On the 22nd of November, Simon Wyatt-Spratt and Mike McDonnell attended the annual Chifley Senior Campus humanities award ceremony. The day marks the culmination of a year of hard work for the senior Chifley students. Students are receive awards in areas from business studies, to society and culture, and history. Mike and Simon were there to award the students for the essays they wrote as part of the University of Sydney’s Essay Writing Competition. This competition is held jointly by the University and Chifley Senior Campus and judged by academics from both the modern and ancient disciplines. The University and Chifley College Campus have been working together as part of an equity social inclusion program in order to encourage students to achieve academic excellence and to consider university as an option.
When it was time for the awards, Mike was invited to give a talk to the students, teachers and parents gathered on the merits of tertiary education for people from all walks of life. Following this, the highly commended essays were awarded. Tahlara Mazzelli was named the winner of the Modern History Essay competition. Tahlara was praised for writing an essay on Winston Churchill’s role in WW2, and the secret war in India. David Ibekaku was named the winner for the Ancient History Essay competition. David explored the value and limitations of Biblical and archaeological sources in an assessment of King David of Israel’s rule. After, commendations for Grace Major’s Personal Interest Project (the Society and Culture major work) and Allen Burias’s History Extension project were awarded. Both projects were of an impeccable standard this year.
Following the ceremony, the students, parents, teachers, and guests were invited to enjoy a pizza lunch together. Discussing the future plans of the freshly graduated ex-students and the year 12 students, we were relieved to find that many of them plan to go to the University of Sydney next year.
The Social Inclusion Program looks forward to working with
Chifley Senior Campus again in 2020!
The organisation I have been working with over the past few months is Handital, a non-profitable, voluntary organisation that supports people with disabilities and their carers. I have created a website for Handital and this has made the project quite innovative and distinctive because they have never possessed their own personal site, and have relied significantly on their Facebook page to provide information about the organisation and attract new members. The website marks the first time a detailed account of Handital’s thirty six year history has been presented online. Investigating Handital’s history affirmed the importance of local history because if such community histories are not recognised, historical knowledge will become lost. Overall, the website’s main, yet implicit, argument is to show the public the significant contributions Handital has made for people with disabilities in the past, as well as in the present. It aims to encourage people to acknowledge the importance of non-profitable, charitable organisations like Handital and why they should be supported by the government as well as their local communities. In order to justify these arguments, I incorporated evidence such as old and more recent photographs of fundraising events, information from the Handital President’s 25th anniversary booklet and oral history interviews.
When I met with one of the Committee Members for the first time, he explained to me the decrease in membership over the years as many members have passed away and others have simply left. Therefore, we agreed that another aim of the website would be to increase membership, particularly from a younger age group. I made the argument on the website that young people have been involved with the organisation and did this through including photos of younger people such as young adults between the ages of 20-30. The additional evidence I used to support this argument was the emphasis on the youth support group by ensuring online viewers they do not need to have a disability to join. Stating that the group meet once a month to enjoy a social outing may help Handital attract more young members. Furthermore, in order to attract a younger online audience, I included an application form in the ‘contact us’ section so people could easily fill in their details and send it through to Handital’s email, instead of sending it through the post.
The website is divided into seven main themes: ‘home page,’ ‘about us’, ‘history,’ ‘events,’ ‘what’s on,’ ‘team members’ and ‘contact us.’ The ‘about us’ describes the organisation and the services they provide, the ‘history’ section explores the early establishment of Handital and the most significant moments in their history, the ‘events’ page provides information and visuals about Handital’s four main annual events and the ‘what’s on’ page shows individuals the advocacy of Handital and the current campaigns they are supporting. I believe dividing the website into these themes helps structure the website and ensures its clarity, and allows current members and the public to choose what in particular they want to view. For example, current members may only want to view the upcoming ‘events’ and the ‘what’s on’ pages. Each of these themes represent a crucial and fundamental aspect of Handital and dedicating a page to each allows new viewers to achieve a broad and diverse understanding about the organisation.
Handital Foundation Members in 1983 at NSW Parliament House
Handital Committee members will benefit from this website because their organisation will be able to reach an online audience and fulfil the need of increasing membership which currently stands at around seventy people. Handital does not have a specific age target, however an increase in young people may increase its diversity and allow younger people such as young adults between the ages of 20-35 to become involved and take over the organisation one day. As Handital’s main office is located in Five Dock and their events occur in nearby restaurants, I believe the target region is the local community and Sydney’s Inner west. Furthermore, I am glad that the work I have been doing at Handital has been helpful as the Committee Members admitted to not having the time to scan photographs onto a USB and physically organise and label them into albums. Doing this work voluntarily, including the creation of the website, has saved time for the members. Furthermore, the website was crucial to the promotion and continuance of Handital as currently they are experiencing fear regarding the end of funding by the government in June 2020 which may possibly have an impact on the organisation. Hopefully, the website will attract a wider online audience who will join Handital, or even donate to their cause.
I used Wix to create my website and before I began developing it, I spent a few hours over a four day period becoming familiar with Wix and its features and became privy to the types of creativity I could incorporate into the website. I abided by a red, white and green colour scheme throughout as this corresponded with Handital’s logo and also followed specific fonts to make the website flow and enhance the professionalism. I didn’t want to present the photos plainly so I discovered interesting ways to present them such as fades and click through galleries. Furthermore, I was asked by the Handital President to include translations in Italian on the ‘Home’ and ‘About us’ pages for the Italian members. However, the remaining sections were left in English so people can see that even though it was founded by Italian families, the organisation welcomes and accepts different cultures.
The Handital website was announced at Handital’s annual celebration in honour of the International Day of People with Disability. Once launched, members will be provided with the link and an explanation about how to use it. Committee Members have agreed to place the link of the website onto their Facebook page so people will be able to gain a greater and more in depth understanding about Handital through accessing two different online forms with differing intentions. In order to ensure the sustainability of my project, I aim to teach one specific Committee Member in charge of admin how to update the website, particularly for the ‘events’ and ‘what’s on’ sections. I also need to complete scanning all the photographs I was given onto a USB and organise and label them into photo albums which I will hopefully have completed by the end of the year. Overall, I am very honoured and pleased that I got to work with such a wonderful and caring group of people.
Throughout this semester I have had the pleasure of working with the Hornsby Shire Historical Society, a historical society that is located just up the street from me in my hometown of Normanhurst. My request to work with the Hornsby Shire Historical Society coincided with the release of their bi-annual journal ‘Local Colour’, so the organisers of the journal thought it would be suitable to contribute a journal article in accordance with my major project.
Two of the organisers and myself brainstormed possible topics for my article until we came up with the idea of the NorthConnex. The NorthConnex is a 9km road tunnel that will link Wahroonga to West Pennant Hills and allow motorists to bypass Pennant Hills road, a road notorious for its traffic and accidents. It is the single biggest construction project in the history of the Hornsby Shire and seeing as the historical society had no records or information on the subject they thought it would be very helpful to not only write a journal article about it for them but also offer them information on the subject that they can look back on for future use.
The fundamental purpose of my major work was to inform the local residents of the Hornsby Shire on the NorthConnex project, to do this I offered an insight into how the NorthConnex was built as well as the benefits and controversies associated with it. Because the NorthConnex is still only in the final stages of construction now, the vast majority of the material I used to write the journal were primary sources which came from the NorthConnex, the building contractors of the NorthConnex as well as the local council and the state and federal governments. Although it was at times difficult to work with sources that were predominantly technical in nature, it taught me how to turn such sources into something creative.
On top of the journal article I also conducted multiple interviews with local residents on the their thoughts on the NorthConnex. This forced me to step out of my comfort zone as I approached random people who were passing by Pennant Hills library and asked them if they lived in the area and then if they were willing to answer a few questions. However daunting it was, this process aloud me to gain an understanding of how local residents felt about the construction of the NorthConnex which I could then pass on to the historical society. After my first meeting with the volunteers of the historical society, I spent most Wednesday mornings coming in and helping them clean out their basement to help them reorganize it and find some forgotten items that could be utilised by their museum. This was dirty work, but it taught me a lot, as I would ask about almost every item that I carried out, most of which were 70 years old or more.
Working alongside the Hornsby Shire Historical Society while completing this unit of study has been a very fulfilling experience that has taught me a lot about my own local history as well as new ways to approach history and allowed me to meet and work with members of my community who I would never have had the opportunity to before this, and I am very grateful for that. It was also very satisfying to see my a name credited in a published journal.
This unit has been by far the most challenging, most stressful
and most rewarding experience I’ve had at university.
As it stands now, my project is both incomplete and almost unrecognisable from my initial goals. That said, it’s grown into something more than an assignment and with it I’ve found my niche within the Picnic Point Bowling and Social Club – I feel like I belong there more than ever.
No longer a series of video interviews or an update to the Club’s webpage, my project has developed into an exercise in writing the history of Club Picnic Point almost from scratch. This shift mostly occurred when preparing for my interviews (which are still scheduled to take place) as I quickly realised I had no place to begin. What history did exist ended around 1971 and was focused on the Club’s foundation years.
Figure 1: a section of the Club’s timeline (in Club colours, of course)
It became clear then that any interviews I did conduct would not be moored in context. With the Club’s history largely unrecorded, I decided to focus on contextualising everything before moving onto the interviews and website updates.
In order to write the history, I relied on a number of secondary sources about the local area (Picnic Point/Panania, Bankstown-Canterbury and the Georges River), the history of bowls in Australia and various histories written by other Clubs as a guideline (and occasional reference through their connections to Club Picnic Point).
Most of my work, however, was guided by primary resources. I
began by reading through the entirety of available minutes books from 1956 to
1981 and any other documents (for example letters, voting ballots, invitations,
debenture records) I could find. At the same time I undertook digital and
physical research into newspaper and newsletter archives that related to the Club’s
history while collating a photo archive that allowed me to make connections
across time. Quite late into the project (about a month before submission) a
whole new series of primary sources were discovered and I worked to integrate
these into my knowledge. These sources included newspaper clippings from the 1960s
and 1970s, photo albums and some notes written by members on the history of the
Club as they remember it. Overall, the investigation (and digitisation) of
primary sources took up the majority of the semester.
This research and recording aspect of the project was valuable in that it allowed me to take historical initiative (contacting officials, making public announcements etc.), but it also made me realise how frightening it is to literally ‘construct’ an uncontested history. Arguing that the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand caused WWI is one thing, telling a group of people the ‘facts’ about their own organisation is another.
Figure 2: a section of the Club’s themed history
I won’t deny that I’ve developed a small amount of historical anxiety over the course of this project. I’ve checked and rechecked dates and events countless times and have still found something wrong with them; I’m also very aware that I’m selecting the ‘facts’ of the Club based on what I deem important and not what somebody else may deem important. I’ve tried to assuage this fear by discussing with the Club at length the things they value.
That said, there are still some areas of my research I recognise
as limited and hope to fix in future. Firstly, I have a relatively simple knowledge
of bowls as a sport and have no ability to decide what is an historic victory
and what isn’t. Secondly, there is a massive gap in my project from the mid-1960s
to the early 2000s, based off the lack of primary evidence that I’ve uncovered
about this time. Going forward, I hope to minimalize these limitations by,
again, consulting with the Club’s experts (which could possibly take the form
of the oral history interviews themselves).
Because of this, I consider the project I am submitting now a draft to be reviewed by my supervisor. As it stands, it involves three main aspects: a chronological timeline, a history based around themes chosen by my supervisor and myself, and a photo archive that has begun to be realised as an historical album.
Naturally, since submitting the project for marking I’ve noticed an embarrassing number of typos that have since been fixed.
Figure 3: two pages from the Club photo album, sourced from the digital archive
My next steps are based around expanding on the history recorded in these three forms through:
a social media call-out to members of the Club, asking them to submit photographs, documents or even sign up for oral history interviews (in addition to the members I have already confirmed with)
further archival research of my own now that time permits – I have recently been in contact with a representative from Bowls NSW about opening up the digitised archives
turning my own (somewhat mismatched) bibliography into an aid for future Club historians
conducting the oral history interviews (my original goal) as I still believe that recording the memories of the Club’s oldest members is crucial, especially considering my lack of knowledge about bowls and the archival gaps from 1980 to 2000
Ideally, I will have the core aspects of this project completed by January but in all honesty I don’t see it being finished to the degree I want until well into 2020. Following extensive reviews and approval from the Club, I intend to use all of my work to finally update the Club website. I believe this will ensure that their history is accessible, sustainable and marketable.
Figure 4: a social media call-out which will (hopefully) appear on the Club’s Facebook page in the near future
When browsing through everyone’s projects, I began to grow
worried that I hadn’t included certain aspects or maybe hadn’t done enough
work. As I post this now I feel less concerned, knowing that everyone’s
approach to writing history is as unique as the history they’re writing about.
I want to thank Mike, Marama and Picnic Point Bowling and Social Club for making all this (and what’s to come) possible.
My journey of learning the histories of a swim club and almost becoming an affiliate member nears it’s final chapters.
The Cronulla Polar Bears is a club rich with over 70 years of history. The stories and memories of the club are all shared and cherished between members both past and present. Oral histories have been a key component of the club’s incredible sense of camaraderie. With the honest and casual nature that oral histories provides, it’s dependence on memory proves as it’s greatest hindrance. Through my work with the club, I began to realize the beauty in talking to members about their experiences and then learning to respect and understand the culture of the club. The downside of course is investigating particular years proves challenging on some of the older members and reignites those memories. Nonetheless, the process of being welcomed into their homes and discussing some of their most cherished memories was incredibly heartwarming as merely a daughter of the cook. Through my work this them, I often caught myself claiming membership to the club by saying ‘our club’ or ‘our members’ which in itself is a testament to their hospitality. Te Bears were very keen to have their stories in the physical form, in addition to leaving the website in my hands and taking it in any direction I saw fit. More importantly, I understood and respected that some stories were better left to be appreciated between members not for publication purposes.
The website is focused on showcasing the camaraderie and rich history of the club for not only members and their family or friends, but also those looking to join the club. Ensuring there was a means of contact was important to me as I wanted people to finish navigating the website and want to become part of the family. That was my aim in relaying their history and stories, for people to see themselves joining the club and actively being able to.
Considering the countless successes of the club since foundation, there are still many men who describe their swimming as ‘floating like a brick’. Of course, in true character and humour of the club, these gentlemen still continue to swim every Sunday regardless of ability. By removing that sense of competition and introducing the handicap system, they put a greater onus on the mate-ship and character of the club, which proves the uniting force behind its success. Working with this group has been an honour, to not only learn their stories but also help them make their own history for years to come.
Through the website I created, I hope it will be a platform that is easily adaptable for any further work I will be doing with them. For example, in the next few months I’ll be writing summaries about life members and significant characters of the club. I can’t wait to continue my work with the club and help them create something they can be proud of; it’s been a pleasure helping them preserve their history.
Cronulla Polar Bears circa 1960, photo provided by the club.
For my major project I volunteered with the Romsey Lancefield & Districts Historical Society. While volunteering, I sorted through their map collection in the Old Lancefield Courthouse and organised the maps while creating an Excel document to reflect their order. I was asked to create this database to make it easier for the Society’s members to see which maps they have and to locate them. My project is useful mainly internally in the Society as they are often asked to research individual properties. Maps are useful for this research as they can provide information on historic landowners as well as property boundaries and subdivisions. I had the aim with this project to make it easier and quicker to find individual maps as they are ordered to match the spreadsheet. It also makes it easy to see which maps are included in the collection, without the need of searching through all the physical maps. I was not given a template so looked online at websites such as Trove and the US Library of Congress as a guide to see what information they listed for their maps. I then chose to set out the information in the way I believe was the most clear and detailed.
The workbook I created contains four sheets which reflect
the order in which the physical maps are organised. These sheets from left to
right in the workbook are: Topographic, Parish and Related, Other and Small
Maps. The sheets Topographic, Parish and Related, and Other all relate to the
large maps. All small maps are contained in the Small Maps sheet.
The physical maps are organised in the same
order as they are listed in the Excel spreadsheet. Large maps are ordered with
the first map at the top of the first sheet (Topographic) being at the back of
the cupboard, then the order of the maps moving forwards follows the order on
the Excel spreadsheet, down the sheet and onto the next sheet in order from
left to right. Small maps are also ordered on the rack in the order they are
listed down the sheet. Maps are arranged into subcategories within the sheets
then organised into alphabetical order based on location within each
subcategory, going down the sheet.
All categories of the maps include the following headings:
Location (eg. Lancefield), Year (eg. 1947), Scale (eg. 1:63360), number of
copies, Description (brief notes on what is shown in the map if additionally
information is useful) and Other Notes (other text given on the map).
Additionally, each category includes details specific to that map type.
Topographic maps also include the headings: Map No. (eg. 7823-II SW), Zone (eg.
55H) and Series (eg. R754). However, small maps do not include series numbers.
Parish and related maps also include the headings: Township (eg. Kilmore),
Parish (eg. Bylands), County (eg. Dalhousie), Shire (eg. Kilmore),
Publishing/Production (eg. Drawn and Reproduced at the Department of Lands and
Survey. Melbourne. 1961), Authority (By Authority: H. J. Green. Government
Printer, Melbourne.) and Gaz. Number (eg. Gaz 61-402).
Small maps are divided into Topographic,
Parish and related maps within their sheet and follow the same headings as the
associated large maps. Topographic maps are at the top of the page, followed by
the Parish and related maps which use separate headings to the Topographic
maps. Where information is not present on any individual map, the box for that
heading is left blank.
For the “Other Notes” section I directly typed
additional text that was given on the maps which in some cases included partial
sentences and words or unlabelled numbers. These were included as they may
still be of interest to certain readers. This section comprises of multiple
columns and continues out to the right of each sheet.
The workbook may be searched using the computer’s search function to locate specific map details, such as any maps for the location of Lancefield or for a specific year. Also, if new maps are added to the collection they can easily be inserted into the document by first identifying the map type, then locating their place alphabetically within that map type, before adding the details of the new map in its correct location. Excel was chosen as the format for this database as documents can be easily rearranged or added in this way, such as if maps are sold or new maps are bought, or if new information is discovered about a particular map which would be useful to note in its listing. This allows the project long term viability.
Alongside the Excel
spreadsheet I have written an executive summary to explain how the Excel document
and physical maps are organised as well as to explain how to use the document.
As the spreadsheet is primarily for internal use by the Society, there is no
need to publicly market my work outside the of Society. However, the executive
summary functions to give an overview of what is included and how to use it so the
document can be used long term without the need to explain it to each individual.
As my first blog post explains, I’ve been a member of Caloola Ski Club since birth. Inheriting this membership from my mother, who inherited it from her parents; Caloola is close to my heart as a place that feels like home and carries memories from multiple generations of my family.
That said, until now, those memories – the history of Caloola – remained a mystery to me. I’d heard theories on the meaning of the name (“it’s an Indigenous word meaning ‘high place’”), who designed the logo (“it was Noni’s daughter Louise – no, it was the architect Keith!”), and even when the club was established (“1963, that’s what the plaque on the front door says”). But none of these theories seemed to align, because in the more than fifty years since Caloola’s establishment, little to no efforts have been made to formally preserve its history.
Building Caloola in 1962 and 1963.
As a member of the club, I have
a responsibility to maintain it, and I’ve done so at many summer work parties –
helping to repaint, refresh and otherwise repair the lodge. But in embarking
upon this project, I reconsidered my idea of club maintenance; and realised that
by putting together a history of the club, I can preserve its memory and
legacy.
Diving into Caloola’s history has been invigorating and rewarding, but it hasn’t been free of challenges. I certainly underestimated the difficulty of piecing together a history that has never before been written. Being such a small club, with only 80-odd members, it’s not the sort of thing you can find at a local library, or a state library, or the digitised National Archives, or even via a well-placed Google search.
To find the information I did, I talked to foundational members, current Board members, scoured old documents like shares records and rulebooks. In addition to the primary sources I utilised, I also relied heavily on the work of the Perisher Historical Society, who are the main keepers of the history of the Mountains and its inhabitants. Eventually, I pieced together enough of the puzzle to create a basic history. It isn’t super-in-depth, because that would take many more months than I had; but it is a history that has never been recorded before, and for that I’m pretty proud.
An excerpt of Caloola’s application to the Kosciuszko State Park Trust
An excerpt of the Trust’s reply
The project took shape in the form of a new website, designed with the Caloola membership in mind as the primary audience. I tried to be informative yet concise and incorporated a lot of imagery to intrigue the audience. I considered the things that I, as a member, have long been fascinated by: who created what, and when, and why.
The website is broken up into sections. The “About” section takes the reader to pages exploring the history of Caloola, the history of Smiggin Holes (where the lodge is located), and a series of photo galleries. Additionally, there is a page exploring the Indigenous heritage of Caloola. It describes the significance of the Snowy Mountains to various Indigenous nations and explores the actual definition of Caloola’s name, which I discovered is a Dharug word (the language of the Wiradjuri nation) that can be interpreted both as “to climb” or “an old battlefield”.
The “Resources” section of the website is currently used for making important documents easily accessible to members. This allows for the necessary information – like booking forms and the current rulebook – to be easily accessed, whilst maintaining privacy for the club, which is only available for members and their friends and family to visit.
My mother, Annette Maher, representing Caloola at the Smiggins Bowl racing event
My grandparents (Laurie, left; Nandy, middle) in the lodge
Re-roofing the lodge in the 70s
The early design of Caloola
Members racing in their Caloola jerseys
Members enjoying the winter sunshine on the deck
L-R: My cousin, myself and my sister on our tiny skis outside Caloola
The new Caloola website is a pastiche of new and old information about a very niche history. This project has highlighted both the significance and difficulties of niche histories: the way that the smaller stories of history can be the hardest to uncover and the easiest to forget.
At times, the project was frustrating, due to the gaps in information; but I was encouraged by the support of club members. Their enthusiasm for a history of the lodge they, like me, have known and loved for the majority of their life proved to me the importance of niche histories. Grand, sweeping stories of how nations and entire cities came to be are important; but so too are the small, intimate stories of how shared interests brought together small communities such as Caloola.
Through this project I’ve learned that everyone can create history, and that is what the members of Caloola have been doing since they came together in 1961: through stories told over drinks at Christmas parties; the preservation of old documents in home filing cabinets; and the sharing of family photographs.
Now, they finally have the beginnings of a collated history; one that tells the story of a group of people who wanted to spend time with family and friends in one of Australia’s most beautiful locations. It is one that matters to the members of Caloola whose early responses to the site included statements like “I never knew that story!” or “wow, I’ve never seen those photos from that era!”. It is one that I aim to keep working at over my future years as a Caloola member.
You can discover that story below at the new Caloola website.
When I began my project, I didn’t expect to know so much–not just about the school, but Hammondville itself and the rich history that it has. I wasn’t aware I was going to have so many resources to work with and I was truly surprised when I saw the amount of information and primary sources kept.
The reason I picked Hammondville Public School is because it’s a great school where all of my siblings have attended, and I really wanted to know more about the school. Once I started to go through the archives, I knew that I made a great choice by choosing Hammondville. Picking a local organisation for this project was rewarding. I was able to connect with people in the community who attended the school years ago who had great stories. As a past student who did not know anything about the history, I was interested in knowing about it, and doing something significant. I have lived in Hammondville since 1997 when I was 3 years old. There is a big sense of community in Hammondville where everyone knows everyone and you are friends with your neighbours.
I believe that doing this project with Hammondville Public School is an achievement in itself. The opportunity to have gone through years of history which were stored in multiple boxes and discover new things about the school that I didn’t know, nor did other people. Going through the archives there were student records, images of the school before it was made, images of students, and student work and year books. One of the greatest achievement was my first blog post on History Matters which had a huge reach. Many people read it and left comments stating that they were themselves past students.
It’s important to have done this project for Hammondville Public School as it will allow current students and past students to have access to the school’s history. Times have changed, and technology is the main source for research. I hope that when searching “History of Hammondville,” my site will appear. This website will benefit the school, as they can use it as an education tool to teach students about the history of Hammondville.
The aim for the project was to create a website about the History of Hammondville Public School including an excerpt of the history, images, student works, year books, letters from past students, and more. The website is an easy way for students both past and present to read about the school. There were different formats, and I explored with creating something online for the students to interact with. I’ve chosen to use WIX to create my website, as I tried to use Prezi and other platforms but they didn’t work for me.
When you first go on the site you are welcomed with images of Hammondville Public School with their first students and Canon Hammondville. Scrolling through the home page you will see images that will direct you to pages with the history of Hammondville and the school, images, newspaper articles, etc. It’s easy to use the site and it will be easy for students to explore the site and read about the history of Hammondville itself and the school.
Hammondville Public School website
One of the pages that contains newspaper articles
There were a few challenges that were brought up, especially when picking what platform to create the website with, as there are so many. I tried to play around with a couple of sites to see which was easier for me to use, and also wasn’t complicated for students to use.
The last couple of weeks have been an experience which has opened my eyes to what Hammondville was, and the great accomplishment the school has achieved in the last 86 years. The rich history of the school has not been acknowledged by past or present students.
My goal for this project is to complete it before school starts in 2020. I am presenting merely a draft of the website which will contain all of the information about the area and school. I will continue researching and finding more information and images.
In October of this year I had the fortune to choose Breakfast Point Men’s Shed (BPMS) as my non-profit organisation of choice. Tasked with volunteering for a group, the eventual aim was to collaborate with them to form a historical project of some sort, to complete a product that would be of use to them. My initial conversations with the men at the Shed highlighted the need for a distinct “record” of sorts. Although the guys had thousands of photos recording the actions their organisation had taken – most notably woodwork projects for their surrounding community – they lacked a formalised story of how the Shed came into existence. As a group focussed on men’s mental health, physical wellbeing and charity, this was hardly on the list of their priorities. Fortunately, these stories remained in the minds of the members themselves, given the relatively recent formation of the organisation.
By becoming increasingly exposed to the community work at BPMS, and through conversations with members within the group, I was inspired and encouraged to record the short history of the Shed. This formed my primary aim of the project: to detail the history and significance of the organisation. I was struck by the group’s generosity in time and resources to both myself and their wider community. Hence, the project I have conducted seeks to show, both implicitly and explicitly, that BPMS is an integral part of the Breakfast Point Community.
A view of the The Men’s Shed surrounded by palm trees. 2013.
But who was this project meant for? Shed Members? The Public? My decision to create a website to display this history enabled it to target both. Although not yet on the BPMS website, my hope is that an attachment can be made there, linking to my project. In so doing, this project has the capacity to reach all Shed members, many of whom frequent their own website to keep up to date with weekly scheduled events. It also has the added benefit of being accessible to the general public, or indeed anyone looking to join the Shed itself. The website itself targets the varying aspects of organisation. Initially, it details how the Shed originated and grew. In the retelling of this history, I attempt here to convey the group as constantly updating and improving upon itself and its space. I also expanded upon two further themes. Firstly, the huge support the Shed brings its wider community. This was a must in highlighting the history of the organisation, it has remained one of their core goals. Secondly, the value the Shed has towards the members themselves. From firsthand experience, I have seen how committed the men are towards fostering a community that can talk openly towards one another, tackling Men’s mental health a conversation at a time.
How was I sourcing my content? What was my evidence? In this regard, a secondary reading that I had read within this university unit – M. Scott Momaday’s The Way to Rainy Mountain – drastically altered my perception of what counted as valid historical practice. Within his work, Momaday utilizes personal experience, myth and oral testimony to record the history of his native american community. Ultimately this concept informed the creation of my own project, and the value oral testimony has in mapping intimate, local histories. It is for this reason that I have relied heavily on the words of the people that constitute the Shed. For the purposes of this short history, these men have lived through and consciously facilitated the growth and attitude of the organisation. They were my greatest source. Thankfully, key members at Breakfast Point generously gave me access to many photos, along with a few documents, which complemented the image of what the Shed was and how it had changed.
My hope is that by creating this website, I have made a place where current members can come to reflect upon the story of their organisation so far. As new generations are inducted as Men’s Shed members, I also hope this project will have a longer lasting effect. My wish is that it can inform successive generations about the humbles beginnings from which the Shed started and importance the group has had upon Breakfast Point, the Community Association and the members themselves.
I want to extend a sincere thank you to Tony, Gerrard, Vince, Ugo, Kevin, Ron V, Ron S, Chris, Bruce, Ross and many other members that were so accommodating and generous with their time. Without your insight, warmth and knowledge this project would not have been possible. Thanks for making my time there enjoyable.
I have been working with the Sutherland Shire Historical Society (SSHS) for a couple of months now and have really enjoyed the experience that I have had there. The society was very welcoming and embraced my project and me with open arms. The society has a museum located in Sutherland which I visited every Saturday morning during opening hours. Initially, I helped file and archive various pieces that the society had come to possess. The office required an overhaul so each week a few ladies from the society and I would work through various newspaper clipping, books and other items to make their system more manageable. I enjoyed this experience both because the ladies were so friendly and because I learnt so much about my local area whilst flicking through different articles.
Unfortunately, I could not stay digging through these archives forever and my attention was drawn, rather reluctantly, to formulating a major project. I struggled for a couple of weeks, tossing up between different ideas. These included remaking the SSHS’s website, working in the museum to improve displays, digitising documents, working on an interactive display and creating a walking tour. Although some of these projects I was very eager to engage in, it was suggested to me that a walking tour would be very beneficial to the SSHS. Initially, I was worried because I struggled to think of many historical landmarks in Sutherland and thought it would be difficult to create an engaging tour. After further investigation and talking to various members of the society, I began to realise that there were actually many different sites around the area that had historical value.
I slowly began compiling a list of sites, both from my own research and the suggestions made by the SSHS members. Eventually, I settled on fourteen different stops that would take about an hour to travel to. The SSHS has no other published walking tours and so I aimed to cover a wide range of topics to inspire interest in a wide range of people. The walk contains transport, educational, council, medical and recreational buildings, as well as, parks and a cemetery. I also took into consideration the audience for the walking tour. The visitors to the museum are mostly older adults or young families. The walking tour could not be very long as neither of these parties can travel for long periods. The tour takes around one hour to complete and is on mostly flat and paved surfaces. Initially, I began the project by researching each stop and writing a small blurb about its history and any other interesting facts. The format for this project is a brochure and so the amount I could write had to be limited because of the space constraints. I had trouble limiting my text as there was a lot of information on many of the sites. The majority are heritage listed and can be found on government websites and lists.
The society offered to place my walking tour on their website to make it more accessible to the public and allow people to complete the tour even when the museum is not open. To complement this idea I translated the tour onto a flyer instead of a brochure. In the digital form, the brochure can be difficult and confusing to read, this will make it easier for online users.
The Sutherland Shire hosts many beautiful nature reserves and national parks, the walking tours on offer are focused on these areas and often neglect the built environment. This walking tour is original because it focuses on one town centre and the built environment that boasts an interesting and unique history.
The walking tour has a two-part aim. The first is to engage the community with the history of Sutherland. Historical awareness and understanding allow the individual to see their surroundings from a different perspective and understand that place has meaning. Hopefully, this walking tour will inspire a greater appreciation of the Sutherland area. Secondly, the tour aims to attract more people to the Sutherland Shire Museum. This museum is run by the SSHS and is where the tour begins and ends. The museum is open every Saturday morning and often struggles to have a high number of visitors. I really wanted to try and address this problem within the project. By centring the walk around the museum the visitor is opened up to both a history of Sutherland town and that of the wider Sutherland Shire. It creates a more enriching experience and allows the museum to move further into the public sphere.
To gain the most exposure for the walking tour I am also investigating other mediums of advertisement for this project. The Sutherland Shire Council website would provide good exposure for the tour and the museum, hopefully boosting the numbers of visitors. The museum is very interesting and the SSHS has provided a unique space where the history of the Sutherland Shire can be explored. I hope that the museum will thrive and that more people will be able to experience the history that it offers.
This subject and project have allowed me to be involved in a community that I did not even know existed up until a few months ago. I have thoroughly enjoyed the time I have spent with the SSHS. The walking tour project has come to its completion and I am extremely excited about the possibilities it presents. Although this is the case I am still keen to be involved with the SSHS and the museum. The other projects that were discussed in the earlier stages of the process still need to addressed and I am excited to see where they could take me. I am very grateful for this experience and the SSHS for taking me under their wing and supporting me throughout this project.
