May 30, 2013

Molong Portrait Gallery

“Lest We Forget”
MOLONG & DISTRICT
 SERVICEMEN AND SERVICEWOMEN'S PORTRAIT GALLERY
 Molong RSL Club, 22-24 Riddell Street, Molong NSW 2866
Telephone: 02 6366 8105   Web: www.molongrsl.com

April, 2013

Dear Friends,

As many of you would know, the Portrait Gallery has five new portraits, unveiled last year on Australia Day. The portraits are of Albert Victor Ball AIF WW1, unveiled by Mrs Patricia Troth (a relative), Colin Cloudesley Betts RAAF WW2, unveiled by his brother Mr Douglas Betts, Herbert Alfred Cassidy Died POW WW2, unveiled by his nephew Mr Bill Foy, Darcy Coombs AIF WW2, unveiled by his son Graham and Roy George McKenzie AIF WW2, unveiled by Mrs Vonnie McKenzie. Anne Marie is planning to paint five more portraits to virtually complete the collection, and all going well, these will be unveiled in November, 2013. We will provide details later in the year.

Mrs Mary Mulhall, of the RSL Club’s Board, applied for a Tourism Grant but the application was unsuccessful, but she has completed another application, so here’s hoping! The Club has been extremely supportive with promotion and advertising and we really appreciate the effort its Board, Staff and Members have provided for the Gallery and we hope that the Gallery’s presence helps the Club. Please support the Club when you can.

When we asked for technical assistance several years ago, Mrs Lina Moffitt offered to create the web site, and produced an excellent one for us. Last year, Andrew Guimelli assisted with updating the site, and we thank both Lina and Andrew for all their assistance. Our web site, listed above, has been updated to include these latest portraits. Do have a look at it and mention it to family and friends.

To assist when there are visitors and functions associated with the Gallery, we would like to have a list of helpers who can be contacted (by phone or email), preferably one from each family represented in the Gallery. If it is possible, could you please let us know if you and your family can help? Also, we would be grateful if you could update your address/ email details, if necessary.

Two primary classes, one from Molong Central School and one from St Josephs, visited the Gallery with their teachers, viewing the portraits, and listening to talks by Miss Faye Clark, Mr Ted Hubbard and Mrs Gladys Hubbard and Mr Bob Adams. The students chose their favourite portrait and have been researching the person in that portrait. They have painted a portrait, with judging by Kerry Nichols on 17 April, and display at the RSL Club until after Anzac Day. First Prizes to Sam Woodhouse and Jett Fraser for portraits of Robert Adams, Second Prizes to Liam Fraser (portrait of Esric R.“Bob” Dowling) and “Highly Commended” to Morgan Meehan (portrait of Clive Reynolds), Hannah Betts (portrait of Ethel Harding), Henrietta Pottie (portrait of William Matthews), Amy Fulwood(portrait of EG “Ted” Hubbard), Alex Davis(portrait of James Lee), AaliyahWright (portrait of Gordon Chrystall).

Please try to visit the Club to see all the entries. We hope that the students will become involved and benefit from this experience, with an appreciation of the sacrifice made by our servicemen and women. This was one of Anne Marie’s aims when she conceived the Portrait Gallery.

With best wishes,
Anne Marie & Helen.

Contact: Anne Marie Ingham (02 6366 8113) & Helen Haynes (02 6360 4114)

Arts NSW Cultural Grant Programme


About the Arts NSW Cultural Grant Programme

The Cultural Grants Programme is an Arts NSW devolved funding program administered by the Royal Australian Historical Society on behalf of the NSW Government.  This Cultural Grants programme assists historical research and publication of local, community and regional history projects.  Arts NSW funding priorities can be found on its website, together with a list of grants awarded each year – click here for more details.

The New South Wales Minister for the Arts, Hon George Souris, approved the allocation to the Royal Australian Historical Society of $45,000 per annum between 2012 and 2014. This is a very considerable increase from the $23,000 the Society received in 2011 and is much appreciated. The Society is working hard to ensure that it fully justifies the confidence placed in it.

 

2013 – Information and Application forms

Applicants should read the checklist and grants guidelines before submitting an application.  Applicants may also find it useful to review the list of 2012 grant recipients.  Grant applications open on 1 May 2013 and close at 5pm on 21 June 2013. Applications can be:

  • emailed to grants@rahs.org.au
  • posted to Attention: Grants Officer RAHS, 133 Macquarie Street, Sydney NSW 2000
  • faxed to (02) 9247 7854
2013 Cultural grant checklist
2013 Cultural Grant guidelines
2013 cultural grants application form

2012 – Recipients

The 2012 Cultural Grants were awarded at the State History Conference, and details were published in History in December 2012 .
Read More about the 2012 recipients.

 Ref: Published on RAHS website.

May 26, 2013

THE BLUE MOUNTAINS: WHERE ARE THEY?


This paper has previously appeared in Issue 3 of The Blue Mountains History Journal, a publication of the Blue Mountains Association of Cultural Heritage Organisations Inc

"This paper is by Andy Macqueen, a well-known Blue Mountains author who has contributed a most thoughtful paper on the meaning of the term ‘Blue Mountains’. Aided by a generous collection of maps he demonstrates that the term means different things to different people. Thus to some the Blue Mountains extend north-south from the Hunter Valley to Picton and east-west from Emu Plains to Jenolan and that latter parameter raises the issue of whether the Blue Mountains should include rocks older than Permian and whether part of the Great Dividing Range should be accepted as being within the area. Andy makes it quite clear that there is no unique definition that is acceptable to all. This scholarly work will for many years undoubtedly be the definitive account of the topic." (Dr Peter C. Rickwood)

Click here to view/download the full paper.

May 25, 2013

HERITAGE, Newsletter of BMACHO - Sept-Oct 2012



This article has previously appeared in HERITAGE, the newsletter of the Blue Mountains Association of Cultural Heritage Organisations Inc.

Click here to view/download full newsletter.



The bygone era of steam trains

ORANGE  REGIONAL  MUSEUM  ADVANCEMENT ASSOCIATION INC.
Saturday 1st June at 1 pm in the West Room of the Orange Library/Gallery complex

An open invitation to all interested people with a love and fascination for the bygone era of steam trains to attend a presentation by a well known train archivist and photographer John Ward.

John, a Sydney based steam rail photographer and now Archivist with the Australian Railway Historical Society, is to be a  guest of O.R.M.M.A. for his presentation.  He will show a part of his collection and tell many of the stories associated with the photographic memorabilia.

John is very concerned, and will talk about the importance of preserving and documenting any photographs, and other memorabilia people may have.  As a volunteer to the A.R.H.S.he has great concerns about beautiful photographs that have been donated but have no documentation attached rendering them useless for preserving and archiving.  He will show and also talk about how all forms of film can be kept of the future.

Some of John's train and tram friends are also coming to Orange for the day.

Please join us for a most interesting presentation.  Entry is a small donation at the door.  


May 24, 2013

May 21, 2013

Governor Arthur Phillip


Lost the plot


You could say he was the first great Australian, our founding father. Governor Arthur Phillip was certainly the first to see that New South Wales could be anything more than a convict settlement, a dumping ground for the dregs of society. 

So you'd think he'd be a revered, a national treasure. Well he's certainly not in Britain. His last days there were dismal, his death suspicious and then there's a deep, dark mystery. A scandal.

 Put bluntly, the Poms lost the plot. Somehow, through carelessness, incompetence, or both, they've lost Governor Phillip's remains. But fear not, there's a dogged Aussie sleuth on the case.


Transcript

Liam Bartlett: This is an intriguing mystery, spanning more than 200 years and two continents. It takes us from the shores of Sydney Cove to a sleepy corner of England. It's a search with many twists and turns. The search for an all-but-forgotten national hero: Captain Arthur Phillip.

Geoffrey Robertson: Phillip was, in a word, our founding father. He was the man who got us up, I mean we would be French, we would be — horrible to think of it — a Portuguese colony if it weren't for Phillip's success.

Liam Bartlett: Six years ago, renowned Australian lawyer, Geoffrey Robertson . . . 


See full Transcript here.

May 16, 2013

Museums & Galleries NSW: Access to Funding: VIM Grants

For more info and video of presentation by Phoebe Arthur click on the following link.

 Museums & Galleries NSW: Access to Funding: VIM Grants: On March 21 M&G NSW, in partnership with the Museum of the Riverina, presented  Access to Funding , a workshop delivering skills to make...

1813 Crossing events - for those in Blue Mountains region and Beyond

For anyone interested in theatre, the Crossing! play has been written specifically for 2013
You will find yourselves humming the road-building Rapper song about William Cox and his convicts !!

See Flyer below.
See also the official website for the Blue Mountains Crossings Bicentenary 2013 to 2015, endorsed by the Royal Australian Historical Society, Western Crossing Committee and Bicentenary Crossings Committee.
Ref: Dr Siobhan Lavelle OAM , Senior Heritage Officer, Office of Environment & Heritage 

 



May 15, 2013

IN REMEMBRANCE OF THE FIRST CROSSING, MAY 1813

Flat Rock is here seen to be a bed of resistant massive sandstone of only moderate thickness. There is a much more continuous interval of sandstone below it which is also above the main vertical cliff of Banks Wall Sandstone. Whether the bed forming the top surface of Flat Rock can be traced laterally has not yet been investigated. However the oblique photo above suggests it is present in the west drainage small valleys just south of the rock. (Photo: 'Divine and bright')

A meeting at "FLAT ROCK", 29 MAY
2013

 ~  all welcome but convened particularly for the geologically interested ~ 
AND ALSO IN REMEMBRANCE OF THE FIRST CROSSING, MAY 1813

Those interested in rocks and the Blue Mountains,and in old things (archaeology/geology) are invited to meet here at 1 p.m. in order to tell each other what their interests are. This is a good spot for sharing such information - as it may well be possible to point in the direction of where you are interested in from this lookout rock that has a large vista.

Although this is NOT an excursion and will last only as long as it takes for each attendee to say what their interests may be, any excursion to other nearby features would be easily combined on the same day. For example, in the close vicinity there are various interesting places that can be visited, and walks that can be done. Advice on where they are can be given. They include the King's Table rock shelter, which is very readily visited. This is where Fr. Eugene Stockton excavated and obtained the oldest evidence of human occupation on the Blue Mountains. 

 To view/download the full document (74 pages, 4.4MB) with many great photos click.

May 14, 2013

Ben Hall Weekend Festival May 2013 Newsletter



FROM THE NEWSLETTER EDITOR

Welcome to the third in the series of e-newsletters for the Ben Hall Raid Weekend Festival. It continues to be received with great interest. The raid by the Hall gang was extensively covered in the early newspapers right across Australia, including as far away as Western Australia. It even made the papers in Great Britain.

More historic displays have been promised since the last e-newsletter. The Bathurst District Historical Society Museum (below) and the Bathurst Court House will be the centre of a large range of static bushranging,
colonial and historic displays which will be exhibited on Saturday afternoon 28th September. 


The museum features on the Society’s letterhead (right).

NOTE - If you are missing any back issues of these Ben Hall Weekend Festival e-newsletters which commenced in March 2013 feel free to email amcrae@lisp.com.au and state which issues you are missing.

Have you booked for the dinner yet? as well as any accommodation you require – book early.

Alan McRae, FAIHA, President Bathurst District Historical Society

To view the full newsletter click here.

May 13, 2013

Cultural Landscapes Training Manual: A guide for historical societies

FEDERATION OF AUSTRALIAN HISTORICAL SOCIETIES INC
e-BULLETIN No. 111 – 11 May 2013 


The Federation's new manual for historians, entitled Cultural landscapes training manual: a guide for historical societies covers environmental history with common terminology defined, cultural landscapes, and assessing the significance of a cultural landscape, managing cultural landscapes, and interpreting cultural landscapes. It was developed by a Victorian historian, Robyn Ballinger in 2012.

The Federation is keen for historical societies to publicise the landscapes manual which assists in work on these newer areas of research and activity.

(Source: FAHS - 8 May 2013)
__________
The Introduction page is shown below and the complete manual (52 pages, 3.4 MB) can be viewed/downloaded here.

 1. Introduction 

Cultural landscapes are all around us. We drive, walk and cycle through them every day. So familiar are they to us that we often don't even notice them. 

Heritage studies have tended to assess elements of the cultural landscape as isolated elements: for example, a dam, a garden, a residence, a fence, or items of machinery. Through exploring the cultural landscape as an integration of both natural and cultural heritage, this training manual takes a different approach. It has been prepared to assist members of historical societies across Australia to identify, assess, manage and interpret landscapes that are mainly significant for their cultural heritage values.

The manual focuses on European post-contact landscapes, but acknowledges that there is no Australian landscape that has not been shaped by Aboriginal occupation. It is therefore imperative that Aboriginal heritage values be incorporated in the process of identifying and assessing landscapes. A useful resource for doing this is Ask First: a guide to respecting Indigenous heritage places and values (Australian Heritage Commission, Canberra, 2002) available from http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/ahc/publications/commission/books/ask-first.html

Information in the training manual is based on precedents developed by UNESCO’s World Heritage Convention, the Australia ICOMOS Burra Charter 1999, the Australian Heritage Commission’s standards, and other reference documents.

Case studies that illustrate the processes involved in identifying, assessing, managing and interpreting cultural landscapes are presented throughout the manual. 'Further information' boxes provide details about useful published sources.





FURTHER INFORMATION 1: PROTECTING LOCAL HERITAGE PLACES 


An excellent resource that expands upon the ideas in this training manual is Protecting Local Heritage Places: A Guide for Communities by Lisa Rogers (Australian Heritage Commission, Canberra, 2000). It is available at www.environment.gov.au/heritage/ahc/publications/commission/books/pubs/protecting- local-heritage-places.pdf

May 7, 2013

Powerhouse Museum Movable Heritage Fellow for 2013 - Leanne Wicks from Kandos

Miners hard hat, 1947, Kandos

Coming up with an idea for a research project was not difficult for me living on the edge of the Western coalfield of NSW.  Evidence of Kandos’ past reliance on the winning of coal doesn’t take much digging.  

With superior Kandos cement from kilns heated with Kandos coal contributing to the concrete footings and pylons of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, no wonder it stands strong after 80 years.  Evidence of the region’s present reliance on coal is also easy to find with many coal mines dotting the landscape.  

Fascinated by the objects in the Kandos Bicentennial Industrial Museum that came from the Kandos Collieries located within a kilometre of the back door, I want to tell the story of the many men who have mined this black treasure from 1913 to 2001.  Having grown up with green coloured glasses, I’m enjoying the challenge of respecting the history of coal-mining, researching the facts about this industry and recoiling at what some mines are doing to the land.  

Battery Locomotive used in Kandos No.2 Colliery to hail out skips

In just the same way as you always see the same type of car that you’ve just purchased, but never really noticed that model before, I am finding coal everywhere.  From statues of miners in Lithgow to 1936 maps of NSW minerals in my late grandfather’s books.  Being a city girl, I have not grown up with any sort of wood heating and cannot share in people’s memories of the smell of coal, but I am a poet and there’s plenty of coal miner’s poetry to be found in Kandos.  There must be some time for musing underground.  And before you think that coal references can be boring, even Alfred, Lord Tennyson describes the amazing knight, Sir Lancelot:

His broad clear brow in sunlight glow’d;
On burnish’d hooves his war-horse trode;
From underneath his helmet flow’d
His coal-black curls as on he rode,
As he rode down to Camelot.


So with images of burnished war horses and shining armour, I find myself delighting in rusty locomotives and duperite helmets.  My Movable Heritage Fellowship project involves researching and creating object files, with significance statements and also creating an exhibition from the colliery items in the Kandos Museum.  This month’s job is to locate every colliery object and find some coal miners to help me understand what the objects did and how they work. 

Written by Leanne Wicks, Kandos

Ref: Powerhouse Museum

International Museums Day Lithgow


Every year since 1977 International Museums Day is organized worldwide around 18 May. Lately almost 30,000 museums in more than 100 countries use this as an occasion to raise awareness of how important museums are in the development of society. 


The Lithgow and district cultural organisations in this brochure invite the community to re-visit local heritage places and commemorate the 36th anniversary of International Museums Day.

For further information on Lithgow International Museums Day please contact the museums you would like to visit as detailed in the brochure.

May 1, 2013

Orange Regional Museum - Concept images

This clip gives the first glimpse of the proposed Orange Regional Museum. The concept plans are now on public exhibition for community comment. Tell Orange City Council what you think at council@orange.nsw.gov.au

View video at: www.youtube.com