History aliveOrange & District Historical Society newsletter Winter 2017

The railway issue

In this issue

History Alive 2 Winter 2017

Mystery of Yeoval train collision solvedPage 6

How historic Templers Mill was destroyedPage 8

Remembering Orange’s lost heritagePage 9

Friends of Museum group formedPage 11

Orange & District Historical SocietyOrange Heritage Centre 148 March StreetPO Box 1626 Orange NSW 2800. Phone: 0458 649 669 Email: orange.history@yahoo.com.auFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/Or-angehistory

Patrons: Russell Tym and Marie HammondPresident: Liz EdwardsVice-president: Euan GreerSecretary: Dave SykesTreasurer: Annette NevilleCommittee: Phil Stevenson, JohnGlastonbury, Judy Agland, JennyMaher, Ross MaroneyPublicity officer/newsletter editor:Liz EdwardsHonorary historians: Ross Maroney,Phil Stevenson, Julie Sykes & Elizabeth GriffinMembership fees from January 2017Family $45; individual $30; single con-cession $20; couple concession $30.Contact secretary or treasurer. Pleasepay promptly.Research inquiries:The Research Officer, Orange & DistrictHistorical Society, P O Box 1626, Orange, NSW 2800Please supply an A4, stamped, self-ad-dressed envelope. Cost: $20 for the initial inquiry (plus ad-ditional charges for more extensive re-search). Please provide your name, address,phone number and email address, de-tails of your inquiry, any information youmay already have, and the reason foryour inquiry.Bank: Orange & District Historical Society,Orange Credit Union, BSB 802-129,A/c No 34252 (please include nameand reason for payment). If you aretransferring money from your accountat Orange Credit Union, please add S1to our account number.

This newsletter is designed to keep members and other interested peopleinformed about the society’s activities as well as matters of interest in thewider field. If anyone would like to contribute to it they should contact editor Liz Edwards. Our newsletter requires a considerable amount of money to produce each quarter with paper, printing and postage all adding to the cost. Therefore, wherever possible, we email it to those members and others onour mailing list who have an email address. However, if anyone with an email address would prefer also to receive apaper copy, they may do so simply by contacting the secretary. Those who do not have access to email will continue to receive theircopies by ordinary mail.

Cover images (clockwise from main): Fireman PeterWard, of Billimari, stands beneath the banner with theimage (inset) of himself and driver John Folster, taken in1955, which was used in the publicity for the Rail 140events; Senior Customer Attendant Margaret Kennedy andArea Customer Service Manager Michael Herft from Or-ange Railway Station at the opening of the photographic ex-hibition at Orange City Library; Alex Rezko, who travelledon the XPT from Blayney to Orange on the anniversary;Former District Superintendent Tom Hetherington greetsold colleagues at the symposium.

We are breathing a sigh of relief that our Rail140 celebration events were such an outstand-ing success.

Organised to celebrate the 140th anniversary of thearrival of the Western railway line in Orange in 1877, itinvolved many months of planning and the services of anumber of the society’s volunteers.

The four major events – the photographic exhibition,the celebrations at the railway station (organised by rail-way staff), the screening of the movie The Titfield Thun-derbolt, and the day-long symposium – all attractedmany people keen to learn more about the history of therailways in our region.

Good attendance numbers ensured we not only cov-ered our considerable costs but made a tidy profit,which will be put towards purchasing much neededcomputer equipment and developing our website.

My sincere thanks go to organisers John Glaston-bury, Euan Greer and Phil Stevenson, and catering vol-unteers Judy Agland, Jenny Holdaway, Jenny Maher,Dorothy Noble and Sally Watson.

While that sigh of relief is heartfelt, we are not rest-ing on our laurels and are continuing to plan future ac-tivities and events which will appeal to members as wellas the public.

An event not organised by our society but which issure to be of interest to members is the Family HistorySocieties Conference, to be held in Orange in Septem-ber. See page 10 for details.

We are delighted that at last we not only have a mu-seum in Orange but that the Friends of the Orange Re-gional Museum is now up and running with animpressive group of people on the committee. The for-mation of the group means there is now a link betweenthe museum and its staff, our society and members of

the public. The society is as-

sisting curator JenniferForrest in her researchfor the next main exhi-bition at the museum,From Paddock toPlate. We have pro-vided photographs, in-formation and objectsrelated to the produc-tion of food and bever-ages in the Orangedistrict. The exhibitionis due to open duringFOOD Week nextApril.

As usual, our volunteers are doing a fantastic job atthe cottage. We held a special working bee a short whileago to tidy up the back verandah and green shed and pre-pare better storage facilities in the brick garage.

The hard work paid off and we now have room tomove in all three areas and new shelving has been erectedin the brick garage.

While our collection has been much reduced in recentyears to make it more relevant, we still have a core col-lection of items which require good storage.

Meanwhile work is continuing on the CWD Nega-tive Collection with the first of 27 boxes of negativestransferred to acid-free envelopes, the negatives sepa-rated from one-another with acid-free paper. The en-velopes are then put in acid-free archival boxes forstorage in our facility at the Cool Stores.

We are looking for more volunteers to assist in thisjob on Wednesdays. Please contact me if you can help.

- Liz Edwards

A message from the president

Winter 2017 History Alive 3

Member Robert Bruce (right) presents a framed photographof the Byng Street walk to Ross Maroney, who led the verysuccessful walk earlier in the year. The photo now sitsproudly on the wall of the research room where Ross works.

Our Wednesday working days are always busy as we go aboutour various tasks. From left, on a recent working day, are SallyWatson, Jenny Maher, Tony Bouffler, Euan Greer, Liz Edwards, Marian Spanjer, Phil Stevenson and Judy Agland.

The society’s major event for2017 was the celebration ofthe 140th anniversary of the

arrival of the railway line in Orangein 1878.

The railways brought unprece-dented change to the Central and FarWest regions of NSW. Passengers nolonger had to endure long and un-comfortable journeys on horsebackor by wagon or coach, while freightcould now be transported to marketsovernight. Orange’s fruit growingindustry benefited immensely, whilewheat and wool from the westernareas was much more easily trans-ported.

Opening up the railway to thewest as far as Bourke and south to-wards the Victorian border ensuredthat goods could be sent to Sydneymarkets rather than interstate.

Orange became a major railwaydepot employing hundreds of peopleover the years, many of whom spentthe whole of their working lives inthe service of the railways.

Plans for the celebrations startedin November last year with EuanGreer, John Glastonbury, PhilStevenson and Liz Edwards on thesub-committee.

The celebrations encompassedfour events designed to capture thespirit of the railways. Photographic exhibition

An exhibition of photographsfrom the Central Western DailyNegative Collection and railway en-thusiast John Ward opened at Or-ange City Library on Tuesday 11April.

The images dated from 1955when steam trains were still a com-mon sight, and progressed throughto the diesel era.

They included photos of traindrivers and firemen, line work, thelast days of small sidings such asthose at Bloomfield, Cullya and theShowground, industrial disputes andrailway personalities. John Ward’simages, some of which were incolour, really captured the era of

steam trains, especially those show-ing the Orange rail depot undersnow.

Copies of the photos on displayare available from the society.Railway station celebrations

On Wednesday 19 April, the ac-tual anniversary of the opening ofthe railway line in Orange, crowdsof people converged on Orange rail-way station to greet the XPT fromSydney at midday.

Station staff put on an event toremember, with gifts for children, ajumping castle, a barbecue and abrass band.

Orange City Band played somestirring music which greatly addedto the festive atmosphere.

The station had not been so busyfor many years and the celebrationswere testimony to the appeal of therailways.Movie

About 125 people filled one ofthe Odeon 5 cinemas on theevening of Wednesday 19 Aprilfor the screening of a railway-themed movie, The Titfield Thun-derbolt.

The 1953 comedy from Britain’sEaling Studios included a host ofstars including Stanley Hollowayand Sid James.

The storyline, about a village inBritain facing the closure of abranch railway line, struck a chordwith the audience.

Winter 2017History Alive 4

Above: Euan Greer andJohn Glastonbury at theopening of the photographicexhibition in the OrangeCity Library.Right: Senior Customer At-tendant at Orange RailwayStation Margaret Kennedyand Parliamentary Secretaryfor Regional Roads, Mar-itime and Transport KevinAnderson cut a celebratorycake at the railway station.Photos courtesy John Kich.

Orange Rail 140Railway line put Orange on the map

The final event to mark the anniversarywas a one-day symposium, held atKenna Hall on Sunday 23 April.

About 85 people attended from near and far,including many former railway employees.

Five guest speakers – Euan Greer, DennyEllis, Bob McKillop, John Bastick andDavid Hill talked about different aspects ofrailway history and heritage.

Euan Greer described the opening of therailway line in Orange in 1877. Denny Ellis,a railway man since 1945 and the author ofA Railwayman’s Journey, gave a talk on rail-way operations at their height in Orange dur-ing the 1940s and 50s. Historian and authorBob McKillop described the influence of therailways on the economy and industrial de-velopment in the Western Districts of NSW.John Bastick, another long-term railwayman, talked about the railways in Orangeduring the period leading to their decline.

Former CEO of NSW State Rail DavidHill was unable to appear in person becauseof health issues, but Euan Greer and JohnGlastonbury travelled to Sydney to video a‘conversation’ with David about his time atthe helm and the restructuring of the rail-ways. The video was a hit and a fitting finaleto the day.

The photographic exhibition was trans-ferred from the Library to Kenna Hall for theday and several other railway enthusiastsbrought along additional photos and memo-rabilia. Also present was John Gayden, whois in the final stages of producing a book,Shooting the West, about the steam era onthe Western Line.

There was a spirit of camaraderie duringthe symposium as old railway hands got to-gether to remember the heady days when railwas king. One former assistant station mas-ter proudly wore his uniform while othersenjoyed looking at the photos and memora-bilia.

Guest of honour was 93-year-old formerDistrict Superintendent Tom Hetherington,who was delighted to meet some of his for-mer colleagues at the symposium.

Guests were treated to morning and after-noon tea and a sandwich and fruit lunch or-ganised by volunteers from the society.

Proceeds from the symposium and moviewill be put towards the purchase of elec-tronic equipment and developing a websitefor the society.

Winter 2017 History Alive 5

Participants browse through photos, memorabilia and John Gayden’s pub-licity for his book about the steam era on the Western Line.

Orange Rail 140

Guest speakers Bob McKillop, Denny Ellis, John Bastick and Euan Greer.Photo courtesy John Kich.

Wealth of railway history at symposium

Part of the audience at Kenna Hall.

By John Glastonbury, Euan Greerand Elisabeth Edwards

A photographic exhibition washeld in Orange City Library as one ofthe events celebrating the 140th an-niversary of the opening, on 19 April,1877, of the Great Western Railwayto Orange. The exhibition, curated byLiz, was largely made up of railwayimages from the CWD Negative Col-lection in the custody of our society.

One of the photos showed a de-railed steam locomotive leading apassenger train at Yeoval. This im-mediately roused the curiosity ofJohn: a steam-hauled passenger trainshould not have been at Yeoval, onthe now long-closed line betweenDubbo and Molong via Cumnock.

Why was the passenger train onthe line and how was it derailed?Finding the answer to these questionswas an irresistible challenge to Liz(custodian of the CWD Collection),John and Euan (rail enthusiasts andhistorians).Starting the search

In the collection, Liz found otherphotos and valuable informationabout the incident, revealing thatthere had been a violent collision.Initially, no story could be found inthe CWD but a search in Trove foundbrief reports in papers as far apart asGilgandra, Bourke and Canberra.

These provided the basic facts in-cluding the date of the incident. Thislatter led to detailed accounts in theCWD. In his collection, John foundplans for the layout of railway tracksat Yeoval and a set of instructions –the safe-working rules – as to howthe layout was to be operated to pre-vent accidents.

Euan downloaded a current imageof the railway remnants at Yeovalfrom Google Maps. Using this,John’s information and the reportsfrom the various papers, we devel-oped an account of what, where andhow the event happened.Why was a steam passenger train on the line?

Monday 26 September 1955 wasthe day of the railway employees’ an-

nual picnic, held that year in Dubbo.The railways provided a special train topick up off-duty railway workers andtheir families from Molong and otherstations on the cross-country line toDubbo, take them to the picnic andthen home again at the end of the day.The special was just one of six runfrom various centres to Dubbo that day. What happened?

At about 6am on that Mondaymorning the special train left Molongwith picnickers for Dubbo. The trainwas made up of a 32 class steam lo-comotive, number 3254, a main-linepassenger guard’s van behind the en-gine and then two main-line passen-ger carriages. Engine 3254 was fromDubbo, as was its crew, driver KevinHopkins and fireman Neville Gregg.The guard, William Gee, was fromOrange and travelled in the van. Lessthan 75 minutes after leaving Molongthe engine was off the track, lyingpartly on its side, and a man wasdead.

While the picnic train was on itsway from Molong, a goods trainfrom Dubbo to Orange was shuntingin the yard at Yeoval after runninginto the loop. The reports and photos

do not identify the goods engine, butit was most probably a 50 class 2-8-0standard goods locomotive. In chargeof the engine was acting driver Gray-don Thomas Blatch of Yeoval and hisunidentified fireman. Guard RoyDingwall of Dubbo was busy cou-pling and uncoupling wagons.

At the Molong end of the yard as-sistant station master Raymond Rus-sell was operating the points for theshunting to happen. Operating thesepoints automatically set the homesignal for trains coming from Mo-long at ‘stop’, thus protecting theyard and shunting engine. Whileshunting, the goods engine, runninglight (i.e. without any wagons), hadmoved forward through the points atthe end of the yard and gone on tothe main line towards Molong.

Driver Blatch, alone on the engineas his fireman had gone to the toilet,believed he was safe from any on-coming train. He looked up to see thepassenger train approaching at speed,yelled at Russell to change thepoints, “he’s not going to stop intime”, and rammed his engine in re-verse. He opened the regulator sohard that the wheels of the enginespun.

Winter 2017 History Alive 6

Railway mystery at Yeoval as passenger

The photo which started it all - 3254 lying on its side beside the track with a mainlinepassenger carriage behind. Note the smashed buffer beam at the front of the engineand the broken rail beneath the back wheels.

Winter 2017 History Alive 7

Blatch cleared the points but wasstill foul of the main line when he re-alised the engines were going to col-lide. He jumped from the driver’s(left hand) side of the cab onto themain line, the line on which the pas-senger train was approaching. Hetripped, recovered but then fell again.

At about 7.10am, and 100 yardsfrom the station, the engines collidedwith such force that both were de-railed and rails and sleepers werebroken.

The goods engine stayed uprightbut the 32 class on the picnic trainrolled over about 60 degrees on itsright-hand side.

Blatch had not been able toscramble clear and was crushed be-neath the 65 ton passenger engineand died instantly.

The crew on the passenger enginewere not injured (even though driverHopkins jumped off before the colli-sion) but thirteen passengers werehurt, including the guard who brokehis arm.What went wrong? The coroner’s findings.

A coronial inquest, lasting fourdays, was held in Wellington a monthafter the crash. The most important

fact from the inquiry was that 800yards from the home signal (wherethe crash occurred) was a distantlandmark post telling the crew of thepicnic train that they should slowdown to be ready to stop at the homesignal if it was at danger.

Basically, the driver of the picnictrain failed to respond to the land-mark warning signal by bringing histrain under control and ran past thehome signal at ‘stop’ because he wasgoing too fast to pull up in time, evenwhen fireman Gregg called out alast-minute warning.

There were other contributingfactors, including that driver Blatchshould not have been alone on thegoods engine.

All these factors were breaches ofthe safe working rules, some ofwhich were serious, but the simulta-neous combination of breachesproved fatal.

Put together, they resulted in thedeath of driver Blatch (leaving be-hind his wife and five young chil-dren) and injury to a number ofpassengers together with seriousdamage to track and locomotives atYeoval.

and goods trains collide

The Yeoval home signal at ‘danger’, the signal at which the picnic train wassupposed to stop. Note the bent rail in the foreground which derailed the goodsengine and the broken rail under 3254. Both indicate the force of the collision.

Successful showBy Sue Milne

This year’s Orange Show, held onthe weekend of 13 and 14 May, hasbeen described as the most successfulin the past 10 years. Was this due toincreased attractions, the publicitygenerated by a visit by a televisionshow or just the great weather?

The visit to the show by BetterHomes & Gardens to Orange was agreat attraction. The episode will bescreened on Prime in late June.

The Naylor Pavilion was officiallyopened during the show. On displaywas a mixture of local businesses andorganisations, art and school sections,but the main attraction was thewrestling team from InternationalWrestling Australia. This buildingwill be multi-purpose and eventsbooked include farmers’ markets andschool holiday entertainments.

The outside events were well sup-ported with record entries in manysections. This was the same for the re-vamped Agricultural Pavilion, withmore space for displays, followingthe relocation of traders to the NaylorPavilion. Sideshow Alley was busywith new rides from the Easter Show.

The Williams and Dalton pavilionswere dedicated to history and commu-nity organisations promoting Orange.Included were a military display,U3A, Orange Family History Group,ECCO and Orange Toastmasters, allwell promoted. FORM (Friends ofthe Museum), were present, this beingone of their first official events.

A big crowd pleaser was the Or-ange & District Historical Society’sdisplay on the 140 years of railways inOrange. There was many a discussionand story-telling throughout the show.

Orange Show Society had a dis-play of photographs from the 1957and 1967 shows from the CWD Neg-ative Collection which is managed bythe Historical Society.

Thank you to everyone who as-sisted during the weekend to makethe show a success. We hope to seeyou again next year (28/29 April).

I would like to thank Phil Steven-son on behalf of the Show Society fordonating a scanner/printer for usewith the show collection.

Winter 2017History Alive 8

By Elisabeth EdwardsThe destruction of Templers Mill

in November 1971 was a sad end forone of Orange’s most importantbuildings, boasting links to theOphir gold rush as well as with poetAndrew Barton ‘Banjo’ Paterson.

The red brick mill, situated atNarrambla just north of Orange, isbelieved to have been built by amember of Simeon Lord’s familyand bought by John Templer in themid-1840s. Originally driven bybullocks, Templer later replacedthem with a steam-driven engine.

When Australia’s first payablegold was discovered at Ophir in 1851,the mill was well placed to supplyflour for the miners who flocked tothe district, which they used to maketheir staple food, damper.

In 1864 Templer advertised:Flour and bran for sale in anyquantities at reasonable prices.Grist done at the usual rate. Forthe convenience of the inhabi-tants of Orange, I have ap-pointed Mr John Peisley myagent for the purchase of wheatand the sale of flour, at whosestores a constant supply of thelatter may always be obtained.‘Banjo’ Paterson, a great-nephew

of Templer, was born at Narrambla in1864. Although Paterson’s familymoved to Buckinbah near Yeovalsoon after Paterson’s birth, Orange –and in particular Narrambla – hasrightly laid claim to be his birthplace.

The mill remained in use untilabout 1870 when Templer sold upand moved to New Zealand. Thesteam boiler was removed to Heap’sbrewery in Moulder Street, Orange.

The mill gradually deterio-rated until by the 1960s itwas in a perilous condi-tion.

Concerned citizens, ledby Orange & District His-torical Society patron DickSheridan, campaigned inJuly 1966 for its restora-tion. Sheridan invited thedirector of the NSW Na-tional Trust, R N Walker,and architect with theTrust, L J Buckland, to in-spect the ruin to see if itcould be preserved.

A site inspection wasmade with representativesfrom Orange City andCanobolas Shire councils,at which Mr Walker saidthe destruction of the millwould be ‘a calamity’: “Ifit came down, at least halfthe historical significanceof the area would be lost.”

Walker and Buckland rejected asuggestion that the mill could betorn down and its bricks used tomake a stage for performances ofPaterson’s poems as well as fire-places for visiting tourists.

Walker and Buckland were keento see the mill saved, and in 1967the National Trust classified the millas an historical building whichshould be preserved.

The Trust’s support unfortunatelydid not lead to government fundingfor restoration work, and althoughthe Department of Lands offered$5000 if the same amount wasraised in the community, andCanobolas Shire offered a donationof $1000, it seems that no concertedeffort was made to raise the remain-ing $4000.

On Tuesday 30 November 1971Canobolas Shire workers arrived atthe site with scores of sticks ofgelignite and started a series of ex-plosions which sounded the death-knell for the mill. It didn’t gowithout a struggle, the chimney re-maining defiant for some time untila final blast sent it crashing to theground.

An anonymous National Trustofficial labelled the destruction ofthe mill as ‘idiotic vandalism’, whileMr Walker criticised CanobolasShire Council for not opening a pub-lic appeal to save the building.

There is nothing left of the millnow, although a stone memorial toPaterson, erected by the HistoricalSociety in 1947, remains as a re-minder of Narrambla’s importanceto Orange’s early history.

Going . . . going . . . gone: Templers Mill, which had stood at Narrambla since the 1840s, was destroyed in November 1971.Photograph CWD Negative Collection.Destruction of mill severed historic link

Representatives of Orange & District Historical Society, the National Trust and local councils examine Templers Mill in 1966.

History Alive 9 Winter 2017

Alarge crowd of about fifty people attended ourlast History Alive meeting on 10 May. The sub-ject, Our Vanished Heritage, clearly struck a

chord with many people. There was an even mix of Historical Society mem-

bers and members of the public.Guest speakers were Ross Maroney and John Kich,

who showed images of buildings and landscapes lostover the years.

The buildings ranged from the historic TemplersMill and Showground grandstand to terraces such as

Little Bowen Terrace, and ordinary houses.One of the earliest buildings was the old Toll House,

where travellers were charged a toll to proceed.Of particular interest was a series of photos from the

CWD Negative Collection showing the moment whenTemplers Mill, deemed too far gone to restore and toodangerous to keep, was dynamited in November 1971.

We are greatly indebted to Ross and John for takingthe trouble over many years to photograph and docu-ment the city’s streetscapes and buildings.

Exploring district’s lost heritageHistory Alive

Left: Guestspeakers RossMaroney andJohn Kich.

Right: Johnand MarianSpanjer andCathy and RobHines.

Left: NancyMeredith, San-dra Brooksand John Ba-stick.

Right: SallyWatson andJudy Kich.

Buildings lost to Orange: The School of Arts in Byng Street, just west of Anson Street; Orange District Hospital in AnsonStreet between Prince and Dalton streets; the bank of NSW in Lords Place near the Summer Street intersection.

Family historians from the Central West and beyondwill gather in Orange from 22 to 24 September forthe 2017 NSW and ACT Family History Societies

Conference.The theme of the conference, which is being hosted

by Orange City Council through Orange City Library,will be ‘Your family story: telling, recording and preserv-ing’.

Organiser Jan Richards, manager of Central West Li-braries, said she was very excited that this year’s confer-ence would be held in Orange.

“I am excited because I am a very keen family histo-rian,” she said. “We are not only getting some great pro-fessionals to speak but also there will be a lot of personalenjoyment to be had from the stories that will be told andthe workshops that will be run.”

One of the first sponsors to come on board is the Or-ange Regional Arts Foundation.

The program is as follows.Thursday 21 September:Welcome reception 6-7.30pm at Orange Regional Mu-seum.Friday 22 September:A family history fair will be held in Orange City Libraryfrom 9am to 4pm, to which everyone is invited. Repre-sentatives from Ancestry, Find My Past, State Recordsand other organisations will be on hand to talk to visitorsabout approaches to family history.Also that day there will be a number of workshops:10 am – 3pm: Connecting Culture: tracing ancestors – In-digenous Services Team, State Library of NSW10am – 1pm: Chatting to your ancestors – Kim Kelly10am – noon: DNA 101 – Veronica Williams10am – 1pm : Copyright for Genealogists – JessicaCoates10am – noon: Photography+Time=History – GlennMickle10am – noon: Eat your history – Jacqui Newling1pm – 3pm: DNA Next Steps – Veronica Williams1pm – 2pm: Estate planning for your research – HeatherGarnsey2pm – 3pm: Preserving your family history – AllisonCampbell3.30pm – 4.30pm: NSW & ACT Association of FamilyHistory Societies Forum7.30pm – 9.30pm The Story Only I can Tell (OrangeCivic Theatre)Saturday 23 September:8am: Registration9 – 9.15am: Welcome9.15 – 10am: Roses from the Heart – Christina Henri10am – 10.30pm: William Yang in conversation10.30 – 11.15am: Morning tea in the exhibition area11.15 – noon: Opening the cage on your gaolbird ances-tor – Gail Davis12 – 12.45pm: A tongue on the table: telling the familystory through food – Jacqui Newling12.45 – 1.45pm: Lunch

1.45pm – 2.30pm: Cracking the code: dating Australianportraits through dress – Margot Riley2.30 – 3.15pm: Whatever happened to Ann Kenny? –Perry McIntyre3.15pm: Afternoon tea in the exhibition area4pm: NSW & ACT Association of Family History Soci-eties AGM6.30pm: Conference dinner (Orange Ex-Services Club) Sunday 24 September:9 – 10am: Why look back? – William McInnes10 – 10.30am: Case studies from the various speakers10.30 – 11 am: Morning tea11 – 11.45am: Weaving your family history on the web –Shauna Hicks11.45am – 12.15pm: Visualising History: the ANUArchives Centre and the Tooth & Co. Ltd. Hotels Project– Catherine Ziegler12.15 – 12.30pm: Conference close2 – 4 pm: Duntryleague – Join us at historic Dun-tryleague, originally home of the Dalton Family. Orangeand District Historical Society will give you a back-ground talk on the Daltons before tours of the mansionfollowed by afternoon tea. Cost will apply, yet to be de-cided.

Other events will be a special opening of WentworthMine from 10am to 2pm on the Friday, a cemetery walkwith Orange historian Elizabeth Griffin on the Friday af-ternoon, and a walk along Byng Street with Orange histo-rian Ross Maroney on the Saturday afternoon.Cost of full conference registration:Earlybird (by early July) $140Registration $160Saturday only:Earlybird $90Registration $100Sunday only:Earlybird $60Registration $70

The cost includes:Welcome reception on Thursday 21 September.Choice of workshops on Friday 22 September (subject

to availability).Access to all conference sessions on Saturday and

Sunday.Morning/afternoon tea/lunch on Saturday 23 Septem-

ber.Morning tea on Sunday 24 September.Day registration includes:Access to all conference sessions on the selected day.Morning/afternoon tea/lunch for registrations Satur-

day 23 September.Morning tea for registrations Sunday 24 September.There is an extra cost of $40 for the Friday evening

performance at Orange Civic Theatre and $60 for theconference dinner.

For more information go to: www.ofhg.com.au/con-ference

Winter 2017History Alive 10

Orange to host Family History Societies conference

Winter 2017 History Alive 11

Friends of Orange Regional Museum met atthe museum on 2 May to elect their executiveand committee. This followed the inaugural

meeting a few weeks previously.The meeting was chaired by Cr Neil Jones.The executive is as follows:President Garry West; vice-president Neil Jones;

secretary Ian McIvor, treasurer Phil Stevenson andcommittee members Elizabeth Griffin, PhilipSchwebel and Duncan Stuart.

Garry West said the formalities marked an im-portant step in making the museum move forward.He commended our society for its lobbying overmany years for a museum.

“We now have a civic precinct with the councilchambers, theatre, library, gallery and museum,” hesaid. “I’m honoured to be part of this team.”

Director of the Regional Gallery and RegionalMuseum Brad Hammond then spoke about the mu-seum, its staff and coming events.

He said 22,000 people had visited the museumsince it opened last November, including manyschool children who really appreciated seeing origi-nal objects.

As public item donations have increased, storagewas an issue which needed to be addressed, he said.

An exhibition on Chinese Migration to the Or-ange Region was opened on 19 May. GenevieveMott and Barry McGowan were commissioned byOrange, Blayney and Cabonne councils to investi-gate the role of Chinese migrants in the economicand cultural life of the region. This display can beseen in the Community Showcase.

The next major exhibition at the museum willbe From Paddock to Plate, a history of regionalfood production. Brad Hammond said the exhibi-tion, due to open during FOOD Week 2018, wouldbe a source of local pride as well as attracting visi-tors from further afield.

Full steam ahead for Friends of Museum

The Friends of Orange Regional Museum committee: treasurer PhilStevenson, vice-president Neil Jones, secretary Ian McIvor, committee membes Duncan Stuart and Elizabeth Griffin, presidentGarry West and comittee member Philip Schwebel.

Director of the Regional Galleryand Regional Museum BradHammond.

Cr Neil Jones, who led thesteering committee to form theFriends.

A large crowd attended the launch of the Friends of theOrange Regional Museum.

Listening to Brad Hammond’s talk at the Friends meeting on 2 May.

Diary July - September 2017Mondays and Wednesdays: Work days at Heritage Cot-tage 10am-4pm. If you would like to volunteer, please con-tact co-ordinator Phil Stevenson.

Millthorpe Golden Memories Museum: open on week-ends, public holidays and school holidays 10am-4pm.Molong Museum: Open on the last Sunday of the month12.30-3.30pm, 20 Riddell Street.Molong and District Servicemen and Service women’sPortrait Gallery: This can be viewed whenever the Mo-long RSL Club is open (phone 6366-8105 for details).Wentworth Mine: open Saturday and Sunday on the firstfull weekend of the month 10am-2.30pm.Saturday 24 June: Public lecture by Heather Nicholls onCobb & Co in the Central West, with specific focus on Mo-long, at Molong RSL Club. Entry $10 including afternoontea. RSVP Sue Milne on 0400 425 015 or Marie Hammondon 6360 4799 or 0447 624 568.Wednesday 5 July: ODHS committee meeting 4.30pm.Wednesday 12 July: History Alive meeting 6.30 for 7pmat Orange Senior Citizens Centre on fires and Orange FireBrigade with guest speaker Matt Jeffery. Entry $4 mem-bers, $6 non-members. Supper follows.Saturday 22 July: Visit to Orange Fire Station 2pm. Goldcoin donation.

Friday 21 July:Workshop ‘Voices from the Past: uncover-ing local and personal stories’, 10am-3.30pm at HotelCanobolas. Cost $35. Tickets through Eventbrite: https://hc-nswstorytelling.eventbrite.com.auSaturday 22 July: Floor talk by Orange Regional Museumcollections manager Allison Campbell on object care 2-4pmat the museum. Bookings essential on 6393 8444 or email:museum@orange.nsw.gov.auSaturday 12 August: Floor talk by Dave Perry on the 1926Chevrolet, Emma, 2-4pm at Orange Regional Museum.Bookings essential on 6393 8444 or email: museum@or-ange.nsw.gov.auWednesday 2 August: ODHS committee meeting 5.30pm.Saturday 19 August: ODHS Annual general meeting 2pmin East-West rooms of Orange Regional Gallery.Saturday 2 September: Floor talk by Elisabeth Edwardson the Emmco/Email/Electrolux factory 2-4pm at OrangeRegional Museum. Bookings essential on 6393 8444 oremail: museum@orange.nsw.gov.auWednesday 6 Sept: ODHS committee meeting 5.30pm.Wednesday 13 September: History Alive meeting 6.30 for7pm at  Orange Senior Citizens Centre, subject to beanounced.22-24 September: NSW and ACT Family History Soci-eties Conference. See page 10 for details.

Winter 2017History Alive 12

Trove Roadshow comes to OrangeMany local historians, teachers and students were out-

raged when the Federal Government announced in the2016-17 budget that $20 million would be slashed fromfunding for the National Library. This meant that Trove, thelibrary’s on-line repository of books, images, historic news-papers, maps, music and archives, would not be able to addany more content.

There was such a public outcry that in December lastyear the Federal Government announced a one-off fundingpackage of $16.4 million over four years to upgrade infra-structure linked to Trove.

While the majority of people researching either familyor local history rely chiefly on Trove’s newspaper archives,which are searchable using optical character recognition,Trove is much more than this, as participants in the TroveRoadshow found when it visited Orange in early May.

The Roadshow was designed to inform people in re-gional areas about Trove and how it works, and also explainhow individuals and groups could upload their own collec-tions onto Trove so that it could be shared by others.

The Trove team gave an example of how the variousTrove resources could help build up a picture of someone’slife.

They also explained how putting items on Trove meantthat small local collections could be discovered alongsidelibraries, university repositories, museums and governmentdepartments.

Orange’s Leader newspaper was digitised a few yearsago for the years 1912 to 1922 to cover the Great Waryears, but although Orange newspapers are available on mi-crofilm from 1899 onwards, nothing more has been digi-tised because of the huge cost (about $2 per newspaperpage)

This means that while the years 1912-1922 are fullysearchable, anyone wanting to find information from beforeor after those dates has to look through each newspaper ona microfilm viewer, page by page.

It is hoped that more funding will become available sothat this valuable resource will be of greater use to local re-searchers.