MARCH NEWSLETTER 2003

MARKET DAY:

We really are a well-oiled team! The site is made ready the evening before with the shade awning put up, the barbeque and surrounds cleaned and roped off. On the day, signs are erected in town at first light and everyone arrives early with trestles, extension cords, food to be cooked and goods to sell. Our health procedure is in place and we are off! Preparations had been going on for some time – baking, making preserves and pickles and cleaning out of cupboards to stock the ’white elephant stall’ Again the results were very good – at the time of writing an amount of $820 has been banked with expenses for the use of the Rotunda Park and an advertisement in the Midland Express still outstanding. A big thank-you to all who helped! John Ewing was the lucky winner of the Easter Raffle and Frances Cincotta; a regular stallholder with her native plants and cards was the winner of the lucky stallholder cake.

EXCURSION:

Our trip out to Cairn Curran was very popular. It turned out to be a reunion of several former Joyces Creek identities. Joyces Creek cemetery was the first stop and then Kevin Leathbridge led us to Green Hill on the western shores of Cairn Curran. From there we drove to Baringhup and saw what remains of the old Cairn Curran homestead, usually covered by water. Photos of the house in former days were passed around. We then drove to Cherie and John Lawton’s home to share our afternoon tea and enjoy the great view over the areas we had just visited. We have decided to take advantage of the low level of water in the reservoir to again go to this area. The date for our next excursion is April 7” leaving from the courthouse at 1.30pm. The plan is to go first to the site of the old Joyces creek township, then to a farming site on the west bank. After a cuppa, anyone interested in the Captain’s Gully might explore that particular area.

“NEWSTEAD REMEMBERS”

Plans for this are coming along well. The night is almost booked out – we now have the tickets and those people who have booked will be contacted in the next few days to order to get their tickets to them and receive payment. Unfortunately the plan to have it catered by another organization was not economically viable with our desire to only charge $15 and we have decided to cater ourselves. Giselle has carefully costed and organised things and at this stage we would be grateful if anyone would like to donate cream, donate and cut up fruit, offer some help to set up in the afternoon or clean up afterwards. A lot of behind the scenes work is going ahead planning the night. Photographing and interviews have taken place and it is a great example of the wider community being involved in the history of our area. Music and images will help to enhance the night.

ORAL HISTORY:

Cherie Lawton has wasted no time on her project on oral history. The transcribing machine has been bought and Cherie brought it along to the meeting to demonstrate its workings and give us a chance to try it. It is a job that requires a quiet working atmosphere so Cherie has been working at home. At this stage she has almost finished interviewing the first subject, transcribing the interview and offering the written result to the society and the person concerned Cherie is hoping that other members will also get involved in the project, by transcribing the tapes we already have or by also participating in the interviewing.

PUBLIC RECORDS OFFICE:

Last October, at the Central Highlands Historical Association’s Family Expo in Ballarat our society’s display on the subject of ’Education and Trades’ was judged the best. Our prize for winning was archival material from the Public Records Office. Derek Reid and Dawn Angliss have been to Ballarat to select material suitable for our needs and we will be visited by Ross Gibbs, head of PRO and also a member of CHHA, to present it to us on Wednesday April 2nd at the courthouse at 11 am. Ross is leaving for a position at National Archives in Canberra and April 2nd will be his last day at the PRO. We are honored that he has found time in his busy schedule to make the presentation himself and hope that as many members as possible can be present on the day to show them our courthouse and collections and to share morning tea with our guests.

ANNUAL MEETING:

Our next meeting is our annual meeting. As is our tradition this meeting will be held at 8pm in the courthouse. This year it will be on Monday April 28 and our guest speaker on the night will be George Milford of Harcourt whose topic will be ’A Cook’s tour of Harcourt’. George is renowned for being an entertaining speaker and the subject sounds an interesting one.

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