Corowa District Historical Society will mark 50 years of honouring Corowa’s history with an open day on April 21.
Formed in 1974, the society opened Corowa’s Federation Museum the same year and have been working diligently for fifty years to preserve and curate more than 130 years of the town’s history.
A substantial collection that includes rare, priceless artifacts that tell the stories of Corowa’s founding pioneers, the museum is proudly home to an impressive variety of historical clothing, medical equipment, farm machinery and artworks.
“We have just finished the construction of a dedicated textiles storage room to protect our precious fabric items,” society president Gwynneth Handberg said.
“We also have a range of Tommy McCrae sketches and, of course, the famous Tom Roberts Shearing of the Rams which was painted during his visit to Brocklesby Station in 1888.”
On Sunday April 21, Historical Society committee members will be on hand to share their knowledge and welcome guests to Federation Museum with a cuppa and a ANZAC biscuit.
“The people who came before us, such as Alan New and my husband, Allan Handberg have done a magnificent job of sorting through the thousands of items that people have donated to the museum over the years,” Ms Handberg said.
“They have set up all of the wonderful displays and we are still trying to rationalise what we can fit in from the shed full of further items we have yet to get through.
“The amount of items on display here is incredible, I have been digitally cataloguing for nine years now and I believe I’m only perhaps half way through.”
Corowa Federation Museum Open Day will be held from 11am to 4pm on Sunday April 21 with April’s History Hour talk on Thursday April 18 featuring local legend Ad Verbunt.