Our guest speaker this week was Euan McGillivray, President of the Bendigo Historical Society.  His presentation was most interesting and engaging, and brought home to us the importance of recognising and preserving our history and culture.  Euan’s presentation is more fully detailed further on in this bulletin.

Just a reminder that we have all been invited to the opening of Bendigo Foodshare’s new food relief warehouse at 227 Breen St (near the Laurel St railway bridge in Breen Street), Golden Square, on Friday, 6^th September at 9.30am.  This should be an excellent opportunity to observe the work that goes on behind the scenes in order to help feed our communities’ most vulnerable people.

Thank you to all who assisted with the BBQ at the Federation Picnic in Marong last Sunday.  Special thanks to Kevin Reade, who did a lot of preparatory work to enable us to participate.  Unfortunately, the weather forecast was not in our favour, so attendance was lower than last year.  However, we still raised a reasonable amount of money to assist with our projects, while enjoying great fellowship on the day and the opportunity to see some wonderful motor vehicles and vintage tractors.  We will evaluate the overall success of our involvement this year as a guide to our future participation in the event.

The Rotary North Central Victoria Community Group's zoom meeting last Sunday afternoon was attended by only a few clubs.  Important points discussed included communication, the need for promotion materials for the clubs, Rotary membership costs and clarification around ATO requirements.

We look forward to our next club meeting on 4^th September when Ron and Deb Payne will share their experiences of the time leading up to, and during, Ron’s term as our District Governor last Rotary year.

Last but not least, please put in your diary Stewart’s working bee at Comet Hill Reserve next to Lightning Reef Primary School on Sunday 8^th September at 9am to spread the mulch that the City kindly delivered for us to put around the seedlings we planted last month. It will be great if you can assist. It is not heavy work and it will not take too long with good teamwork. A shovel, plastic tub and or wheelbarrow and some gloves will be helpful to do the job.    

Co-Presidents Ray and Adrian

 

It’s not every day you get to hear the history of a historical society.

This week, our guest speaker was the President of the Bendigo Historical Society, Euan McGillivray who gave us a very interesting overview of the BHS – it’s origins, it’s ongoing search for a home and it’s plans for the future.

The Bendigo Historical Society began in 1935 when a few locals put an ad in the Bendigo Advertiser looking for people interested in forming the society.

The society went into recess from time to time over the years but re-emerged in 1959 when a formal committee was set up.

In the late 1950s and the 1960s there was an increased interest in Australian history and the subject began to be taught in schools.

From 1974 to today, the BHS collection has grown to about 40,000 items.

The majority are catalogued and stored in appropriate conditions.

Thousands of volunteer hours have gone into preserving Bendigo’s history, but for many years the society did not have a permanent home.

Items were stored in various locations around the city and in people’s houses.

In 1974 the society was allocated a small area in Dudley House in View Street and had an exhibition there for about 25 years. They were then asked to vacate the building for renovations but were never allowed to return.

In 2011 the Bendigo Regional Archive Centre opened in Nolan Street and space was made available for about 1000 boxes of items and a further four shipping containers of larger items. However, the society was eventually also asked to vacate the archive centre and found themselves homeless again.

In 2022 a local benefactor purchased the old Legacy House in MacKenzie Street, and offered it to the society rent free.

They have now established a small museum there, with an exhibition space and have about 250 paid up members. The BHS is completely self-funded.

The society hit a milestone on Good Friday this year when they held their first exhibition at Legacy House.

Titled ‘Frisky Matrons and Forward Spinners’, it celebrated Australia’s early women cricketers and coincided with the 150^th anniversary of the nation’s first women’s cricket match played at the Bendigo Easter Fair in 1874.

Euan also gave an interesting history of Bendigo’s first museum, which was housed in the School of Mines building (now TAFE) on McCrae Street.

A Paul Howard McGillivray (no relation to Euan!) was a surgeon in Bendigo at the time and as a collector of just about everything, was instrumental in establishing the museum.

It boasted everything from rare and important early documents to stuffed and mounted animals, sheep's intestines and leeches.

Interestingly, our Rotary club held weekly meetings in the beautiful School of Mines building for many years.

Today, the Bendigo Historical Society has a wide range of material relating to Bendigo’s history, including indigenous items, hundreds of thousands of photos, documents, objects relating to gold mining, depression era furniture and even a local bottle of wine from 1889.

Online access was made available in July this year.

On September 26, the BHS will launch a new exhibition – ‘Treasures from the Collection’.

Euan left us with the thought that the Bendigo Historical Society and Museum provides a glimpse into Bendigo’s cultural heart.