Innisfail & District Historical Society

The Innisfail & District Historical Society recently held their Cyclone Centenary event in the Shire Hall and it was a major success.  The storytellers all did a wonderful job telling the tale of the great 1918 cyclone and the compere for the evening saw that everything ran smoothly.  Special thanks go to Les Cavanagh, Barbara Smith, Jeff Baines, Sheryl Cavanagh, Paul Hynes and Pam Egan along with Kirsty Densmore who also told a story or two while handling the compere's job.  A very special thanks you to the CCRC Council staff that did so much to help with the success of the evening.  And thanks to the members of the Society, it has taken many months to get this event together and it all came together beautifully.  The 1918 Cyclone booklet will be on sale in the museum as soon as the printer in Townsville is able to get the rest of the order to the Society.  The forty books they had at the launch night were all sold out very quickly.  Thank you too, to everyone who came to support the event.  With the weather over that week or two, the group didn't really expect so many to turn up but a fabulous bunch of history buffs came out in support and the Society was so pleased.  Another book from the group, 'Memories of old Geraldton/Innisfail Volume 3' is also now on sale for $18.00.  Brilliant photos of old Innisfail and a great companion book to volumes 1 and 2.   

Douglas Shire Historical Society

At the Douglas Shire Historical Society's April meeting at the Mossman Community Centre, Gail Coburn spoke about the history of the Mossman Support Services group which recently celebrated their 25th anniversary.  The Anzac exhibition on display at the Douglas Shire Council's Mossman Foyer commemorating this Anzac Day and the 100th anniversary of the end of World War One has been successful.  This computer presentation of the Diggers who had connections with the Douglas Shire and filmed remembrances of their descendants closed on Thursday 3rd May.  The Society's AGM will be held on Monday 14th May at 2pm at the CWA Hall in Port Douglas.  The talk for this meeting will be on Port Douglas and the flagstaff on Flagstaff Hill.  The group has an interesting year ahead with the lease of the old SES shed going ahead.  It appears the Society will finally have a resource centre for office space and for the safe storage of heritage documentation and artifacts.  So please come along and volunteer your time to learn how to help with the digitizing and cataloguing of the collection.