Tolga Historical Society

The local MP, Mr Shane Knuth and the new Mayor of the Tablelands Regional Council, Mr Joe Paronella were the special guests in attendance at the recent Annual General Meeting of the Tolga Historical Society.  One important issue dealt with at the meeting was their need to raise the large amount of funds needed to enable the construction of the large shed beside the museum.  Recently the Society was fortunate enough to pick up one of approximately fifty of the original, old fashioned railway chairs that once sat outside each of the main Queensland railway stations.  Some of these chairs are nearly 150 years old and it will make a great and useful addition to the museum.  The Tolga & District Lions Club along with the historical society has replanted a Banana Fig tree ahead of Anzac Day to remember all service men and women.  Once the revitalization work in the Main Street is completed, the tree will be permanently replanted amongst a new garden bed with a dedication plaque, to replace the century-old Anzac tree that collapsed recently.  Already the area is starting to look better with the shelters sheds receiving a face-lift.  The Tolga Historical Society has a fantastic display of memorabilia on the local historical railway, township of Tolga and World War Two history and the museum is open Wednesday to Monday from 10.00am to 4.00pm for those who are interested in the local history.

Watsonville Pioneer Women Day

The annual Pioneer Women's Day was held recently in that township's little community shed in what was once the old main street of the village.  Although the weather was wonderful, the crowd on the day was down a little on the previous year but those in attendance enjoyed the usual program of music and various bush poetry followed by the traditional bush lunch.  The lady featured this year was Mrs Elizabeth Leinster nee Pascoe.  Her family built and ran one of the early hotels at Watsonville during the old mining days.  It is hoped to see a small book on this family history produced some time in the near future.  Congratulations to the members of this tiny Association on their continuing efforts to organize this heritage event each year which has become a regular annual outing for many heritage-minded folk and I hope it will continue for many years to come.

Mareeba Historical Society

Due to the public interest shown in the Society's World War One photographic displays, for which the group won the local Australia Day Community Award, it was decided to have a collation of all four displays so that people could have more time to view it all.  The last few months had been very busy for the Society with an invition from the Council to attend the unveiling of plaques commemorating local pioneer families and an invite to the presentation of the land to the Mareeba Heritage Centre.  Members also attended a presentation evening of the Bendigo Bank Community sponsorship to receive a $250 grant to purchase archival lever arch storage boxs.  The group has been fortunate to have a university student come in to help with the library database while they were on their holidays.  It was also decided to begin planing for a future project to scan the vast number of mining history documents that the Society hold.  These are at least an hundred years old and great care will need to be taken and once digitalized, they will be correctly conserved.  On a sad note, news came of the recent passing of Mr Eddie Sheerans who was a past President of the Society, condolences to the Sheerans family.

Douglas Shire Historical Society

The Courthouse Museum was opened after the annual maintenance with even the Chinese temple panels having been refurbished.  Thanks to a very generous and welcome donation from John and Jocelyn White, the Society now have a portable wheelchair ramp available to access the Court House Museum.  Opening times remain Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays between 10am and 1pm and there is always a knowledgeable volunteer available to answer questions.  In Mossman, in partnership with the Mossman Library, the Society has celebrated HeritageWeek with an historic walk around the township of Mossman.  They have been a busy group at the moment with their April meeting taking the form of a trip to Daintree.  The day involved a visit to Sally and Peter Maher at River View in Daintree to see their display of collctables.  Peter cranked up his 1913 International portable engine, which delighted the gentlemen on the tour.  Then the tour did a walk around the town following the Society's historic posts before having lunch then returning to Mossman.  The Society's foundation Life Member Mr Noel Weare was recntly awarded a RADF grant from the Douglas Shire Council to travel to Brisbane to do research at the Queensland State Archives.  While there, he met with Dr Jonathan Richards, a professional researcher and avid historian who is researching North Queensland history.  He was able to collect some 1500 page images in the six days spent there, most of which will assist in research for the manuscript for the complete history of the 1879 Port Douglas Court House building.  Thanks to the Douglas Shire Council for assisting Noel in his far-reaching research.  The Society also mounted a Heritage Week display which will run for a month in the Shire Council building foyer.  The Society is also very pleased to see the local schools' interest in local history.  The Port Douglas school visited the Museum recently where secretary Annette Anich gave a talk and the Daintree school children walked the Heritage Trail in that village.  Some new information on the Port Douglas Chinese history was revealed at a presentation by Jacky Tam of the Cairns & District Chinese Association at the May meeting held in the Port Douglas CWA rooms.  

Cairns Historical Society

It was a big welcome home to the 1906 Chandle & Price platen printing press after repairs by Dave McIvor at the Herberton Historic Village and Greg Wyatt from Wyatts R & M Services.  The entire CHS Archives team was locked away for two days learning storage and handling procedures for archival materials.  Thanks to Rachel Spano from the State Library who has led the training.  The new Society website is up and running, so when you are done testing it out, you should check in and 'like' the Cairns Museum Facebook page.  Then you can keep an eye on the work as the Society gets ready for the reopening of the museum in 2017.  Debra Jakes, the volunteers co-ordinator, welcomed six new workers to the 'History on the Move' school trailer team.  They attended an induction and training session with the existing team and they're all fired up for the sharing of their time and Cairns history with local school kids.  'History on the Move' is a great program, popular with local schools and new volunteers are always welcomed.  Thanks also to Cairns Penny Savings and Meteor for their sponsorship of the trailer.  It was a happy National Volunteers Week with volunteer manager, Debra hosting a morning tea on the 9th May for all the volunteers of the Cairns Historical Society and Museum to acknowledge the wonderful work that the volunteers do and the skills that each person brings to their role.  Some thirty people turned up and filled the room.  The Society has relied upon volunteers since 1958 and it is very grateful for all the work that they do.  It was also reported that over fifty members attended the last quarterly series of lectures which were held on the 17th April.  The papers were presented by Dr Graham Cossins, Dr Nicky Horsefall and World War One expert, Pauline O'Keeffe.  All of the contributions had a medical focus and were extremely interesting and will appear as Society history Bulletins in due course.  The Society is now looking for someone who is a bit of a Graphic Designer who would be able to produce the group's newsletter and publications.

Book on our Tarzan

At an event held recently at the German Club in Cairns, about a hundred local history enthusiasts gathered to attend the launch of Peter Ryle's new book on the life of the eccentric adventurer, Michael Fomenko who is also known about the North as 'Tarzan'.  This new book tells of Michael's unsettled youth as the Fomenko family fled the old Soviet Union to the Far East and then on to Australia in 1937.  After nearly twenty years of growing up in Sydney, Michael first came to Cairns in 1955 and fell under the spell of the tropics which led the young man to begin his life of adventure in the North.  The story also covers well his conflict with Australian officialdom during that deeply conservative period of the 1950's and 60's which led him to be sent to a mental health facility for some time.  Much of the information used in this publication was collected by the late Harold Jung who got to know Michael in later years when he was camped close to the Jung's farm.  Harold past away before he was able to put his material into book form and the project was handed on to local historian, Peter Ryle.  The tale of Michael 'Tarzan' Fomenko's adventures in the North and how he lived his life on his own terms will lead to him been remembered as a later-day folk hero and an adventurer the likes of which we will not see again.

Historic Motor Vehicles

The first Cruise-in car night of the year for tableland car enthusiasts was held recently at the Atherton Men's Shed on Railway Lane.  These events are open to vintage, restored classic or customed cars, trucks and motorcycles with people travelling from all over the Atherton district to gather and show off their pride and joys.  Dozens of historic cars and motor cycles were brought in by their owers for the display which was hampered by wet weather.  Most of the cars this time were from the period of the Sixties and Seventies although they ranged up to much newer specialist vehicles.  The Atherton Men's Shed has organized a number of these car shows now and it is good to see an event for those involved in our motoring heritage but who have vehicles which don't really fit into the vintage car movement.  The guys from the Shed are hoping to put on these events every two or three months.