Gunning & District Historical Society

The mystery is solved! Five sewing machines were taken out of store in 2020 and displayed in Pye Cottage Museum, Gunning. The blog “A Touch of Old World Charm,” featured two “hand-operated” sewing machines. The small, iron machine seemed to be a “mystery.” The second blog covered two of our treadle machines, an Australian Beale and a Singer model, the Sphinx . (1, 2) In this blog I can correct an earlier error and show off the fifth sewing machine in our collection, a Nirvana “drophead treadle machine.”  It seemed that the mystery was, which “hand-operated” machine had been “Donated by Mrs Offley of Jerrawa?” That label, hand printed by someone from Gunning & District Historical Society, was in one drawer of a very well-kept drophead, treadle machine, the Nirvana. In other drawers, there were two sets of attachments and a detailed manual. The illustrations in the manual clearly match our Nirvana.  This handwritten note was in another drawer of the treadle machine: Donation...

L-R: Annie, Nerida, Janet and Ray with vintage photos and negatives at the Tony Foley Centre On Saturday, 3rd December 2016, Ray McJannett conducted a seminar on the works of the Gunning photographer Augustus Jones. At the end of the seminar, participants had the opportunity to ask Ray about their own family photographs, including two early daguerreotype plates dating from at least the 1880s. Augustus "Gus" Jones lived near Lade Vale and worked as a photographer in the Gunning, Lade Vale, Greenvale, Dalton and Jerrawa areas. Gus spent some twenty years as a photographer, beginning around 1890 until his early death at the age of forty, in about 1912. Gus focused exclusively on portraiture, and unlike many Victorian photographers, his photos were taken exclusively outdoors. Ray presented digitised versions of Gus' work on a large screen television, and spent some time explaining the techniques of vintage photography. Augustus Jones, Self Portrait. Image ...

Photo provided by Ray McJannett On Saturday 3 December 2016, the Gunning & District Historical Society will hold its end of year meeting at the Foley Centre at 2.30 pm. Bring along your glass negativess, ferrotypes, Daguerreotypes and old photos, especially those with "Gus Jones Photographer" to show the guest speaker Ray McJannett.  Ray will talk about Augustus Jones, who recorded local people in the 1890s and 1900s, and how to care for your old photos.  For further information, please contact the Secretary on (02) 4845 8217.

Lade Vale Tennis Club circa 1900. Photo taken by Augustus Jones, restored by Ray McJannett (CC BY-NC-SA 2.5) From GDHS Secretary Rosemary Spiller: Augustus Jones, local photographer in the 1890s and 1900s.  Ray McJannett is recovering his photos from a collection of glass negatives, but they were jumbled in their boxes, so many are now not identified, such as the Golden Wedding from 1901. Families in Jerrawa and Lade Vale have photos of their relatives and their farms, with the words "Gus Jones Photographer" printed on the card frame. We know Gus shot large groups of people and Ray believes people in Gunning will also have such photos in their family albums. All are welcome to attend Ray's presentation on this important local photographer and on how to look after their old photos, at the History Society's end of year meeting on Saturday, 3 December 2016, at the Foley Centre, Gunning, at 2.30 pm. Guest Blogger Ray McJannett: The Photography of Augustus Jones ...