Town Talk | Shepparton History Museum: New galleries, local heritage and community spirit

Okay, if you just drive past, you’ll be aware that everything looks the same. But, once inside, you’ll notice many changes.

We have new flooring and, in some places, a new ceiling with beautiful, decorated plaster. You will also notice that the interior has fresh paint and — here’s the thing — the volunteers have done an enormous amount of work. What you are looking for is easy to find — and, with several displays that are frequently changed, your next visit will give you something different.

It begins with our country — ‘Shepparton before it was Shepparton’. It contains Indigenous artefacts and information about our squatters and settlers.

It concludes in the Paul Gribben Gallery with irrigation and pre-irrigation, and our industries, including a cabinet from the front counter of the post office and, of course, our clock. There is also an interesting clock from the railway station.

In between, there is something for everyone. The Raymond West Hall covers Shepparton’s early days, including our councils and our newspapers — with a couple of early printing presses.

The Vincent Vibert Gallery is the exhibition space and will open from July 22, it offers ‘The Greater Shepparton Sports Hall of Fame’.

You will also find a model of the HMAS Shepparton and plenty of information. And you might be astonished at the World War I memorial boards from two of our schools. So many young men lost from our small town.

Nearby, there is an ‘education space’, which is yet to be named, but the young ones will have fun with all the items because it is a touch-and-feel room. I can easily imagine them laughing at the old telephones. “But it won’t fit in my pocket. Where are the games?”

If you are interested in saddlery and leather goods, that display is fantastic. However, if you are interested in the SPC, the butter factory, the banks, the churches, musical instruments or Radio Australia, you’ll find some information about each — and much more.

I particularly like the domestic space in the Myrtle Ford Domestic Gallery. It offers fashion, furniture and items from the home. Maybe it reminds you of a grandmother’s house? I have a lace tablecloth packed away somewhere that would suit the room perfectly.

That wonderful quilt, which you can see in the photo, was made by Louie Telford. Lou was born in Caniambo in 1895 and married Leslie Dallimore in 1922. In her later years, beginning in 1950, she made quilts because she hated waste. And there were a lot of ‘later years’, as Lou lived to 108, and was still sewing at 105.

Thank you to our volunteers

Last week, I called the museum to see how the volunteers were holding up. I asked Kristy Rudd how she was feeling, and her reply was, “Well! I’m upright”. They have done a fantastic job; everything in the place has been moved, and cleaned and sorted through. Then, some of it was put back — in another room or put aside for another time. Kristy was home to cook dinner that night for the first time in weeks. She said she only saw her family when one or two of them were working beside her.

What, I ask you, would our community do without people like these, our volunteers? I was pleased to see an unsigned note, from one of the museum’s visitors, congratulating them on all the hard work.

I thank them all; they should be proud of themselves!

But, please do visit our history museum, you’ll enjoy it — and because that’s the only thanks they really want.

Now, to some of the things I should have written over the past two weeks.

Anticipating the Republic

I had a note from Louis and Alison –

Dear Marnie,

Thank you for your contribution defending the Australian system of government (The News, Tuesday, June 18, 2024)

The attached article is for you with our very best wishes; ‘our’ being my wife of many years and myself.

We read Town Talk and appreciate your insight into many matters of mutual interest.

Apropos the attached, in 1975 or early 1976, I received a small booklet, The Crown and the Constitution, which I scanned and OCR’ed to MS Word.

It’s as good as it gets explaining events of November 1975.

Some years ago, I added the postscript for people interested in the Australian system of government.

Next year will be 50 years after this massive event in Australian political history and you can be sure there will be a distorted presentation for public consumption.

If you followed the ‘Palace Letters’ saga, then you will know what I mean!

Best wishes,

Louis and Alison

The Crown and the Constitution certainly explains what happened regarding ‘the dismissal’, and Louis is quite happy for me to send copies to anyone interested. Please send an email to Town Talk or directly to me, and I’ll shoot it off.

The rest of my mail regarding this was about my sons’ ability to put words together. I read a couple of responses to my eldest, and he said, “You know when I learnt to make an argument? At the dinner table! And sometimes I changed sides — that’s when I learnt a lot.” I certainly remember some lively conversations, but I didn’t remember what he told me next. Apparently, the sixth-grade kids were asked to write about the sacking of the government, and he was called into the principal’s office and thanked for explaining it well; apparently, some of the teachers had been confused about the event.

I didn’t remember this because he never told me — “It wasn’t interesting”, he explained.

There was no defence of the republic in my mail; however, some may have been frightened off by the eldest son claiming that unless you’d read the entire 1000 pages of the Constitution, you had no right to an opinion! His mother disagrees!

The DECA story

It made me happy that most of the responses to this story were from former DECA people, and they went to Noel Wood. It made him happy, too! And he hasn’t been feeling the best lately.

I have become fond of Noel, and having this story told was important to him. People called him from all around the state and beyond — so my guess is that local people found a way to share it. None of them were upset by it, which was my fear. I received some text messages and another nice note from Louis.

This email, though lengthy, is important to the story.

Good morning, Marnie.

What a great article in today’s Shepp News. A point I would like to address.

“No-one is talking about the original goal: teaching our young people to be better and safer drivers and saving lives.”

I am guessing you are talking about a dedicated destination like DECA. Warren Peters has a dream, as many of us in the community do as well.

He has the connections and support through Wodonga TAFE to make it happen. Ideally a Careful Cobber program should be developed through the resources of the education sector.

On another note, the Shepparton L2P program has been in existence since 2010. Berry Street in Shepparton has been delivering the program in the shires of Greater Shepparton, Moira, Strathbogie, Mitchell and Murrindindi. The staff and volunteers have been addressing the above quote. There have been many hundreds of learners pass through the L2P program who have successfully passed the drive test and hopefully are better and safer drivers.

My group, RoadSafe Goulburn Valley, has been promoting and supporting road-safe initiatives for some 30-plus years. One initiative that we support is the Peter McPhee bursary, which provides an annual fund to assist learner drivers at the Berry Street school.

Can we reignite the passion to have a dedicated early driver program such as Careful Cobbers? Yes, we can!

Thank you again for a well-written article on DECA — the dream, the history, the characters and the legacy of Eric Montgomery.

Regards

Bill

Thank you for the information, Bill.

If there is a possibility of getting young people back at DECA and learning what DECA teaches, I’d be delighted. And I know of others for whom it would be a dream come true.

Warren (the current Shepparton manager) and I didn’t have long to chat; he was having a busy day, and I was running short of time. He kindly arranged for another gentleman to speak to me, but I asked the wrong questions.

With community involvement, this just might become more than a dream.

A glance at world politics

Voters have gone to the polls in the UK and France, with both countries swinging to the left. The United States, meanwhile, is simply swinging!

That’s all for this week.

May it be easy, my friends

Marnie

Email: towntalk@sheppnews.com.au

Letter: Town Talk. The News. P.O. Box 204. Shepparton 3631.

Phone: Send a text to 0418 962 507. (Note: text only. I will call you back if you wish.)