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APRIL 2002 NEWSLETTER

ANNUAL MEETING

Our Annual Meeting took place on Monday night, 15th April in the courthouse. Many members as well as visitors from Castlemaine Historical Society were present to hear the reports, elect office bearers and to listen to the guest speaker Daryl McLeish. Alan Burgess in his President’s report spoke of Maintenance. White treatment has been carried out, the glass case moved to the magistrate’s bench, the sandstone footings have been repaired, the tap replaced on the tank and an overflow installed, a display cabinet turned into a cupboard for the microfilms and awnings for the barbeque area at Rotunda Park on Market Days made. A meeting with Mandy Jean, Heritage Officer for the council, Bryce Collie the landscaper, and members of the society was a very valuable exercise in making sure our efforts are heading in the right direction. Equipment. A major purchase was the second hand microfilm reader-printer which has enabled an extra person to be involved in indexing the Newstead Echo microfilms that arrived, as well as printing copies of Echo articles, an extra filing cabinet was obtained and 6 office chairs procured with money from the Grant for Volunteers. A grant for the restoration of the Thornhill Reef roasting kilns was received and has been completed and the Landscaping was finally done not without some interference by the weather! Other projects for the year were the updating of a permanent minute book, the copying of more brochures for the Heritage Walks, the putting together of a booklet on the Newstead Cemetery as well as continuing work on indexing of family history files, cataloguing of photos, putting onto computer the data supplied by Margaret Di Fiore of newspaper articles and pasting into files hard copies of these. Extra curricular activities included The Family History Expo at Ballarat, Newstead on Show Day, Summer School in Melbourne run by RHSV, hosting the CHHA meeting, 2 Market Days and the donation of $100 to the refugees, displays on Transport and the Butter Factory as well as our party in October to present Liz Cody with her Life Membership. Excursions. We have had some great days on our excursions which included a trip to the Melbourne Museum, a visit to the Newstead Cemetery, the Harry Lauder Mine (twice!), Thornhill Reef and Frenchman’s Mine Young Australia and nearby sites, Charlie’s Hope and the rifle range, Strangways School and Pleasant Grove and to Rodborough.

Janet Trudgeon, our treasurer presented the statement of our financial year, a copy of which is attached. Our visitor from Castlemaine Historical Society, Jenny Taylor then took the chair for the election of office bearers.

President                          Alan Burgess                    54762367

Vice president                  Peter Skilbeck                  54762450

Secretary                         Dawn Angliss                   54762006

Treasurer                        Janet Trudgeon                 54762437  

Public Officer                  Derek Reid                      54762274

Committee                      Dorothy Clark                  54762220

                    John Neall                       54762207

The guest speaker was then introduced. Daryl McLeish, Carisbrook Historical Society, has recently published a book, ”In The Beginning There Was Carisbrook”. Daryl spoke of how he began by collecting photos of the area including a find of early photos on glass plates that were rescued from the man who has picked them up at the local tip to use as windows in his glass house! He has about 1200 photos and 600 are included in the book. The story of Carisbrook, its beginning as the first town to be proclaimed after the separation of Victoria from New South Wales and its history through the years since, are well captured in the book and also spoken of by Daryl on the night. The proximity of the district to ours ensured many questions from our members. Our Society has a book for loan.

EXCURSION

What a great day we had at Rodborough! John Lawton had arranged the day, Ken Bucknall was there to meet us and open up the Rodborough Church for us. Then we explored the old cemetery on the headland overlooking Tullaroop Reservoir, the old buildings and then moved to another area to see a bluestone barn and an absolutely wonderful shepherd’s hut. The society has a book on the Bucknall family describing their family history and precis of their background made the day a moving experience. Next month John has arranged a trip to the adjourning area of Charlotte Plains. We leave from the courthouse at 1.30 on May 6.

SUBSCRIPTIONS

Our annual fees are now due and payable to our treasurer Janet Trudgeon. They are unchanged - $15 for single membership, $25 family membership and $5 if the newsletter is posted to you. Membership forms are included.

CALENDAR

Excursion to Charlotte Plains May 6 leaving from the courthouse at 1.30pm. Meeting at the courthouse May 20 1.30pm

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