  A Working Bee is a good way of coordinating a major move using volunteers.  However we also hired a palette jack which was a huge help.  It’s easy to operate and fun to learn new skills.

A Working Bee is a good excuse to have a serious look at your store and see what can be rearranged more efficiently and what surplus equipment or display furniture needs to be thrown out, or what supplies need to be bought.  Tip number one, be ruthless.  And number two, you can never have enough Tyvek!

At the end of the morning we had a clean, tidy store; plus two spare mannequins to give away as well as a great chance to catch up with colleagues over morning tea to exchange news, views and ideas.

More photos of our working bee here.  If you would like one or both of the mannequins please contact us.

 

 

The Loxton Historical Village Alive Day was held on the Sunday 10th June 2012 and we had a hugely successful, fun filled day. The atmosphere was great and we had hundreds of happy, smiling faces wandering through the displays!

The warmer weather had people out in their droves and when you combine great weather with a packed program you can get great results – for us it was an increase of over 16% in visitor numbers compared to June 2011.

A big hit with the children was the Time Travellers Passport and the Quad rides, while the country music singers kept everyone well entertained throughout the
afternoon with around 30 artists taking to the microphone.

Our usual Alive Day activities were also very well received with crowds milling around the washing demonstrations and at the starting of the Lanz Bulldog Tractor. The line for tasty home baked goods from the Village Bakery was out of the door and along the verandah at one stage! (One gentleman explained that he didn’t mind waiting as the food was so good and admitted it was his second helping!)

Sunday evening, after a very busy day, saw the Friends of The Village catering to the Packard Car Club Rally for dinner – a great evening of laughter and fun, topping off a successful, busy weekend at the Loxton Historical Village.

(Contributed by Tracy Bye, Manager Loxton Visitor Information Centre)

On 4 May The Sheep’s Back Museum celebrated several major achievements with the official opening of their new exhibition gallery, collection store and workroom and their re-accreditation in the Community Museums Program. John Hill, Minister for the Arts, officiated at the event, which was very well attended by locals and representatives from other local museums.  Amanda and Pauline were delighted to be among the crowd to see the culmination of several years work by the museum’s hard-working and dedicated volunteer team.

The new exhibition gallery showcases the environmental impact of wool growing on the south-east region and the impact on farming practice that environmental awareness and good practice brings. The exhibition occupies the uppermost floor of the museum’s Mill Building and involved countless hours of volunteer effort to both develop the new exhibition and make the space usable for a high-quality display.  A feature of the exhibition is a DVD production featuring interviews that highlight issues raised in the exhibition.  You can view images of the exhibition here and find out about the museum’s collection store and workroom here.

The Sheep’s Back Museum is an accredited museum in History SA’s Community Museums Program (CMP)
and as part of the opening event, Minister Hill presented the museum with their certificate of re-accreditation.  Accredited museums are regularly reviewed for accreditation and this latest re-accreditation in Sheep’s Back’s third since they were first accredited in 1989.

Congratulations Sheep’s Back Museum on all your recent achievements!

On Sunday 6 May I attended the opening of the Old Highercombe Hotel Museum’s new exhibition “Slab Hut to Dining Room”. The opening was held as part of the museum’s Gala Day in conjunction with the About Time History Festival and drew quite a crowd from the local area and beyond.

History SA Chief Executive, Margaret Anderson, officially opened the new exhibition, which is part of a larger plan to develop exhibitions in the outbuildings of the museum and tell further key aspects of the Tea Tree Gully area’s history.  Vines and Vineyards is next on the agenda.

The district where Old Highercombe Hotel is located is the former home to vineyards and wineries (including Angoves), nurseries, and quite prolific market gardens, which have all but disappeared from the landscape now.  Plenty of local history to be explored in the latest exhibition!

Holding the opening in conjunction with a Gala Day seemed to work very well.  Plenty for visitors to see and do. Son Cameron, my Mum and I got to have a pretty good look around as well as patronising the Lions Club sausage sizzle (all proceeds to the museum) and stocking up on yummy things from the trading table.

On 12 April, members of the Naracoorte Branch of the National Trust who run The Sheep’s Back Museum undertook a one day Disaster Preparedness & Response workshop. It was an opportunity for the group to learn what to do if disaster struck and their museum was flooded or underwent water damage after a fire. And it was also to help them write that all important document that is often overlooked until it is too late – the Disaster Preparedness Plan.

The workshop was taken by Preventative Conservator, Anne Dineen from Artlab Australia who travelled down to the southeast with History SA’s Community History Officer Pauline Cockrill.  The morning consisted of theory in the classroom, and quite literally the classroom, as it took place in the former Kybybolite School which is on the museum’s premises.  Anne gave a Power point presentation and the group learnt about a number of serious disasters in museums and archives around the world caused by fire, flood and accidents by visitors and contractors on site. There was plenty of time for discussion and to go through Anne’s excellent notes and template for creating a Disaster Preparedness Plan.

After lunch it was time for the ‘hands-on’ session and the group moved to the Work Shed which had been laid out as a salvage area, to practice the various ways of retrieving waterlogged items and how to dry them with the least amount of damage possible.  Several objects made of a variety of materials had been soaked earlier in water-filled plastic tubs. These included many typical items that one might have to save – photographs, books, documents, CDs, as well as artefacts representing different materials – paper, plastic, leather, metal, textiles and ceramic.

Anne demonstrated how to use the important equipment necessary to have in one’s Disaster Bin/Store such as rolls of paper towel, Glad Bake, Rag on a Roll (ROAR), blotting paper, Reemay (a spun polyester fabric), plastic sheeting, clothes line and pegs, and electric fans.  Everyone had the opportunity to try out interleaving soaked books with paper towel ready to air dry them in a simple wind tunnel which Anne created with chairs, plastic sheeting and an electric fan.  There was also a chance to encase a book using Glad Bake ready for freezing and to peg out damp documents, photos and negatives on a clothes line.

Anne finished by demonstrating ways of air drying different waterlogged items such as a leather shoe and a child’s dress.  Photographs of the workshop can be seen here.

The workshop was funded by a grant through History SA’s Community Museums Program. The 2012-13 grant round will be open on 30 July.

Do you have a Disaster Preparedness Plan? Accredited and registered museums in the program might want to consider applying for a grant for a similar workshop to ensure you are disaster ready.  Contact us if you would like to discuss this further.

With much sadness we report the death of City of Mitcham Council’s Community Historian Maggy Ragless, who passed away unexpectedly in her sleep in March, just a few weeks off from her 60th birthday.

Maggy had been Mitcham’s local history officer since 1986 as well as devoting many hours of voluntary service to promoting the history of the area. Based at the Mitcham Heritage Research Centre, part of Mitcham Cultural Village at the corner of Princes Road and Torrens Street, it was more than fitting that in January she was made Mitcham Council’s Australia Day Citizen of the Year for her dedication in the role of preserving the area’s history.

She was well known to us here at History SA having been involved in numerous History Weeks, State History Conferences and workshops that we have organised.  She had also initiated several innovative community history projects for which she had been successful in gaining financial support through our annual South Australian History Fund grant scheme.  These included some commemorative and interpretative ceramic tile top picnic tables in the Hannaford and Cedar Reserves as well as the refurbishment of the original Blackwood Railway Station sign, one of only two left in South Australia.

Maggy willingly shared her vast knowledge and is remembered for giving many talks to groups of all ages and particularly for initiating her slow bus tours around Mitcham and ‘memory afternoons’. She was a foundation member of the Historical Society of South Australia (established 1974).

Maggy was descended from the pioneer Ragless family who arrived in South Australia from London/Portsmouth on the barque Eden on 24 June 1838.  In 1988, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the family’s migration she wrote Dust Storms in China Teacups: Ragless Family Heritage to Australia in conjunction with the Ragless Reunion committee.  She also contributed to 5 other SA publications.

A memorial service was held for her at the Mitcham Reserve on Norman Walk last Monday 30 April which was attended by a large number of people.  There were many fitting tributes to her ‘can do’ attitude and ‘people skills’ and overwhelming enthusiasm for history and bringing it out from the archives and into the community.

We send sincere condolences to her family, friends and work colleagues including the many dedicated volunteers who assisted her.

Had I stepped into an episode of ‘Cranford’?  No, I was attending a very special historic birthday party.  We were celebrating Charles Sturt’s 217^th birthday on Saturday at his former home in Grange, now the Charles Sturt Memorial Museum, where members of the Victoriana Society certainly brought this early colonial style house in Adelaide’s western suburbs to life.

In the presence of Senator for South Australia, the Hon Don Farrell MP, former SA Premier and the museum’s Patron, the Hon Dean Brown; and Mayor of the City of Charles Sturt, Kirsten Alexander, celebrations began literally with a bang.

Members of the Fort Glanville Historical Association started the proceedings by firing a two pounder cannon, honouring the man who played a key role in mapping the Murray Darling river system and opening up Australia’s inland for settlement. Soldier, farmer, explorer, statesman – Charles’ other legacies include the Sturt Desert Pea, our State’s floral emblem, and samples from his Central expedition are preserved and displayed in the museum.

After the formalities a very pleasant afternoon tea was served in a marquee on the museum lawns. Charles’ annual birthday party on 28 April continues a tradition which began in 1967 when the Jetty Road residence known as The Grange was reopened as a Museum.  Sturt’s mixed farm of nearly 400 acres had been subdivided by the end of the 19^th century to create the village of Grange, now a beachside Western suburb of Adelaide. More photos of Saturday’s event can be seen here

The Charles Sturt Memorial Museum is a registered member of History SA’s Community Museums Program.  It is kept open by a dedicated crew of volunteers on the first and third Sunday of the month from 2- 5pm.

Last Sunday I was involved with helping to send off a large number of classic fifties, sixties and seventies vehicles from the Torrens Parade Ground to the annual Rock and Roll Rendezvous up in the hills at the National Motor Museum.

After an early start, the vehicles began to arrive on the expanse of grey tarmac, broken up by swirling autumn leaves, beneath an equally grey sky. Fortunately, the rain clouds desisted and we were soon toe tapping to the R&R music from the PA system, (conveniently drowning out the sound of the Oval being demolished in the background), tucking into breakfast and buying raffle tickets from event sponsors Coast FM.

Such an event isn’t the success that it is without the help of enthusiastic volunteers such as the CFS who were on parking duty and members of the Vietnam Veterans Association who were putting on the BBQ breakfast. Great job and much appreciated.

It was a real nostalgia fest of FJs, MGs, VWs, V8s and much much more, all polished paintwork and gleaming chrome, while many of the drivers and passengers had taken the trouble to dress in some very innovative retro costumes.

Enthusiastic rev heads huddled over engine bays and engaged in technical talk.  But it was the social history of the vehicles that caught my attention – for example, Steve Annear’s white Ford Galaxie convertible which had been used to ferry the Beatles around Adelaide on their 1964 visit.  It can be seen in the You Tube clip here.  Imported brand new from Canada, it had been previously owned by entrepreneur Sammi Lee who it is said drove Frank Sinatra around in it during his Australia tour.  The car was later owned by sixties and seventies Sydney disc jockey Ward Austin and still has his personalised WA number plates.  It was the envy of many but as Steve commented, all the cars gathered there were unique, with a special history of their own.

With the raffle winner announced, the cars were waved off with Coast FM flags with much panache and directed to where the real fun was to begin up in Birdwood with live entertainment from legendary Little Pattie and many more motoring memories. If only cars could talk!

See more photographs from the breakfast send off here

The Robe Branch of the National Trust of South Australia held its opening of the Customs House Museum DVD Project on Sunday, 1^st April, 2012 in conjunction with a commemoration of the Baudin and Flinders meeting at Encounter Bay in 1802. The realisation of this project enables us to show historic photos of Robe dating from the late nineteenth century. Themed music and captions have also been developed to give the projected photos life and relevance, thus lifting the modern, interactive component of the museum’s displays. At the opening, we were able to project 30 minutes of old photographs. With the equipment purchased, the Branch has the potential to collect and catalogue more old photographs of Robe and District, store them electronically and project them in the Customs House Museum.

The Branch was fortunate to receive generous funding under the auspices of the SA175 Grant Program. This funding enabled us not only to purchase a laptop computer, monitor, speakers, a DVD player, scanner and hard drives but also to conduct a ‘Historic Photo Scanning Day’ last October. Many local residents brought their old photographs to this session and we were able to scan them, provide a scanned copy and return the original photograph to the owners while they filled out a cataloguing and permissions form. The great advantage of this process, which we will repeat, is that the Branch develops a collection of historic photographs provided with their owners’ permission and without any risk of the originals being lost.

Another great benefit of this project is that it has served to expand the Customs House displays into the audio-visual area. This more interactive medium will be of direct interest to primary and secondary school students who visit the museum from time to time. The historic photographs connect the themes of the existing displays and the project has been set up to make the production of future DVDs easy. Cataloguing and storing the old photographs also helps to preserve them for posterity and generates considerable local interest in the Customs House. The Robe Branch of the National Trust of South Australia acknowledges the support provided to this project by the SA175 Grant Program and thanks the program for its generosity and willingness to give the project a go.

News story contributed by Michael Slessar, Chair, Robe Branch National Trust of South Australia.

On a warm sunny day this week I got to work outside at Luhr’s Cottage Museum in the Barossa Valley. The Cottage houses a large number of books, framed prints and photos, textiles and a variety of other objects and the management group asked for a hand in working out how best to look after the items on display.

So where do you start?  With cleaning of course!

Not as boring as it might sound, cleaning in museums is a VIT (very important task) and it’s always interesting to see the differences between museum cleaning and cleaning in own home.  We talked about and tried out various cleaning techniques and everyone in the group had a go at carefully wiping ceramic and glass objects, vacuuming books and textiles and a very ornate leatherwork picture frame using the micro-attachments.  I thoroughly enjoyed showing the group some useful collection cleaning skills and appreciated the warning gasps from them each time I narrowly missed bumping my head on the very low verandah beam!

Also great to hear that the rising damp problem in the floor of one room of the cottage appears to be caused by a leaking pipe, so should be able to rectify fairly soon.  It pays to keep an eye on water bills, as a higher than usual one tipped the group off that a leak may be behind the damp problem.  Until the floor dries out properly, we also used some pieces of Mylar to create a barrier between the brick floor and items displayed on the floor.  The museum is considering reducing the number of items on display and storing them instead, which would help a lot with ongoing cleaning and collection maintenance.

The museum is open every day, so why not break up a Barossa wine trip with a spot of local history?

The Sunday before Easter I was invited to a picnic in the Adelaide Botanical Gardens; but not just the usual Aussie BBQ.  This was the annual picnic of the Adelaider Liedertafel 1858, the longest continuing male choir in Australia.  Amounting to 44 members, at full strength, it is also probably the second oldest choir of any type in the country.

Families and friends of these illustrious songsters gathered under the dappled shade of the London plane trees and beside the giant buttressed roots of the Morton Bay figs.  With the smell of bratwurst and the chatter of German voices in the air one felt one had been transported to a park in Stuttgart!

Dressed more informally than when they give public performances such as at the annual Schutzenfest, Christmas concert or other cultural events in Adelaide and beyond, the group enthusiastically entertained the gathering with excerpts from their repertoire, mainly German operatic works and folksongs although some pieces in English also featured.  As usual, songs were performed a cappella (without instrumental accompaniment), almost unique amongst male choirs.

Delving further into their past, I discovered that the ALT have a fascinating history, which can be found on their website http://www.alt1858.org/ along with some historical photos. Antecedent choirs that eventually became the ALT date back to 1844, only 8 years after European settlement in South Australia, but it was in 1858 that a committee established the choir which is why this year is included in their official title. I was fascinated to learn that their first conductor was Carl Linger, the composer of Song of Australia, which in fact they had first performed at White’s Rooms, King William Street on 14 December 1859. He had led another ALT forerunner which had rehearsed in Wiener-Fischer’s café in Rundle Street during the early 1850s, and he continued as conductor until his death in 1862.  The ALT always performs at the Carl Linger Australia Day ceremony at West Terrace Cemetery at the gravesite of their first conductor.

Despite the average age of the choir being around 78, the choir members all seem to have a sense of fun and youthful joie de vivre and it was a delight to share with them a bit of South Australia’s German heritage.

Based at the South Australian German Association (SAADV)’s Clubrooms at 223 Flinders Street, the choir meet every Tuesday evening.

At last, it’s time for About Time, South Australia’s History Festival.   The program is out, the website is live. An amazing 513 events will be happening during the month of May ranging from walks to websites, talks to tours, and exhibitions to special events.

In addition, the festival has a new element this year: Open House Adelaide. In partnership with Open House Worldwide, the program will see almost fifty of Adelaide’s most interesting buildings open to the public, free, over the weekend of 19 and 20 May.

The program is many months in the making processing and entering registrations, designing and proofreading, culminating in a frenetic packing process.

Over the past two days, the Drill Hall at the Torrens Parade Ground where History SA is based has been transformed into a makeshift mailing office.  Working in shifts, as many as 14 people from the CEO to volunteers and other members of staff from History SA’s museums, formed a production line – wrapping, sticking, stamping and piling up boxes and parcels ready for removal by Australia Post.

30,000 programs, 3000 posters and 660 Corflute signs have been sorted and packed and are now on their way
to numerous  libraries, museums, schools, council offices, even golf clubs and aged-care facilities.

From Adelaide CBD to the outback – to the far flung edges of the State – to Ceduna, Coober Pedy, Bordertown and Port Macdonnell, across the water to Kangaroo Island and all points in between, the About Time programs and posters are wending their way to promote what promises to be another great History Festival.

Look out for the striking program, the Welcome signs and four posters with different backdrops and the words OUR STORY or YOUR STORY designed by We’re Open.

It’s all happening from 1-31 May 2012.  Check out the website, or follow on Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.

A bronze plaque honouring South Australia’s pioneer winemaker Thomas Hardy was unveiled on Monday 26 March by his great great grandson Thomas K. Hardy, at the former Adelaide Wine Cellars, now Temple Christian College, in Mile End.

This public recognition of both the founder of Thomas Hardy & Sons and the State Heritage listed building which had been the company’s bottling and wine production plant for 90 years from 1893 to 1983 was organised by Thebarton Historical Society and funded by the Primary Industries and Regions SA.

Speeches took place in the front reception area of the school beneath the castellated tower that had once held the wine company’s blending tanks.

Thebarton Historical Society’s president Kevin Kaeding who had instigated the project, was Master of Ceremonies and Temple College’s principal Marcel Rijken began the official proceedings. There were speeches by Councillor Sandy Wilkinson, North Ward on behalf of the Lord Mayor of Adelaide, City of Onkaparinga Mayor Lorraine Rosenberg, City of West Torrens Councillor Toni Polito and City of Charles Sturt Mayor Kirsten Alexander. Vice President of Thebarton Historical Society and former City of West Torrens Councillor David Crossing also spoke. Thomas K Hardy also reminisced about his days working in the company during the 1960s when he was known as ‘Young Tom’.  His mother, pioneer of the Australian conservation movement, Barbara Hardy and his uncle David Hardy were also in attendance.

The event continued at the nearby Thebarton Theatre where an official toast honouring the late pioneer and father of the South Australia’s wine industry was given.

The imposing 2 storey red brick building on the corner of Henley Beach Road and James Congdon Drive still bears the words ‘Thomas Hardy & Sons Ltd’ and ‘Adelaide Wine Cellars’ along the top edge of the facade.  Designed by architect William Anderson, it was built on a 1.21 acre block in 1893 by James King & Son at a cost of £2,850. During its heyday, the building stored nearly 300 wooden vats and casks containing a million litres of wine. The complex also once had stables and a six roomed manager’s cottage.

In 1983 Thomas Hardy & Sons relocated to the historic wine-growing suburb of Reynella and Temple College purchased the building and began its first school term in 1984.

More photos from the event can be found here

Last week I attended the inaugural conference of the Australasian Association for Digital Humanities “Building, Mapping, Connecting” at the Australian National University in Canberra.  The conference ran over 3 days and was largely attended by almost 250 academics largely from worldwide universities.

However History SA was well represented.  I gave a paper on our Community History website, Senior Curator Mandy Paul spoke about the new History Hub soon to be part of History SA’s overall website while our CEO Margaret Anderson gave a joint paper with our website project director Darren Peacock on the successful Bound for South Australia website.

Much of my own interests and research is in the digitisation of historical collections and how Web 2.0 technologies can build online communities in the museum or history context.  However it was refreshing to get new perspectives within different disciplines of the humanities such as literature, music, archaeology, art history and the performing arts.

As is often the case, there was a tantalising smorgasbord of papers on offer, often running simultaneously so that making the right choice was an art form in itself while the sprint between rooms served as good exercise and made up for the calorific but delicious morning and afternoon teas.

So for 3 days I self-indulged in blogging, crowdsourcing, data management, digitisation, e-research, mapping, developing online communities, semantic tagging, transmedia storytelling, text mining and virtual reality to name but a few; as well as getting my head around all the acronyms that were banded around – TEIs, PIs, GIs etc.  And although it was fun and useful to be part of the Twittersphere, nothing can make up for what is always the best part of conferences – networking between papers.

So it’s back to work now and some time to be spent putting into practice what I have learnt as well as updating my Outlook Contacts.

For more information about the Australian Association for Digital Humanities, go here

Ever wondered how blankets are made?  Most South Australian’s would have heard of Onkaparinga blankets – good quality pure wool made in Lobethal in the Adelaide Hills until 1993. 

At the Onkaparinga Woollen Mill Museum a knowledgeable group of volunteers can explain the production process, from the spinning and weaving to sizing and finishing.  The Mill produced a huge range of products besides blankets, including fabrics for the fashion industry, car seat upholstery, and wartime service uniforms.  The museum has a vast collection of fabric samples, all beautifully catalogued and cared for.  It is very interesting to see machines used at the Mill set-up as if ready to operate.  The introductory DVD too gives an idea of the complexity and skill involved in both designing and producing woven fabrics.  Those shuttlecocks sure move fast, whizzing the yarn from one side to the other.

I recently visited the Museum to help them do risk assessments in preparation for developing a disaster preparedness and response plan. The museum has some particular potential disaster issues, not least of which is the susceptibility to insect attack of much of the textile collection.  The museum is also located near a creek and the Mill site has a history of flooding.  But the museum already takes lots of steps to avoid potential disasters such as by maintaining the buildings to best of available resources, keeping machinery raised off the floor and storing documents and fabric samples in the largest number of Albox crates I have seen concentrated in the one museum!

The Angaston & Penrice Historical Society is launching the A&H Doddridge Blacksmith Shop Cultural Tourism Enhancement Project on Friday 30 March from 5.30 pm.

Members of the public are invited to come and experience one of the few remaining main street smithies in South Australia. The heritage listed blacksmith’s shop at 19 Murray Street, Angaston is a working museum dedicated to the skills of the blacksmith. It is rich in history with over 130 years of blacksmithing at the site and many of the original tools and equipment on display.

The open night is also an occasion to launch a new short promotional video about the shop by award-winning digital filmmaker Ash Starkey. The engaging film which features interviews with Doddridge family members as well as volunteers tells the story of the building as well as the people who used it both in the past and the present.  It can be viewed here

The project, which has been supported by The Barons of the Barossa, Angaston Management Group, Angaston Lions Club, Kerrie and Charles Kiefel, is aimed at enhancing this unique historic site’s tourism experience. The night will also launch the roof restoration appeal. Repairs to the stonework, gutters and down pipes began in 2009 but the now badly rusted roof urgently requires recladding with corrugated iron.

This community project has enabled the Angaston & Penrice Historical Society achieve a number of successful outcomes, in particular allowing the heritage-listed building to be kept open to the public and maintained for the future.  The group have identified sources of information and material relating to the history of the Doddridge family and the Blacksmith Shop and been able to develop a consistent story for the guides to talk to visitors on their arrival.  They have worked with the Artist Blacksmiths Association of South Australia to teach novice blacksmiths the art and liaised with local teachers to develop a local history experience in Angaston.  In addition, the new film will be used to invite school groups to visit the blacksmith shop as well as learn what blacksmithing is and the important role blacksmiths played in the past.  It will also help to attract and train more volunteer blacksmiths and guides to be involved in the roster from 1-4 pm on Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays.

The invitation to the launch and open night is open to the general public but RSVPs would be appreciated. Contact Trish Gransbury on (08) 8564 3222 or billgran@chariot.net.au

 

Every Year the Embroiderers’ Guild of SA and the Embroiderers’ Guild Museum hold an exhibition to coincide with the Adelaide Fringe Festival.  This year the theme was ‘Medieval’ and last week I went to the launch of ‘A Bouquet of Medieval Stitches’.

The annual Fringe event is an exhibition of Guild members’ work, showcasing the significance of embroidery and textile art in people’s lives and the talents and many diverse areas of expertise of Guild members.  Each year a different theme is chosen and it was interesting to see the different takes on medieval that exhibitors have taken – focussing on certain colours, styles or stitches, and using well known medieval embroidery icons as the inspiration for modern pieces of work.

The Embroiderers’ Guild Museum complements every Fringe exhibition with an exhibition of its own, so drawing on its substantial and fully documented collections, this year the museum is displaying actual medieval period and medieval themed embroideries. The whole Guild premises are bursting with colour, intricate stitching and some interesting takes on the medieval theme.

The exhibition is open until 17 March 10 – 4 daily and until 8pm on Thursdays.

There’s been a buzz in this office since my visit to Mill Cottage in Port Lincoln before Christmas when I spotted those extraordinary early daguerreotypes of Aboriginal men from the nearby Poonindie Mission dressed as ‘gentlemen’.

Daguerreotypes, the earliest form of commercial photographs, were around for only a short period of time in the mid-19th century. They were made on silvered copper plates, and are easily recognisable. They not only resemble a mirrored surface but are also generally encased in glass with a hinged cover so protecting the very fragile surface.

This and the fact that they portrayed indigenous men from the Mission dressed in western clothes certainly got my attention and as soon as I returned to Adelaide consulted with my colleague, Senior Curator Mandy Paul.  She shared my excitement about the discovery and referred me to a similar daguerreotype of an Aboriginal woman in the Ayers House Museum collection, thought to be the earliest known photographic image of an indigenous person in South Australia.  The backdrop and design of the case seemed identical to one of the items at Port Lincoln.

We felt that their probable significance warranted some investigation as well as some advice regarding their future preservation.  So I contacted Jackie Johnston, secretary of the Southern Eyre Peninsula Local & Family History group who look after the collection to see whether she could bring over the 5 items to be evaluated by experts in Adelaide.

With permission from the City of Port Lincoln council who own the collection, Jackie brought the items to Adelaide in January which now amounted to 6 as another had been found in storage.  We had lined up consultant historian Tom Gara, and Julie Robinson Senior Curator and Maria Zagala, Assistant Curator of Prints, Drawings & Photographs from the Art Gallery of South Australia to inspect them.  We were also joined by Apryl Morden, Curator of the Ayers House Museum along with two volunteers Dorothy Woodley and Glenda Griffin who brought a number of daguerreotypes to compare.

The board room was bristling with excitement as each item was scrutinized.  It soon became clear that the collection was made up of 3 daguerreotypes and 3 ambrotypes (a slightly later form of photography on glass rather than a metal plate). But what we really wanted to know was the names behind the faces.  And why were they photographed?

Having a daguerreotype made was an expensive business, around a guinea a sitting – that was more than a week’s wages. After much rigorous discussion the items were packed up again and taken to Artlab to be assessed by Paper Conservator Liz Mayfield.

The next few days and weeks have upturned little pieces of the jigsaw and we are all in agreement that the collection needs some thorough research and careful preservation.  Currently we believe we have identified at least one of the portraits and can generally assume that the photographs were taken of some of the more prominent members of the Mission, ‘catechists’ or lay preachers. Like the two 1854 oil paintings of men at the Poonindie Mission by Crossland in the National Library of Australia, they were probably made to illustrate Archdeacon Mathew Hale’s vision for Poonindie, in Bishop Short’s words “a Christian village of South Australian Natives, reclaimed from barbarism, trained to the duties of social Christian life and walking in the fear of God.”

Superintendent of the Mission from 1856-1868 the Revd Octavius Hammond who took over from Hale, was the father-in-law of Joseph Bishop, the original owner of Mill Cottage.  Joseph had married Elizabeth Hammond and then after her untimely death, married her younger sister Ethelah, who had actually been born at Poonindie. This was probably why the photographs ended up amongst the Bishop memorabilia.  

One of the most exciting discoveries was when Artlab took a record shot of the most damaged daguerreotype and enlarged the image.  From out of the faded image of the seated woman we could suddenly see the shape of a small child come into focus. Goosebumps all round!

This all goes to show that no doubt there are many significant historical items in the regions.  What do you have hiding in your collection?

Contact details for Artlab are here

You can see more photographs of Mill Cottage here

Amanda and Pauline spent a day in the Barossa this week, visiting Luhr’s Cottage at Light Pass and the Barossa Museum at Tanunda.  So much German Lutheran heritage in one day!

We’d been invited by the Luhr’s Cottage committee to come up and see the items they have displayed in the cottage and give some advice about how to preserve them.  The cottage was built in c.1847 largely of mud and straw and dust and damp has fairly easy access – a difficult environment for the many paper, textile, metal and leather items in the cottage.  The cottage is a bit of an eye-opener to 19^th Century living conditions in a small and isolated community.  You can find out more about Luhr’s Cottage here.

It was great to see the Barossa Museum after not having been there for some years – displays changed around, a new store room and new undercover area for a select group of agricultural and transport items.  The museum is a rich resource of Barossa history from the many family photographs and personal effects from early German families in the area to the hundreds of German language books that the museum has collected over many years.

The full-scale replica of Captain Cook’s ship Endeavour operated by Sydney’s Australian National Maritime Museum arrived in Adelaide today.  The beautifully crafted square-rigger will be moored at Port Adelaide, Inner Harbour. It will be open for inspection from 16 to 23 February from 10am to 5pm (last entry 4pm).

Endeavour departed Sydney on 15 April 2011 for a historic 13 month circumnavigation of Australia opening in many regional ports along the way.  It was at the wharf in Port Lincoln last week from 4-8 February when an estimated 10,000 people crossed its threshold during its stay.

Cook’s Endeavour sailed into history when it circumnavigated the globe in 1768-71. Among other achievements, Cook explored and charted the east coast of Australia in 1770.

The magnificent replica, launched in Fremantle WA in 1993, is an 18th century tall ship with a difference… it has modern amenities (including twin engines) hidden away in the ‘cargo hold.’

When in port the vessel is presented as a ‘floating museum’, with visitors experiencing the ship as if Cook and his crew have just stepped ashore … charts lay on the table in the Great Cabin, a meal is half-eaten on the mess deck tables and bunks are ready for a night’s rest.

Entry to the Endeavour is $18 adults, $9 child or $38 families.

More information about the ship and the voyage is here

The topic under discussion in the Loxton Waikerie Council Chamber on Monday 16 January was About Time: South Australia’s History Festival.   People representing a diverse group of previous and potential event organisers came along to talk about the festival and hear what Mandy Paul, Karen Blackwood and Pauline Cockrill from History SA had to say about organising history events. Local libraries, local history groups including Waikerie History Society and the Loveday Internment Camp museum committee, and a representative from the Loxton Community Hotel and a Councillor were among those present.

Mandy talked about organising a successful event, and encouraged participants to draw on the strengths of their groups – collections, stories, communities and members – and  to think laterally, creatively and collaboratively when devising events. Karen spoke about promoting events, particularly using direct marketing and media releases. This prompted very useful discussion about the particularities of the local media in the Riverland, and practical tips about how to get festival events, and history stories more generally, into circulation. Pauline provided participants with lots of ideas about creative and inexpensive display techniques – and reminded us all about the importance of key messages. As always, the best discussion was over lunch!

Look out for lots of events in the Riverland during About Time (1 to 31 May). And don’t forget that event registration for About Time 2012 closes on Friday 3 February.

Saturday December 3^rd saw Strathalbyn’s Police Station & Old Courthouse Museum change its name to the Strathalbyn and District Heritage Centre. Museum volunteers gathered in the Centre’s beautiful old courtyard for an evening that combined a celebration of the new name with the branch’s annual Christmas party. National Trust of South Australia President David Beaumont, his wife Suzie and National Trust CEO Eric Heapy joined more than thirty others to enjoy the celebrations.

The Heritage Centre’s courtyard is picturesque enough at any time, but especially so at night. The walls of the old courtyard were hung with fairy lights, a Christmas tree stood outside an old police station cell and mock-ups of the Centre’s new signs were hung around the walls.  Also prominent were photographs of volunteers going about their work as were articles and photographs taken from the pages of the Southern Argus. A tribute to the branch’s former patron Nancy Gemmell completed the display.

President David Beaumont spoke briefly of the work of the National Trust in South Australia and of the enjoyment that he and Suzie had in looking through the Heritage Centre and in joining the evening’s celebrations.  CEO Eric Heapy spoke of the work that was underway in restructuring the organisation and the important part branches had to play in the process. He liked the direction the Heritage Centre was taking and appreciated the quality of its displays. 

Branch Chairman Trevor Riches expressed his appreciation for the work of all of the volunteers over a very productive twelve months and ended his talk by announcing that the Heritage Centre had just won a Community Museum’s Program grant of $5,178 towards the mounting of a high quality and professionally produced display centered on Strathalbyn’s world-beating Solar Flare.  Trevor told the Southern Argus that the Heritage Centre now houses the Solar Flare and that this solar-assisted recumbent bicycle “won its class in the World Solar Challenge race from Alice Springs to Adelaide in 2001 and then went on to win two further races in the United States in 2002”.  He said that the Heritage Centre was quick to take up the offer of housing the Solar Flare because it recognised the need to preserve the vehicle, to tell the story of its design and construction at the Eastern Fleurieu 7-12 School and to highlight its successes in beating the best the world had to offer.

Trevor went on to say  that an important part of winning the grant was to be able to demonstrate the role of the whole Strathalbyn community in getting behind the venture – in providing advice, encouragement, technical expertise and financial support. And “who can forget the whole town turning out in June 2002 to welcome the team home after their stunning successes in the USA?”  The generosity of a long term Heritage Centre volunteer and of the Strathalbyn Community Arts and Crafts Centre enabled the construction of the Solar Flare’s housing and the purchase of audio-visual equipment – work that was completed earlier this year. Now begins the task of presenting the remarkable story of this important part of Strathalbyn’s heritage.

I went with Mandy Paul, History SA Senior Curator, on a speedy fieldtrip to the South-East this week.  We went to the Sheep’s Back Museum in Naracoorte, the Millicent National Trust Museum and Beachport National Trust Museum. Thank you to everyone who took the time to meet and catch-up with us, it is greatly appreciated.

At Beachport we mainly went to see the Buandik history display One Land, Two Cultures, which was launched in August this year on the same weekend as the State History Conference (otherwise we’d have been at the launch!).  The display is a new benchmark really for telling Aboriginal contact stories and the impacts of European settlement on the Buandik people of the South-East of South Australia.  Beautifully presented and arranged, it’s got a lot of words but also a lot of very useful images that show the differences in European settler and Aboriginal lives.  Great use of quotes throughout (historic and modern) and the canvas panels suit the exhibition well.

At the Sheep’s Back we commenced the site assessment for the museum’s re-accreditation in the Community Museums program and I have come back with all the written side of the assessment paperwork to go through.  Thanks Judy and Sheep’s Back workers for putting it all together in such a comprehensive and organised way.  It is going to make my job easier! But a real highlight for me and Mandy was the beautiful new collection store that the museum has constructed, complete with separate work area and fitted out with quality secondhand shelving appropriate to the collection items stored.  The museum was very pleased to report that environmental monitoring (they use data loggers in several areas of the museum) shows that over the last year the storeroom environment has stayed nicely within the recommended ranges for temperature and relative humidity.  Great job Sheep’s Back!

At Millicent we were most curious to see how the museum is managing the recent acquisition of a very large costume collection – very impressively is the answer!  Unfazed by the size of the collection and the general lack of documentation accompanying it, Lucy and the team of volunteers have already made significant headway into sorting out the collection and giving thought to the best ways to handle, store and use it.  It was great to have a chat with Lucy about how the collection might be used to highlight themes in the museum and to hear her thoughts on what the purpose and shape of future costume displays at the museum might be.

A few Community Museums program grants were awarded to South-East museums in the 2011-12 round, so there will be plenty more news from this region of the state in the coming year.