Kuranda Historical Society

A new group is welcomed to the local heritage movement.  The new Kuranda Historical Society is now officially constituted and incorporated and proudly proclaiming their objective 'to receive and preserve historical items from or relevant to, the Kuranda region and display them appropriately to as wide an audience as possible.'  The committee is in place with Dugg Stratford as President and Anne Clarke as the Secretary and the position of Treasurer filled by Gayle Hannah.  Now that the Society is legally up and running, they will begin to seek a 'home' for the group and start pursuing funding.  They are also to organize their first public meeting and be able to open up a membership drive in the near future.  The committee wish to thank everyone who has expressed interest in being involved and with the administrative tasks finished, they hope soon to be in a position to begin receiving donations of historical materials.  Anyone with queries can contact the Society via email on kurandahhistory@gmail.com or c/- P.O.Box 66 Kuranda 4881. 

Cooktown Historical Society

The Cooktown Historical Society is trialing a series of history nights this year and May saw the inaugural 'History Evening' at the History Centre in Charlotte Street.  The twenty people attending made a full house in the available space.  The presentation by Bev Shay was enthusiastically received and led the way to several lines of discussion.  This month saw the second evening, presented by Marge Scully and entitled 'Tommy Ah Kum, His Legacy'.  It looked at the life of one of Cooktown's Chinese merchants from the 1880's.  One of the visitors said they, "found it fascinating in the amount of 'detective archaeological' efforts to acquire the presented information and the discussions on the types of opium medications we used to take was very humourous."  Disappointingly, attendance numbers were down but perhaps they should check as to when the football is on when planning these event!  Next public event will be the opening of the Sam Elliot/John Hay display.  There was a busy Monday recently at the History Centre.  It started with a visit by sixteen pensioners from Brisbane and finished with a VIP visit.  The French Consul-General Mr Crozier, the German Consul-General Mr Freischlader, the Honoray Consul from Cairns Mrs Indorato accompanied by Marie-Claude Nicot from the French Benevolent Society of North Queensland.  They had requested a meeting with the historical society.  The purpose of the visit was to lay wreaths on the memorials to the French sailors who died of disease here in Cooktown in 1879 and on the grave of Dr Korteum, Cooktown's resident doctor for many years and the German Vice-Consul from 1886 to 1914.  The Society would also like to make contact with anyone associated with the old Palmer River Preservation Society which was operating in the 1980's.  If they could make contact it would be much appreciated.   

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.

Harry Dalziel Commemoration

When David Dalziel and his son John planned their journey to the North to speak to a couple of school class about his famous war-hero father Harry Dalziel, he had no idea the trip would turn into a full week of lectures and civic functions.  To celebrate the centenary of the Battle of Hamel and the action that won Harry Dalziel his Victoria Cross, a glossy twenty-page booklet was printed telling the story of Harry's life and of the battle that became a turning point of the First World War.  Harry, who was born at Irvinebank and spent much of his life in Atherton, has the distinction of been the only soldier from the Far North of Queensland to have won the V.C.  This little pictorial booklet was compiled by David Dalziel mostly from family records and makes a great souvenir for those interested in Australian military history.  Copies can still be obtained by contacting the Eacham Historical Society.

Cairns Historical Society

The Society's Volunteering Open Day was held in March with more than forty people coming in to see whether they might be interested in joining the staff.  Mel has been busy following up with prospective volunteers and will be monitoring the results and the retention to see whether it has been a useful strategy.  Thanks to everyone who made the first trivia night fundraiser a great success.  The event was sold out a week early with eleven tables of contestants on the night.  Ben Woodward did a sterling job as MC on the evening and the Society is thinking of having another trivia night later in the year.  The last set of local history lectures were well attended.  David Phoenix's presentation on the mystery of Kuranda's 2,225 year old Ptolemaic coin led to much interest and discussion.  Carol West spoke of the days when the Central Hotel was one of the major social meeting places in Cairns and Angela Meyer introduced the group to Anna Eglitis who was a promoter of the arts and culture in the Far North.  The next lectures will be held at the museum on 26 May at 1.30pm.  Subjects will include the early history of the Waugh Pocket area and the story of Bill Horsfall's memoirs of 1950's Cairns.  On a sadder note, three of the Society's long-term volunteers, Bill, Val and John have decided it is time to move on.  Their long years of effort have left the Society a huge legacy of which they should be justifiably proud and they will be missed.  The Society is now on the hunt for information about a benevolent society which once operated in the city.  The museum manager Suzanne Gibson is seeking to learn more about the Loyal Trinity Lodge of the Manchester Unity Independent Order of Oddfellows (MUIOOF) after a donation of formal Lodge regalia from the Uyterwijk family.  This year's annual tour, which is held in conjunction with the local branch of the National Trust will be held on Sunday 20 May.  This will be to the Herberton and Watsonville areas and for further details, contact Dawn May on 40578100. 

Herberton Mining Museum

Volunteers from the Herberton Mining Museum were thrilled recently to be invited by the Atherton Visitors Centre on a familiarization trip to Ravenshoe.  The weather was beautiful and the Millstream Falls were spectacular.  The day started with devonshire tea provided by the ladies from the Ravenshoe Heritage Railway followed by a visit to the Ravenshoe Visitor Centre where their displays were viewed.  The museum volunteers are currently developing an 'app' that is based on the 'Heritage Walk' brochure.  Visitors to Herberton will be able to download the app and then as they walk about the streets of town it will tell them stories about each building and shows photos of it at different times.  They are looking for people who have links to particular buildings who would like to be the voice for that building's story on the app.  Hopefully it will be finished in time for Pioneer's Weekend in May.  The museum was recently visited by a VIP; Mr Paul Turpin.  A photo of Paul features in one of the displays at the museum and the volunteers were enthralled by his stories of his life as a local tin miner.  There is continuous progress at the Herberton Mining Museum!  Thanks to Mr Smiley Wharton, the water turbine that once drove a stamper mill on Wondecla Creek has been recovered.  This 1880's Laffel water turbine is another valuable part of our history saved and is now on display for all to see.