Public History Drafts: “They Answered Their Country’s Call”

This is an image of the City of Canada Bay Museum. It is a single room, with the grey ceiling, white ceiling LED block lights, and grey carpet visible in the image. There are also several items on display, including an old dark blue army uniform, a old large iron wheel, a mannequin in a green and white floral dress, a small old sewing machine, and a red horizontal sign with the Arnott's logo. There are several other visible display items, but they are harder to identify from the image.

In Week 4 of this semester, I was still thinking about possible organisations to work with. On a Saturday, my dad found that near our old house, they had turned the old library into a small museum, and suggested we check it out. There, in the City of Canada Bay Museum, I had an incredible opportunity to join an existing project the museum had ready – thus began my work.

The City of Canada Bay Museum is a small museum that first opened in 2009 at its current premises, housing a collection of over three and a half thousand items significant to the local community. For example, they have one of the original Victa Lawn Mowers, which Mervyn Victor Richardson invented in his Concord backyard. The museum also has a host of Arnott’s memorabilia, as Arnott’s also has a history in the area and is currently based in North Strathfield. The City of Canada Bay Heritage Society also manages the Yaralla Estate, the home of Eadith Walker.

With a grant given to the City of Canada Bay Heritage Society, a past museum member created over 1600 biographies of World War 1 veterans from the Canada Bay area – this project was called “they answered their country’s call.” It became a ‘virtual memorial’, a large digital collection of unique individual histories directly related to the local community’s families. However, their issue arose when trying to share these with the community. The project I have been working on is a series of posters that can publicise and direct people to the virtual memorial, allowing the community to find their ancestors and see the tangible history of their community.

Over the last few months, I have started volunteering and working with the City of Canada Bay Museum on Saturdays. I have helped to plan and create many drafts of the possible posters. The current plan is to create four different posters for four locations: Five Dock Library, Concord Library, Five Dock RSL, and a travelling poster that will be used in markets, schools and other opportunities. Each poster will feature a different person’s biography and a photo of the person. Below are some of the drafts I’ve designed with the key elements of the poster – the title, “They answered their country’s call”, the subheading, “More than a name”, the four future locations of the posters, a QR code that will link to a website and/or directory, the person’s face, name and details, and a reference to the City of Canada Bay Heritage Society. (Note: in place of the actual people, I have used an image of myself. This will not be the final image used – I don’t think I’m Gertrude, and it is probably incorrect to make people think I am Gertrude.)

This is an image of a poster. The poster reads as follows: In dark navy blue text, "They answered their country's call. More than a name." Below, an image of Vanessa sits to the right of the words, "Matron Gertrude Moberly RCC. Army. Royal Red Cross, 1st Class." Underneath in yellow is: "Do you have an ancestor from WWI? Find out more at:" Underneath, a QR code sits to the left of, "City of Canada Bay Museum, Five Dock Library, Concord Library, Five Dock RSL" in dark navy blue. At the bottom of the poster, in dark navy blue, is: "In association with the City of Canada Bay Heritage Society." The background of the poster is a dull green colour with a paper-like texture. There is a small decorative yellow piece on each corner of the poster, acting as a border. A small red poppy is in the top left corner of the image of Vanessa. The full image is covered with the word 'draft' repeated as a watermark.
This is the first draft I made of the poster on the 24th of August using Canva.
This is an image of a poster. The poster reads as follows: In red text, "Do you have an ancestor from WWI?" Below, to the left in dark green text, "Find out more: Five Dock Library, Concord Library, Five Dock RSL, City of Canada Bay Museum." Besides this is a QR code. Below, in green, the words "More than a name" curve over the top and around the head of Vanessa. The image of Vanessa takes up the bottom 60% of the poster. Directly below Vanessa's face reads "Matron Gertrude Moberly RCC. Army. Royal Red Cross, 1st Class" in white. On either side of these words are a single light red poppy. The words "They answered their country's call" are in yellow. At the bottom of the poster, in white, is: "In association with the City of Canada Bay Heritage Society." The background of the poster is grey. There are green swirls that create a large border around the whole poster. The full image is covered with the word 'draft' repeated as a watermark.
This is another draft I made of the poster on the 24th of August using Canva.
This is an image of a poster. The poster reads as follows: In pale green text, "They answered their country's call. More than a name." Below, in red, is: "Do you have an ancestor from WWI?" The text is on a small grey background. Below is an image of Vanessa with a small light red poppy in the top right corner. Underneath are the words "Matron Gertrude Moberly RCC" on a grey ribbon banner. Below are the words "Army" in pale green, and "Royal Red Cross, 1st Class" in white. Underneath is: "Find out more." This is white text on a small red background. Below this is: " Five Dock Library, Concord Library, Five Dock RSL, City of Canada Bay Museum" in red. To the right of the text is a QR code. At the bottom of the poster, in yellow, is: "In association with the City of Canada Bay Heritage Society." The background of the poster is a dark navy blue. There are small, thin, curved red lines that make a border around the entire poster. The full image is covered with the word 'draft' repeated as a watermark.
This is a later draft I made of the poster on the 31st of August using Canva.
This is an image of a poster. The poster reads as follows: In pale green text, "They answered their country's call. More than a name." Below, in yellow, is: "Do you have an ancestor from WWI?" Beneath is "Find out more" in white on a small red background, followed by "Five Dock Library, Concord Library, Five Dock RSL, City of Canada Bay Museum" in white. To the right of the text is a QR code. Below is an image of Vanessa with a black border and a small red poppy in the top right corner. Underneath are the words "Matron Gertrude Moberly RCC" on a curved grey ribbon banner. Below are the words "Army, Nursing" in white, a thin white line, and "Thomas Walker Convalescent Hospital Matron, Concord" in white. At the bottom of the poster, in yellow, is: "In association with the City of Canada Bay Heritage Society." The background of the poster is a muted green with a paper-like texture. There are small, yellow branches with small green leaves that form a small border around the entire poster. The full image is covered with the word 'draft' repeated as a watermark.
This is the most recent draft I made of the poster on the 21st of September using Canva.

I’ve also been able to assist in other ways. The museum itself is fully run by volunteers who come in twice a week to handle any and all requests by the council, schools, libraries, RSL clubs, and members of the public. These people are constantly working from 10am-4pm each day they come, speaking to people who walk in wanting information on their families, handling many new items donated to their collection, and numerous administrative activities. I’ve therefore gotten some opportunities to help out elsewhere. For example, last week I helped to edit an article going into the next edition of their Monthly Newsletter, Nurungi. It was a really cool opportunity to see what else the museum and heritage society has been doing in terms of public history and community engagement.

Over the last few months, it has been an absolute pleasure to see how these people work and help them via this project and in other ways. I have absolutely loved getting to work with these people through this course and am looking forward to further developing these posters for the community.

For more information about the museum or heritage society, check out the following links

https://www.canadabay.nsw.gov.au/lifestyle/arts-and-culture/city-of-canada-bay-museum

https://canadabayheritage.asn.au/