Gunning & District Historical Society

 

  A Recitation by Roy Irwin Alchin – Gunning 1907 by Garry Norman Smith The Goulburn Evening Penny Post (Saturday 28 December 1907, 6) reported on the annual Methodist Sunday School service at the Gunning Methodist Church. The newspaper described the church as “nicely decorated with greenery”. Among the names mentioned by the newspaper were Plumb, Wheatley, Alchin, Gazzard, Rudd and Timms. Methodist (Uniting) Church, Gunning   The children’s program on this occasion was well-attended by children and their parents and “afforded a treat to the listener”. Among the children to present an item at the service was Roy Irwin Alchin, grandfather of the author. Eleven-year-old Roy joined his older sister Myra as part of the children’s participation. Myra gave a recitation of an anonymous poem “Papa’s Letter” while Roy recited the lyrics of a song “In the House of Too Much Trouble” (words and music by Will A. Heelan and J. Fred Helf). The words of Roy’s recitation were appropriate...

  Do you know who I am? by Leslie Bush Over ten years ago, Tony Porter owner of Coronation Collectables at Gunning, now located at Grenfell was given a photograph of a stunning young lady that the current owners could not identify. Tony was at the time, the resident Gunning writer for the local newspapers and posted an article about the picture, but sadly she still is unknown. The Donors did not know her identity, only that she was supposedly a local and their names and where they lived in Gunning have also been forgotten now.  The photo is an Opalotype. Unidentified Young Lady - Opalotype Photograph She is wearing a beautiful dress with lots of soft blousy frills on the neckline; maybe she was a Debutante making her first foray into society, or a young bridesmaid at her sister’s wedding, or was she attending a ball? The portrait invokes such romanticism of a bygone era. Item written by Tony Porter for the Goulburn Post Opalotypes or Milk-glass positive The basic Opalotype, or...

by Leslie Bush Well we have certainly been very lucky over the past several months. We have had some very generous donations come in and while they vary in kind, they are each a treasure in their own right.   Historical Mortgage & Conveyancing Documents Donated by Phyllis & Margaret Iliff,  Victoria Mortgage, Conveyancing and Statutory Declarations  In November we received a donation of a wonderful collection of Historic documents from a Mother and daughter in Victoria. They were going to donate them to History society in Melbourne, but lucky for us they looked up Gunning and found there was a Historical society, so decided to donate them to us.  And it was by chance that this great collection was found. Margaret and her mother Phyllis were cleaning out cupboards in Phyllis' house when they came across them in an envelope. Margaret thought they may have been old wills as her Mothers' partner Alan Belcher who had passed 4 years earlier was a solicitor. Who gav...

 WW1: Alchin Men  Who Had the Courage to Try By Garry Norman Smith A number of Alchin men have varying histories relating to World War One – The Great War. Among these Alchin men are those who presented themselves for enlistment but were rejected. There were those who returned from war damaged by their experiences. Still others were never really in the fight, spending much of their time overseas in hospitals.  The Australian War Memorial records that 416,809 Australians enlisted for service in the First World War, representing 38.7% of the total male population aged between 18 to 44 years. At almost 65%, the Australian casualty rate (proportionate to total embarkations) was the highest of the war. For those men who had the courage to try the motivation was newly born nationalism for Australia, some remnant loyalty to England, and the desire for adventure and to see something of the world. Clyde John Alchin (1892-1957) was initially described at his first attempt at enlist...

From Gladstone Weatherstone’s Notebook:  The Swift Parrot Swift Parrot (C) Wilson Lennard 2015 Birdlifephotography.org.au Photo courtesy Wayne Weatherstone This is the fourth in a monthly series inspired by Gladstone Weatherstone, a dedicated and knowledgeable amateur naturalist who lived on his property Lyndfield Park near Gunning from 1941 until his death in 1996.  He had a particular interest in birds.  Between 1962 and 1981 Gladstone  recorded bird sightings on his farm and its near surrounds in a notebook we still have today.   Each month we look at one of the birds that Gladstone recorded, try to place it in context and see if we can glean any lessons about the recent history of our district. Gladstone’s notebook entries for April 1966 centre on some “Parrakeets” he could not identify on first sighting.  Although he was soon able to name the birds, Gladstone has left us with another puzzle we shall probably never get to the ...