Welcome back for 2018, which is already shaping up to be a demanding and critical year for the Society after a busy 2017 which featured a major exhibition at The Hub in June, and publication of the Society’s latest book on Inverloch.
Book Sales
‘Inverloch – A Place of Great Beauty Today and Yesterday’ (I.H.S. 2017) has been a wildly successful publishing venture having sold over 900 copies at $20 per copy. We have only 100 copes left; these are available for purchase at Inverloch Newsagency, Inverloch Post Office, the Hub Information Centre, and Leongatha Newsagency. I warmly thank and commend these organisations for their splendid and immensely helpful involvement.
The Year Ahead
As things stand at present, we will be staging another exhibition at The Hub, this time for the month of August. Planning has already commenced. You will be well aware; a successful exhibition takes lots of planning, design, and money to achieve. We’ll be looking to all members to support the Society in this endeavour. If you would like to volunteer or to talk about how you might contribute to the preliminary work, please speak with the society’s President.
A Site for a Museum
Our application for tenure over Crown Land where we hope to build the Inverloch Historical & Maritime Museum is progressing in consultation with Bass Coast Shire. There will be many hurdles to cross along the way to our goal, but we are determined to get there! The picture and map below show the potential building location – the grassed area (a greenfield site) between the trees and the bitumen car and boat parking area on The Esplanade. At our general meeting on 28 February, members will be briefed on action to date, and the latest developments and planning.
Map depicting the target site for a museum (not to scale)
Exhibition Display Material
I want to acknowledge Leongatha Newsagency for laminating our new display posters; these now number 100, enabling us to quickly mount good looking and varied displays with selections from a range of new and long-standing display items. Many members have volunteered at recent exhibitions; they respond to questions from visitors and help demonstrate how relevant the Society is to this seaside community. Our forefathers were hardy souls, many of stern demeanour and above all, men and women of vision and endurance. Inverloch survived the early years due, in part, to the mariners who served aboard coastal trading vessels such as Ripple, Manawatu and Despatch, delivering vital supplies through many storms.
Aerial Photographs of Inverloch 2017
Last November, I had a very fruitful discussion with the Rev Graham Read, a retired Uniting Church minister now living at Inverloch. We have had many chats, and in one, he mentioned that his son Fred has a drone. What’s more, the drone has a camera attached. “Would he be available”, I asked, “to take photos of Inverloch for the Society, as a record of what Inverloch looks like in December 2017”? He was available, and the picture you see below is one of over 30 taken by Fred showing the ‘heart’ and business centre of Inverloch. Please note the sharpness of the photography and the easily identified buildings in the shot. We have learned from our exhibitions, that aerial photographs are popular with the public; they especially like to be able to identify buildings. Digital copies of Fred’s photos will be included in our computer database by Graham Paterson and Susan Hacker, adding to the historical photographic panorama they are assembling. Fred’s photos are a splendid record, and I expect that some will form part of our August 2018 Exhibition.
Retiring Secretary
I want to let members know that Graham Paterson has asked to stand down from the Secretary’s position to focus his available time on digitising and cataloguing the Society’s vast collection of photographs, documents etc. More on this at the February meeting but I do want to acknowledge Graham’s exemplary service as Secretary and the considerable support he had been to me as President, and to the committee and the Society as a whole. Graham ceases to be Secretary after the February committee meeting. Lynn Kirk will take over from Graham.
Historical Recorded Music
To round-off the February meeting, we will hear some significant recordings from the early years of recorded music in Australia. These feature Peter Dawson, Gladys Moncrieff, Joan Sutherland, and a real gem, a rarely heard recording of Dame Nellie Melba, her voice clear and clean and minus the scratches, hisses, grinding and other noise usually heard on recordings from the early 20th-century. There is a treat in store for all.
John Hutchinson, President
New Member Badges
New name badges will be available for collection at the February meeting. We ask members to contribute $8 for the cost of the badge. Please give this amount to Treasurer Rosemary when you collect your badge.
Ian McBurnie, Membership Secretary