INS

IDE

stargazingGreet the morning star

fi shingLanding a dream job

WeekendLifefood – stargazing – fi shing – what’s on – books

JUNE 28, 2014

what’s on Shadow play

Lost and foundDucat's milk carts outside old Council Chambers, Maude St 1930s

(Ray Ducat Collection)

2 WEEKEND NEWS SATURDAY, JUNE 28, 2014

turesWeekend Fea-Weekend Feature

WeekendLife

Co-ordinator: John Lewis

Contributors: John Lewis, Sophie Atkin, Kevin Tyler, Dave Reneke, Cheryl Hammer

Photography: Ray Sizer, Julie Mercer, Simon Bingham, Bianca Mibus

Design: Alysha Bathman

Advertising: Aaron Brown 5820 3187 aaron.brown@sheppnews.com.au

Published by: McPherson Media Group 7940 Goulburn Valley Hwy,Shepparton, Victoria 3632

p: 5831 2312e: editor@sheppnews.com.auwww.sheppnews.com.au

Do you have enough fi bre in your diet? Page 4.

2-3 FEATURE

Our local history fi nds a

new digital audience through

GEOFF ALLEMAND.

4 FOOD

SOPHIE ATKIN on eating for healthy

bowels.

5 STARGAZING

DAVE RENEKE looking at Venus

the morning star.

6 FISHING

KEVIN TYLER and a young

skipper’s big haul.

7-10 TV LIFTOUT GUIDE

11 BOOKS

Books with new story of footy

legend John Coleman, new

Tamba, and international focus on

Indigenous family history.

12-13 WHAT’S ON

What’s On listings.

14 ENTERTAINMENT

Tourism with CHERYL HAMMER.

15 PUZZLES

Winter warmer puzzles.

Geoff Allemand is a restless man — always on the hunt for new

ideas and ways to make the world a more interesting place.

Twenty years ago he came up with an idea that is now an icon of the local landscape — KidsTown.

A part-time primary school teacher, Geoff has also brought Big Picture and Pop-Up learning programs for young people to Shepparton.

In between, he’s a keen photographer, a spend local campaigner, a social media nerd, and a history junkie.

A year ago he was at a loose end when came across a Facebook page called Lost Perth, which hosted old photos of the city at the western edge of Australia.

‘‘It had 45 000 friends and the people behind it were crowd-funding a coffee table book of old photos,’’ he said.

‘‘They wanted to raise $25 000 — but ended up raising $80 000. It just took off,’’ he said.

He scoured libraries and museums and the cupboards of friends for old photos and put up his own Facebook page called Lost Shepparton.

Within a month it had gathered 1000 ‘‘Likes’’.

So he started another page called Lost Mooroopna and got the same response.

Next, he put up a page on Maryborough where he had spent his teenage years.

‘‘That got 1000 ‘Likes’ in a week. I thought — this is amazing,’’ Geoff said.

He went on to host pages on Kyabram where he was born, Echuca where his parents had lived and Euroa where his father and grandfather were raised.

A ‘‘lost’’ page on Wangaratta gathered 1000 ‘Likes’ in a single day.

‘‘Wangaratta is a town where everyone

is on Facebook — and they all have their networks,’’ he said.

Today he has 22 ‘‘Lost’’ pages hosting photos of townscapes, industry, old cars, families, shops, newspaper clippings, football teams and school classes from places as far apart as Undera, Numurkah, Ararat, Nathalia and Bendigo.

Photographs and records cover about 130 years of local history from the 1850s to 1980s, and his pages are followed by 35 000 people.

Each one is a window to the past and a treasure trove of memories.

‘‘We have a large baby boomer generation and people do yearn for things they have lost,’’ he said.

He said people posted their old photos and shared comments on the Facebook pages — and he reckoned there were a lot more yet to surface.

‘‘We’re only touching the tip of the iceberg. There are so many more photos and letters in boxes and drawers. We need to scan them and share them so their legacy can be kept,’’ he said.

Some of the photos he has posted have uncovered moving stories.

‘‘I put up an old photo of an actor in a long-forgotten musical play. Then a lady commented ‘that’s the fi rst photo of my dad I’ve ever seen. He died when I was three’,’’ he said.

Geoff was able to fi nd 18 more photos of the woman’s parents which she had never seen before.

When he posted a 1924 newspaper article about the fi rst streetlights being switched on in Echuca, he posted a comment, ‘‘anyone remember?’’

He was amazed to receive a reply from 97-year-old Norm Knopp who was

there when Echuca was illuminated.‘‘He commented on other old pictures

too. Then other people commented on his comments and a whole conversation started,’’ Geoff said.

He said people followed his pages from across the world.

‘‘One fellow would write a story each time I posted a picture of old Maryborough. I was captivated and I asked him to write more.

‘‘Lo and behold — he lives in Geneva, Switzerland. Now he tells his stories as Malcolm’s Memoirs.’’

Geoff said aged care nurses often downloaded and printed some of the photos he had posted to use as conversation-starters.

He is now working with Rotary groups and historical societies to produce calendars of old photos from various towns which can be used as fundraisers, and perhaps generate a small income stream for himself.

His next challenge is to produce a hardback coffee-table-style book of Lost Shepparton before Christmas.

He was recently invited to speak at the annual Victorian museums and galleries conference in Warrnambool where he met a representative of the prestigious Smithsonian Institute in Washington, in the United States.

‘‘He said what I’m doing is the future — getting people to share histories on social media. It was a real boost to my confi dence to know that what I’m doing is cutting-edge.’’

To contact Geoff Allemand, phone him on 0459 215 205 or email geoffallemand@gmail.com or visit www.facebook.com/lostshepparton

Windows into the pastA year ago Geoff Allemand posted some old photos of Shepparton on his Facebook page. Today he has 22

other digital pages on small towns and thousands of followers. JOHN LEWIS speaks to the man at the cutting

edge of local history.

Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh at Tatura Railway Station 1954.

(State Library of Victoria)

Aerial view of the Twilight Drive-In cinema.

(Michael Purden)

Swimming Pool, Lake Victoria Postcard. (State Library of Victoria)

WEEKEND NEWS SATURDAY, JUNE 28, 2014 3

1. Coghlan's Hotel (now the Terminus) was built in the 1880s. (Shepparton Heritage Centre)

2. Shepparton Railway Station refreshment room c1906. (Library of NSW)

3. Factory workers cutting peaches. (State Library of Victoria).

4. Bluebirds' Marching Girls in Fryers St, late 1970s.

5. Furphy Foundry c1888. (Shepparton Heritage Centre)

6. Wyndham St, 1965. (Alan Jones)

7. Treacy's Sawmill staff, Mooroopna 1956. (Cowan Family Collection)

8. "The Pines" later known as Hawkins Homestead c1930s. (From the Past to the Present by Ingrid Turner)

1 2

43

5

7 8

6