At the AGM of the Canowindra Historical Society & Museum Inc. on Friday 6 March office bearers for 2009 were elected. Anne Vincent is the new president, Roy and Val Tranter the archives officers and Shirley Robson the assistant treasurer.
Most other office bearers were re-elected. John Farley did not seek re-election as president, an office he has held on and off for many years. However, as a Vice President and Patron, he will still be assisting his wife, Audrey, who was re-elected as Museum Curator.
Thanks were expressed to past office bearers for long years of service to the Society.
The meeting warmly welcomed Merle Hadley who was a very active member of the Society for some years from 1968 when her husband, Jim, was manager of the Canowindra branch of the Rural Bank. She was interested to read his name on the RSL Honour board as treasurer appointed almost as soon as he arrived in 1968. Canowindra misses the wonderful input into the community of bank managers and their wives in the days when there were four banks operating. Jim now is in hostel care in Bilyara, Cowra, and Merle has a unit nearby. They would welcome visits from those who knew them in their Canowindra days.
The next meeting of the Society will be at 2 pm on 3 April following the first History in the Club for 2009 in the Nangar Room at 12.30 pm. This is the International Year of Astronomy and John Sarkissian, Chief Scientist, at the Parkes Radio Telescope will give a power point presentation.
Canowindra members of the Central West Astronomy Society, Michael Grimshaw and David Bigg, have greatly assisted in organising this. Cost is $12 which includes lunch. All are welcome but lunch bookings must be made with secretary, Jan Harrison, ph. 63640258 or fax 63640358 by 1 April and not with the Club. Posters are on display in the Library windows in Gaskill Street.
An interesting line up of speakers is being finalised for History in the Club on the first Friday of each month from April to October. The second will be on Friday, 1 May, when Marion Gosper of Cudal will be speaker. Marion was listed in the Australia Day 2009 Honours List for an Order of Australia Medal and will speak of her book, Servicemen and Women of Cudal and District including Cargo and Toogong, published on 11 November 2006.
This project began some years before when Marion attended the Dawn Service on Anzac Day at the War Memorial in the grounds of St Alban’s Church, Toogong, initiated by then Anglican rector for Cudal, Jeannette McHugh, who challenged those present to compile the full names of those listed on the monument with something of their history before the following Anzac Day. Marion took up the challenge and began her research. She went on to include names on Cudal War Memorials of both World Wars and then in Cargo as she found the districts overlapped. Her research led her to Canberra National Archives, the opening of the POW monument in Ballarat and a tour of battlefields in Belgium and France in 2005.
Her talk will be most timely on the Friday following the Anzac Weekend.
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