This morning I received the sad news that Denis died peacefully in Canberra this morning.
Denis established the Society’s web page and was webmaster of the Society’s website for about 18 years.
His local history interest was in Lamplough, a few kilometres from Avoca and about which he had written a short history of its gold rush in 1859 for the Victorian Historical Journal. His great-grandfather and his siblings had been born in Lamplough.
In 1998 Denis Strangman published an index of names associated with the Lamplough Rush. He also made available an article on the rush to Lamplough that he first published in 1987.
Denis wrote in 2021:
“Despite our political differences Melbourne Greens Councillor Helen Harris OAM was the person who got me involved in the Society when I was working at Old Parliament House in Canberra. The Parliamentary Library was digitising its collection and they were throwing out the old Library cards. Helen had a loyal band of people in Avoca transcribing historical names to cards (now numbering about 80,000) so I would collect the discarded cards and transfer them to Helen.”
Denis was a Life Member of the Society.
The card index and Denis’s online index of Lamplough names (and his article) are invaluable contributions to the history of the Avoca district.
L to R: Beryl Maidment, Tony O’Shea, Cr. Ron Eason, Dorothy Robinson, Denis Strangman, Vicki Burge, Margaret Oulton, Jill Hunter, Helen Harris OAM, Graeme Mills, Mary Dridan, Sue Slater, Edna Jarvis, Cr. Robert Vance (Mayor, Pyrenees Shire).