Category: Uncategorized

I’m always on the lookout for anniversaries and national observances to help get the conversation going in our social media networks.  There seems to be something for everything – even Bubble Wrap!  Apparently the last Monday of January is Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day, originally the brainchild of an FM radio station in Indiana dating back to 2001. That means Monday 28 January 2013 was a day for celebrating this great invention, as well as marking its 53^rd birthday.

I’m sure this protective packaging is much lauded by museum curators the world over.  A quick Google search uncovered the fact that we owe our gratitude to American engineer Al Fielding and Swiss inventor Marc Chavannes who came up with the idea in 1957 when experimenting with shower curtains in order to create a new kind of plastic textured wallpaper.

Founding the Sealed Air Corporation, the team originally marketed the product as greenhouse insulation, but later realised its potential as packaging material, branding it as Bubble Wrap and introducing it to the public in January 1960. Its first major client was IBM.  Sealed Air is still going and apparently produces enough Bubble Wrap to stretch from the Earth to the Moon each year.

I particularly appreciated the attributes of this great cushioning product when packing up our travelling exhibition Bravest of the Brave recently to ensure its safe delivery by truck to Port Lincoln on the Eyre Peninsula.   It arrived safe and sound at the Port Lincoln RSL museum where it will be on display until 23 February.

Apparently there are more than 250 pages dedicated to Bubble Wrap on Facebook, although there is only one official one.   And there are games to play online and apps for your mobile such as Bubble FREE which you can download from iTunes

Last Friday I returned to Stirling’s Coventry Library in the Adelaide Hills where I’d set up the travelling display Bravest of the Brave in November to attend the Mount Lofty Districts Historical Society’s Christmas gathering.  It was a great blend of my two favourite subjects – food and women’s history.

Culinary historian Allie Reynolds gave a fascinating presentation to a large, enthusiastic audience on the untold story of the woman behind famous Adelaide Hills’ painter, Sir Hans Heysen.  This was his wife of nearly 60 years, born Selma (known as Sallie) Bartels.  Daughter of the former mayor of Adelaide Adolph Heinrich Friedrich Bartels, she had met Hans when she was his art student and they married in 1904.  They were to have 8 children – including Nora Heysen, Australia’s first female Archibald Prize winner and war artist – and made their home at The Cedars, on 36 acres outside Hahndorf, which is now open to the public and still owned by the Heysen family.

Allie revealed some magical aspects of life at The Cedars for Sallie was legendary for her baking.  She gave us a glimpse at some of her research into Sallie’s recipes and conversations with the Heysen’s children and grandchildren on their memories of Christmas at The Cedars, as well as reading excerpts of family letters and diaries which gave us a ‘whiff of Christmas’ just like Nora Heysen describes when receiving some of her mother’s biscuits by post.  We could visualise the giant Christmas tree in Heysen’s studio decorated with gingerbread letters and smell the fruit cake and biscuits baking in Sallie’s kitchen.

Our mouths were all watering by the time the presentation finished and ready to sample the honey biscuits (Honigkuchen) which Allie had baked from one of Sallie’s recipes, and discover the winners of the Heysen-related raffle prizes.  But there was another final treat in store when well-known Crafers identity Frank Curren publicly donated to the MLDHS a pair of Hans Heysen’s lace-up leather gaiters, which had been in his family for many years.  Worn with his knee length trousers and long socks, they were typical accessories seen in photographs of the artist on painting trips.  What a wonderful gift and a great ending to the MLDHS’s year!  I suggested they contact conservator Sophie Parker at Artlab regarding the appropriate preservation and storage of these leather items.

Proceeds from the event went to support the publication of Allie’s proposed book on Sallie Heysen which I am sure will be very popular.

History SA’s annual Community Museums Program grant fund has been decided!  This year 23 museums from around the state will benefit from grants of up to $13,250 each.  Funding has been allocated to a diverse range of projects including historical interpretation using digital technologies, provision of storage facilities, and development of curriculum resources for schools.

All the grant recipients are registered or accredited in History SA’s Community Museums Program.  The Community Museums Program grant fund is a special fund available only to these museums.  It is a highly competitive fund and it was great to see museums from all around the state applying this year.

History SA Chief Executive Margaret Anderson said: ‘This fund is an important resource for South Australian community museums.  Each year it supports a wide range of projects that present and preserve important aspects of the State’s history.  Collectively these projects help to make distinctive local stories accessible.’

Projects receiving funding under the grant scheme this year include major interpretive projects at the Port MacDonnell Maritime Museum and at Loxton Historical Village and collection documentation and management projects at museums in the Mid-North and Mallee regions of the State.

 

A workshop for potential About Time event organisers was held at the City of Charles Sturt Civic Centre in Woodville on Tuesday 20 November. History SA’s About Time team, Mandy Paul and Karen Blackwood assisted by volunteer John Connolly put together a very useful and inspiring program in readiness for next year’s history festival in May.

Allison Russell, Migration Museum’s current Acting Director spoke about engaging new audiences while South Australian Maritime Museum‘s Curator Emily Jateff shared her experiences of organising events with a difference. Lesley Attema from the Prospect Local History Group entertained the gathering with the tale of Sluggo the cat and how this local feline identity had become an extremely successful marketing tool. The group’s very popular self-guided walking tour was cited as a great example of how to stand out from the crowd.

Karen ended the workshop with a run-down of the registration process. Several registrations have already been received while online registrations will be available by the end of November. Registrations close on Friday 1 February 2013.

One of South Australia’s largest community events, the About Time festival promotes the State’s wonderful collections, places and stories through an amazing range of history related activities. History SA coordinates and promotes the overall festival. Organisers register an event, which is listed on a dedicated website and in a free printed program, 30,000 of which are distributed state-wide. Event organisers receive free promotional posters and venue signage.

2012 saw the festival being combined with the inaugural Open House Adelaide, joining major cities around the world providing public access to buildings and spaces in the City of Adelaide over a weekend. This will be on again in 2013 on the weekend of 4/5 May.

About Time began in 2004 as SA History Week and has grown each year, becoming a month long festival in 2011.  In 2012 it won a Ruby Award, South Australia’s arts and cultural Awards in the Community Impact under $100,000 category.

About Time provides an opportunity for organisations to promote their place in South Australian history and enjoy the benefits of being part of a state-wide community festival.

 

Like many others, I attended a Remembrance Day service last Sunday.  I could have attended any number of services around Adelaide on 11 November, the day we remember on the 11th hour, of the 11th day of the 11th month, those members of the armed forces who died in the line of duty. For example, there was the state service held at the South Australian National War Memorial on North Terrace while another was held at the AIF section of West Terrace cemetery which this year was acknowledging the contribution of the men and women of Bomber Command. And, of course, simultaneously there were numerous community-based services of remembrance being held at local war memorials and RSLs in numerous towns all around the state.

However this year I chose to attend the ceremony held at the Centennial Park Cemetery on Goodwood Road in Pasadena.   Each year Centennial Park remembers those who paid the ultimate sacrifice with a moving Remembrance Day Service, which is attended by representatives from all the armed forces as well as the SA Police, MFS, SES, RSL and Legacy, amongst others, and approximately 300 members of the public.

I was keen to hear and meet this year’s guest speaker Hamish Ludbrook, 18-year-old Scotch College student whose great grandfather was James Park Woods who had received a Victoria Cross for conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty near Le Verguier in France on 18 September 1918.  I had become close to ‘our Jimmy’ as he was called by the media at the time whilst researching for the travelling exhibition Bravest of the Brave, a collaborative project between History SA and Veterans SA, about the eight South Australians awarded the Victoria Cross during the First World War.  In fact I had just collected the display from Two Wells where it had been exhibited for the past month at their RSL sub branch.  The son of a local blacksmith, Private Woods had been born at Two Wells and his mother, who died when he was just a boy, is buried in the town cemetery.  Hamish wore a replica of his great grandfather’s Victoria Cross with pride throughout the ceremony and spoke movingly how he had heard stories from his grandmother how Woods’ war experience had affected him both physically and mentally.

It seemed a special place to be remembering those in our lives past and present effected by war. We were gathered beside the great marble Cross of Remembrance and beneath the boughs of two pine trees which had been propagated from seeds brought back from Gallipoli’s Lone Pine.  All around us we could see and hear the flapping of hundreds of small Australian flags, each one planted on the site of a grave or memorial rose tree belonging to a returned service person in the green expanse of the Derrick Gardens, established in 1956 and named after South Australian WWII Victoria Cross recipient Lieutenant Thomas Derrick.

Along with the Catafalque Party made up of four Air Force Cadets, the service’s pomp and ceremony was heightened by the presence of two members of the Barossa Light Horse Historical Association on horseback and others from Re-Enact SA in WWII uniforms while the Scotch College Pipes & Drums Band completed the stirring procession.  After the official laying of wreaths, Raymond Gordon Baldwin OAM read the Ode to the Fallen followed by the Last Post and traditional One Minute’s Silence.  The singing of the National Anthem and a beautiful rendition of the famous poem ‘In Flanders Fields’ by the Walford School for Girls’ Capella choir concluded the official proceedings before we adjourned to the Jubilee Complex for morning tea.

There was an exhibition by the to view in the complex and I’m pleased to report that the Bravest of the Brave exhibition will be displayed here for the Remembrance Day Service in 2014 which also commemorates the centenary of the start of the First World War.  Currently it is on display at Stirling’s Coventry Library until 9 December and at various venues all over South Australia throughout 2013.

Bravest of the Brave, a joint history SA/Veterans SA touring exhibition telling the stories of the eight South Australian men who were awarded the Victoria Cross during the First World War is now at Stirling’s Coventry Library in the Adelaide Hills until 9 December under the auspices of the Mount Lofty Districts Historical Society.

This very active volunteer-run organisation has their own Local and Garden History Centre within the state-of-the-art Coventry Library, with space for research and storage of books and archives.  Bravest of the Brave was launched at the library on Friday evening to coincide with a special Remembrance Day presentation at the society’s November monthly meeting.  An emotive and inspiring talk was given first by primary school teacher Ann Kellett of the Scott Creek, Bradbury and Longwood History group regarding the research she has been undertaking since 2008 on the school Honour Roll and Memorial Avenue of trees with her primary school class.  This has developed into a major project with the history group and they intend turning the researched life stories into a publication ready for the ANZAC centenary in 2015. The main guest speaker was Dr Richard Reid, Senior Historian with the Commonwealth Department of Veterans’ Affairs, who spoke about the $10 million federal-funded Australian Remembrance Trail currently being developed by his team along the Western Front.

The audience had the opportunity to view the Bravest of the Brave display before and after the talks. Two of the eight men featured have connections with the Adelaide Hills.  Both Arthur Seaforth Blackburn and John Leak settled at Crafers with their respective families late in life and Leak is buried at Stirling cemetery. 

Two pieces of local Adelaide Hills WWI history recently saved by MLDHS and restored with a grant by Artlab were also displayed that evening.

One was a stunning wooden WWI Roll of Honour from Scott Creek, found rotting in a shed. The other was a framed memorial scroll for Corporal William Hurtle Driver discovered in the loft of the Stirling RSL where it had been transferred from Uraidla RSL on the latter’s demise. Born in Summertown, Driver had attended Uraidla Public School and was a labourer when he enlisted aged 32 before heading for Gallipoli with the 11^th Battalion. He survived and was transferred to the 51^st Battalion but killed the following year at the Battle of Pozières on the Somme on 3 September 1916, strangely enough on the same day, in the same conflict, that both Blackburn and Leak won their Victoria Crosses. 

More photographs of the MLDHS’s Remembrance Day presentation can be seen here.  Bravest of the Brave at other venues can be seen here

Old Highercombe Hotel Museum officially received their Accreditation certificate last week at a morning tea celebrating their achievement. History SA’s Community History Officer, Pauline Cockrill presented Gill Starks from the management committee with their long awaited certificate before a gathering of volunteers, long-time supporters and representatives from the local council and State government.

Old Highercombe Hotel Museum is now South Australia’s 10^th accredited museum in History SA’s Community Museums Program (CMP), amongst 61 registered and accredited museums in the State.

This museum has been a registered museum since 1982/3, and has maintained that status throughout.  Over the last 10 years they have been seriously working towards Accreditation status so it was a great pleasure to see them achieve their goal after a lot of hard work.  

It was good to see their new display funded by a CMP 2010-11 grant in Clarrie’s Hut in the grounds of the hotel, ‘Slab Hut to Food Bowl – Life in early Steventon’ which as usual had lots of innovative but very simple engaging design features.  We look forward to seeing their new exhibit on the local wine industry funded by CMP grant from last year which is currently under construction.

More photographs from the event and museum here 

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.

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

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

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