CELEBRATING HISTORY AT A LOCAL LEVEL
If the levels of attendance, local support, community co-operation, generosity of spirit and enthusiasm demonstrated through the three events undertaken by the MLDHS and the Scott Creek, Bradbury and Longwood Local History Group are measures of success then there can be no doubt that we have achieved beyond our wildest dreams. Each one of the events undertaken during History Month (May 2011) achieved that WOW factor for similar reasons:-
• community co-operation at the Bedazzled by Autumn at Stangate House Aldgate;
• community support at the Aldgate Pictorial Kaleidoscope; and
• community enthusiasm at the Scott Creek Scanfest.
Underpinning each of these events was the commitment of MLDHS committee and members to the importance of understanding the histories of the overall region and in this case the history of the State over the last 175 years. We have all invested time, money and creative energy over the last few weeks to achieve outstanding results. Individual members have contributed wholeheartedly including: background organization; donations of raffle prizes; poetry research; cake baking & soup making; display preparations; publicity; website updates; event attendance; ticket sales; events set up and bump out; recording of events; gate and door duties; contributions of photographs and documents; scanning of photographs and documents; assembly of power-point presentations; front line presentations; locating local people and building audiences at each event – to name a few of the tasks which underpinned these events.
Through all of these efforts we have also celebrated the re-instatement of the elusive Aldgate Pump, expanded the audiences of Stangate House and the Stirling Players, found the Miss Autumn Leaves Crown, found a heart wrenching WW1 Bible and even located the original key to the Longwood Institute!
Overall these efforts have contributed significantly to the development of our collections. They have enabled old friends and associates to reconnect and trawl through memories of life and times in the Adelaide Hills. They have built community capacity and demonstrated that community spirit is alive and well in the Adelaide Hills. The Adelaide Hills Council should be delighted with these results. Congratulations and wholehearted thanks to all.
Ann Herraman
President, MLDHS
SOCIETY AGM HEADS OUTBACK
More than 50 people attended the annual general meeting of the Society, which was held at Coventry Library for the first time, on March 30, 2011. A highlight was the presentation by guest speaker, Valmai Hankel, about her solo travels in the Outback. Valmai has travelled extensively through the centre of Australia, inspired by inland explorers such as John McDouall Stuart and Alfred Howitt. She has written introductions to reprints of the journals of both men, and contributed to The Australian Dictionary of Biography and the SA’s greats: men and women of the North Terrace plaques.
Valmai enjoyed a 43-year career at the State Library, and was awarded the Public Service Medal in 1996 for her work with the Rare Books Collection. She was the first woman President of the Friends of the State Library of South Australia in its 78-year history, and was a member of the Council of the Royal Geographical Society of South Australia for more than 30 years. A Companion of the Barons of Barossa, she has extensive knowledge of the wine industry and is now working on a book about her wine experiences and outback travels, tentatively titled ‘Into the Red’.
The meeting also elected four new members to the committee – Elizabeth Hansmen; Catlin Langford; and Petera Atkinson and Lynn Cashen, who were involved in history projects with the Stirling East Primary School where they teach. Click here to find out more about the full committee…
SOLD OUT DINNER A MAJOR SUCCESS
The short but desperate careers of three bushrangers was retold at the scene of their final crime in Crafers on May 21 as part of a series of special events organized for SA History Week. Curran, Hughes and Fox wrote themselves into the local history books when they held up the Crafers pub in 1840, terrorizing the publican’s wife and helping themselves to the pub’s supply of alcohol.
Members of the Stirling Players helped to retell the story at a sold-out evening of song, poetry, and plenty of laughs, accompanied by a warming winter dinner. The evening was so successful everyone involved is already talking about attempting a similar enterprise for next year.
The bushrangers men apparently began their notorious careers in the Mount Lofty Ranges, when they held up a hut near Gawler. A few days later, desperate for a drink, they reached the Crafers Inn. The landlord David Crafer was away, but they bailed up his pregnant wife and the ostler and broke open a case of brandy. The scene is described in quite some detail by John Wrathall Bull, a colonist who arrived in South Australia in the 1830s and took up land at Mount Barker. He later wrote a book about his life, recounting what he saw when he arrived at the inn during the hold-up. Bull managed to escape and ran into Crafer on his way back from Adelaide. Crafer turned his horse around and galloped back for the police. By the time they got to the inn the bushrangers were so drunk they were easily arrested.
While the dinner was a fun night, with an informational dramatisation of events loosely based on the story, the holdup was in fact a major crime. Hughes and Curran were later tried and found guilty of a series of crimes, and hung publicly in Adelaide, with Fox ‘transported for life’. A copy of a sketch made by John Michael Skipper of their execution formed part of a display at the Crafers Institute, where special displays of historic photos and local research projects were open to the public during the following weekend.
INSIGHTS INTO A SUPREME FEDERALIST
Former South Australian Premier and now president of the History Council of SA, Dr John Bannon, was special guest speaker at the Society’s annual general meeting on Wednesday, March 24.
In a fascinating address, the former Premier provided insights into the life of Sir John Downer, one of South Australia’s most prominent figures from the Federation era. Dr Bannon is author of ’Surpreme Federalist – The Political Life of Sir John Downer’, recently published by Wakefield Press.
The meeting attracted a full house to the Stirling RSL Clubrooms.
