Kogarah Historical Society
President’s Annual Report 2022-2023
It has been a year of consolidation after Covid but also a year where there were highlights and achievements. We finally celebrated our long overdue 50th anniversaries of both the Society and Carss Cottage Museum, opened a new exhibition, developed a Strategic Plan for the first time, insured the contents of the Cottage for the first time and are now producing the hard copy of our newsletter in colour, thanks to a grant from Georges River Council.
Grants. We were successful in obtaining several grants this year. The Strategic Plan was developed with the assistance of a consultant funded through Museums and Galleries. Georges River Council funded the digitisation of The St George Advocate (applied for by Garry Darby on our behalf), the production of the bi-monthly newsletter in colour and gave us a partial grant towards a custom made display case for the Museum. Three of the Committee attended a Council run workshop on how to write grants but they are still time consuming and require particular skills and attention to details.
Membership remains steady. We welcomed five new members but sadly farewelled our much loved Betty Reynolds in November 2022. On June 11th Trudy Johns celebrated her 100th birthday receiving her letter from the Queen and making a speech. Pat Young received a community award from Mark Coure for her work with the Society and Beverley Earnshaw was nominated by Kogarah Bay Progress Assn for a Cook community award presented by Scott Morrison.
School of Arts. This historic building remains our venue for monthly meetings despite a ‘hiccup’ during 2022 when it had been double booked. We missed one meeting when venues closed due to Covid and one speaker cancelled in February due to Covid. Wendy Cornish ably filled in for us at short notice and is now one of our members. In March in conjunction with the AGM we held the History Award presentations. The Mayor of Kogarah, Nick Katris presented the awards to John McRitchie and Leonie Bell who both gave short talks about their entries. Other speakers have been Stephen Gapps on The Sydney and Bathurst Wars, John Lanser on The 1857 Dunbar Disaster, Edith Ziegler, The World & Work of Clarice Beckett, Lynne Cairncross – Making History, Evolution of the Herbarium, Joyce Morgan – The Countess of Kirribilli; Graham Shirley, Home Talent, Australia’s Itinerant Film Makers and Kez Hasanic on HMAS Australia II, RAN flagship of WWI.
Attendances have been good, averaging 30 or over for the meetings. Several people help make it a pleasant afternoon. Neil Gould now supervises the set-up of the technical equipment but if he is not there, other members can manage thanks to a very useful workshop run by Neil during the year. Robert McGarn, Niver Rodriguez and Glynn Pulling are all now ‘experts’. Miryam and Niver Rodriguez welcome people to the meeting and contribute towards our now ‘home cooked’ afternoon tea. Elaine Filewood continues to be responsible for afternoon tea and is assisted by Pat Young, Helen Gould, & Cath Sullivan.
Carss Cottage Museum. We finally signed the lease for the Cottage in April 2022 but maintenance is still an issue. Council staff did a site inspection in November – we had hoped that they would apply for a Heritage Grant in 2022 toward maintenance. We now understand that there will be a heritage consultant visiting and Council will (hopefully) apply for a grant in 2023 – however, the grant does require a 50% contribution from Council. We were assured that minor maintenance which did not require heritage consultation would be carried out and we are pleased that the front porch has now been renovated which is a start. We continue to follow up these issues.
Mondays at the Museum, coordinated by Adele Ryan, has continued to attract an audience of around 20. During the year we heard Beverley Earnshaw on The Colonial Children, John MacRitchie on St George to the Rescue, Early days of St George Ambulance Service, Anne Field – Message in a bottle – 10 years on, Colleen Subir – Drugs, Court and Gaols – A Woman’s View, and Bruce Shying, Titanic, Heroes and Villains.
Tours have picked up and we had visits from Friends Over 50, Frank Vickery Village, Sutherland Historical Society, Nowra Travel Group, $2.50 club, St George Community Transport, St Raphael School, Sth Hurstville, Blakehurst Primary School and Southern Cross Baptist School. Thank you to all the volunteers who assist with the tours especially Wendy who arranges them and Beverley Earnshaw who does the majority of the talks.
Sundays. My thanks to all the volunteers. Bob and Laurel Horton now volunteer if there is a 5th Sunday and Helen Gould will fill a vacancy left by Harvey Langford who has helped us for a number of years but decided it was time to take a break. Thank you Harvey for all your help. By my count we had around 300 visitors over the year on a Sunday afternoon.
Anniversary and Exhibition Day. Beverley Earnshaw spent several months preparing for our latest exhibition on The Immigration Experience. We appealed to the Community for donations of memorabilia and were delighted with the response. Beverley wrote up panels on the five major stages of migration to this country and also recorded personal stories given by migrants. The new Exhibition was one of the goals set in the Strategic Plan so we are happy to have ‘ticked one box’. The day, on 20 November, was combined with a celebration of our Anniversaries. Mark Coure, Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs officially launched the exhibition and Beverley and Nick Katris, Mayor of Kogarah also spoke. Two other Councillors were there and Anna Minns representing Chris Minns MP, the Member for Kogarah. The crowd was entertained by Mexican dancers and an excellent afternoon tea.
Tours have picked up and we had visits from Friends Over 50, Frank Vickery Village, Sutherland Historical Society, Nowra Travel Group, $2.50 club, St George Community Transport, St Raphael School, Sth Hurstville, Blakehurst Primary School and Southern Cross Baptist School. Thank you to all the volunteers who assist with the tours especially Wendy who arranges them and Beverley Earnshaw who does the majority of the talks.
Sundays. My thanks to all the volunteers. Bob and Laurel Horton now volunteer if there is a 5th Sunday and Helen Gould will fill a vacancy left by Harvey Langford who has helped us for a number of years but decided it was time to take a break. Thank you Harvey for all your help. By my count we had around 300 visitors over the year on a Sunday afternoon.
Anniversary and Exhibition Day. Beverley Earnshaw spent several months preparing for our latest exhibition on The Immigration Experience. We appealed to the Community for donations of memorabilia and were delighted with the response. Beverley wrote up panels on the five major stages of migration to this country and also recorded personal stories given by migrants. The new Exhibition was one of the goals set in the Strategic Plan so we are happy to have ‘ticked one box’. The day, on 20 November, was combined with a celebration of our Anniversaries. Mark Coure, Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs officially launched the exhibition and Beverley and Nick Katris, Mayor of Kogarah also spoke. Two other Councillors were there and Anna Minns representing Chris Minns MP, the Member for Kogarah. The crowd was entertained by Mexican dancers and an excellent afternoon tea.
Trips – Helen Gould took over from Anne Williams through the year and members enjoyed visiting. St Mary’s Cathedral, the Prince Henry Nursing Museum and Retford Park.
The Committee and other helpers. The Society is lucky to have a committee who all make a contribution and I owe them particular thanks this year as I was away for 8 weeks. Adele Ryan is my deputy but also takes responsibility for membership and publicity and chairs MAM. Beverley Earnshaw continues to amaze me, researching and writing new articles and editing the newsletter, giving talks and consistently producing excellent exhibitions. We value the artistic skills of Wendy Agzarian when it comes to displays in the Museum and she and Helen Gould also took a display to Kogarah Public School where they were celebrating their 150th anniversary. Wendy also donated one of her paintings for a raffle prize. Anne Williams takes care of banking and paying our bills and gives us detailed financial reports. She also negotiated insurance for the Cottage contents for the first time. Robert McGarn is our Public Officer, minute taker and is always willing to represent the Society at meetings and functions. Pat Young packs and sends off our newsletters to people who prefer a hard copy and is always happy to help with tours. Glynn Pulling keeps us in touch with Council matters plus always being available to lend a hand. Helen Gould has taken on the organisation of our trips and helps with tours at the Cottage. Elaine Filewood as well as teas, does a regular spot on the roster. Cath Sullivan has given many years of service for which we thank her most sincerely -she has now decided it is time to step down but will always be welcome to attend Committee meetings as a life member. Betty Goodger, now in her late 90s still indexes the newsletters and Fred Scott manages the website. Miryam and Niver Rodriguez help in many ways – Miryam keeps a photographic record of our events as well as other tasks and Niver’s carpentry skills have been appreciated.
It is an impressive record but we do need more volunteers and new members. One of our aims in the Strategic Plan is to increase membership and you can all help with that. We are happy to provide flyers but ‘word of mouth’ is also very effective. If you enjoy us, please tell other people about it and persuade them to give us a try. I look forward to a productive and enjoyable 2023 and thank you all for your continuing support
Gill Whan,
President, March 2023.