Gunning & District Historical Society

A great turnout for the Australia Day Awards 2018 in Gunning Bright, beautiful and sunny - what a way to start Australia Day in the Gunning District. The Australia Day awards kicked off at an early 8 am this morning with breakfast by the stalwarts of the district, the Lions Club. Sports commentator and journalist, Gordon Bray AM, the 'voice of rugby' is the 2018 Australia Day Ambassador for the Awards and he gave a very nice speech to start proceedings off. Upper Lachlan Shire Council Mayor Brian McCormack OAM was the host for the event and together with John Bell the General Manager of the ULSC they handed the awards to the recipients. It was lovely to see The Hon. Angus Taylor MP at the ceremony along with Upper Lachlan Shire's Deputy Mayor John Stafford, Councillors' Pam Kensit and John Searl supporting their community. The seats were full and there were plenty more people standing around. Even had a group of motorcycle riders who decided to ha...

Gunning SES volunteer Michael Coley (left) with Gary Poile from Collector SES. Preface (Ann Darbyshire) Gunning SES volunteer Michael Coley, together with fellow SES volunteers Gary  Poile, Koley Quirk and the late Jim Quirk, all from Collector, was among the first responders to the Thredbo disaster of 30 July 1997.  This is his first hand account of the three tumultuous days during which they assisted with the efforts to deal with disaster during which Stuart Diver was rescued. 18 others were killed. Mike's account is a very personal 'warts and all' recounting of the back breaking work, the tedium, the lack of communication, the harshness of media scrutiny and the inevitable dynamics of different personalities at play - some great - others - well read on...! It provides a compelling background to one small part of the volunteer effort in the face of Thredbo disaster of 20 years ago. Thredbo: A Personal Narrative On Wednesday night, 30 July 19...