Cairns Historical Society

It was very pleasing to see that over forty people attended the last local history lecture series held at the City Library meeting room.  The three papers which were given by Angelica Geisel, Susan Darby and Julia Volkmar were excellent works.  It is planned to have the next series of lectures held at the refurbished Museum.  The Society was saddened to hear of the recent passing of Len Graham.  Len was a member of the Society's Management Committee for a number of years.  He took great delight in organizing luncheons for members at various locations around town.  The volunteers have finally started the move back into the School of Arts building.  It is hoped to have all the collections moved by the end of April and any new furniture installed by the middle of May.  The plan is for the Society to be operational in the School of Arts building by June.  The Museum fit out is powering ahead and should have all the showcases, joinery and graphics up by the end of April and from then will start moving the collection onto display.  A donation of a large collection of 1960's slides has given the group some great images for the database.  The group has also just received an interesting set of photos of the former Gas Company premises from a fellow historical society down in Victoria which were not relevant to their collection so they sent the photos up here.  Members of the Management Committee met for a very pleasant morning tea at Limberlost Nursery cafe to thank Janet Koch for her wonderful work as Honorary Treasurer for the Society during this difficult time of transition.  Janet's efforts are gratefully acknowledged by the group.  To mark the 75th anniversary of Cairns' involvement in the Second World War, the National Trust and Cairns Historical Society's Heritage Festival activity will take the form of a tag-along tour.  This means that you meet up in your own car, filling it up with relations and friends and we drive to places of significance to the Cairns of 1942.  Members should all meet outside the old Post Office building in Grafton Street at 9am on Sunday 7th May and proceed from there.