Society Member Molly Smith has contributed another absorbing article Looking Back in the Walpole Weekly 10 February
Society Member and Historian Molly Smith speaking at the Society's special event to celebrate the 85th anniversary of the Walpole Land Settlement Scheme in 2015.
The Society's President, Elizabeth Shaw, thanked Molly for contributing many articles over the past five years "which have been of great interest and enjoyed by the community and our many visitors". Elizabeth told Molly: "Your regular stories will be missed by us all."
Molly thanked the Society's Curator of Photos (Don Burton) for supplying photos for the many articles over the years. Don said it had been his pleasure to work with Molly and praised her knowledge and thorough analysis for each article.
Manager of the Walpole Community Resource Centre (publishers of the Walpole Weekly), Cherie Smith, thanked Molly for all the wonderful stories and said CRC will give Molly one of the few remaining Walpole coffee table books.
Many of the stories are on Walpole Online. The Society hopes to arrange with Molly to have all the stories on this website soon.
New members of the committee: Dawn Martin and Kathy Broadbent were especially welcomed.
Next meeting: 19 March 2021
The committee will not meet in February. The March meeting will be an extended meeting to focus on:
Society plans for 2021 and beyond.
Roger Underwood
The committee has had recent contact with Roger Underwood: forester, writer and historian, who has provided the Society with 2 stories of local historic interest:
The Society held its Annual General Meeting on Sunday 22 November.
The meeting was well attended and included some members who had travelled from Albany. Thank you Diane and Max! New Member John Marshall joined us at the AGM. Welcome John!
With encouragement from member Colin Story the meeting was held in the Community Hall (Supper Room) on the last day of Colin's video exposition: Between The Trees.
Colin has provided the Society with a copy of all the videos used in the show. Thank you Colin. The committee is now considering ways to exhibit this and its other acquisitions.
The Walpole Op Shop has again come to the support of a local history project.
The Society is working with the Walpole Work Camp to restore this old gravity fed fuel bowser which for many years was used on Don Burton's father's farm in the sixties through to the eighties. The bowser is typical of those in use at the time and originally came from Mobil oil company in Albany. The agent at the time (Frank Sherwood) did a lot of truck work for the Burtons as well as delivering fuel.
The Op Shop provided funds to purchase decals and parts for its restoration.
What the gravity fed bowser may have looked like once.
Since 2013 the bowser was on permanent loan to Ian Pumphrey (adding to his collection of old machinery). Ian sold his farm in 2019 and the Society sought the Work Camp's help to restore the old bowser. The Work Camp agreed and the bowser is at the camp being restored. When the restoration work is complete the Society will have an appropriate place to display it.
Some of Committee at the event: Don Burton, Elizabeth Shaw and Harold Luxton Dawn Martin at back. Photo: Cherie Smith.
5 December 2020
The Society was pleased to participate in this event which included the Blessing of the (Emergency Services) Fleet.
It was valuable to have a presence with other volunteer groups each with their own table of information sharing ideas and enlightenment. There was interest in the Society's work and the hall was full of the colour of various groups and services.
This is very valued work that he does and complements information on the Shire website. It would be good if the Shire acknowledged the work and put a link to it on its own Walpole Cemetery webpage!
Men's Shed: Easels
Easels made by Men's Shed for the Society's displays.
Thanks to the Walpole Men's Shed for making 2 A-frame easels to help the Society display its exhibits.
The easels will be used to display charts and illustrations at the various exhibitions and presentations organised by the Society.
Literary Publications Projects
At the end of 2019, the Society received funding from the Manjimup Shire (Water Corporation Local Hay Harvest fund) for the development, production and printing of local history book(s). The Society is working to re-publish the following local history books:
Champagne and Tingle Trees:
B L A Bellanger; a memoir of the Bellanger family (first published 1980); reprint being arranged.
Battling the Karri:
A story of the Stewart Family as told to Derek Hands (first published 2007); reprint being arranged.
By Mark Channer; revived by Philip Powel (who has now finished his second edit) with newspaper clippings and photos from Mark Channer. A foreword is being arranged and we expect the book to be published soon.
Beyond the West River:
A typescript by Lee and Geoff Fernie about early settlement around the Deep (previously 'West') River. WNDHS has permission to re-print
Story of Early Nornalup:
By G.E.J. Bellanger. Liaison with a number of family members has resulted in approval to print this book, together with an addendum by Peter Beck. Photos have been provided by Peter Beck, Justin Bellanger and WNDHS.
State Library of WA Timeline Photo Collection: Walpole