The next meeting of the society will be on Tuesday, 16th April 5.30pm at the Royal Hotel, when the speaker will be Dr Margaret Small who will present a talk entitled The World War II Land Settlement Scheme.

Margaret’s considerable research on land settlement in the New England includes the history of Government Soldier Settlement Schemes, together with their implementation, successes and shortcomings and families who were involved.

Please order meals prior to the meeting to allow dinners to be served at 7pm.

The April newsletter is now available to download:

The next meeting of the Society will be on Tuesday 19th March at 5.30pm at the ROYAL HOTEL, corner of Marsh and Beardy Streets.
‘Revisiting New England’
The speakers will be from the ‘mapping group’ who have been working on the project to establish the exact boundaries of the original New England runs. See the newsletter (link below) for more about this proect.
If those wishing to stay on for dinner could place their meal orders prior to the meeting, it will facilitate the provision of meals arriving together at 7pm.

The October meeting of the Society will be held at the Imperial Hotel on Tuesday, 17^th October commencing at 5.30pm.  The speaker, William Oates, will give a talk, ‘Lost Buildings Captured’ which will be accompanied by photographs which have preserved their images.  Ordering dinners on arrival at the meeting will assist the kitchen staff.

The October newsletter is now available for download:

The next meeting of the society will be on Tuesday, 19th September, 5.30pm at the Imperial Hotel. Wayne Zikan, Regional Fire Brigade Inspector, will give a talk on The Armidale Fire Birgade.

Wayne has recently published a book, A Call to Fire, chronologically based on reports of fires in Armidale since 1891. Some copies will be available ($35) at the meeting. Wayne was Commander of the Armidale Fire Station for ten years and is now a Regional Commander.

If you are having a meal at the Imperial, the chef would be grateful for as many orders as possible to be made prior to our meeting to allow more preparation time for the kitchen staff.

There is exciting news about the Heritage Centre in the September newsletter can be downloaded below – as can the July and August newsletters. My apologies for the delay in uploading them.

The next meeting of the Society will be at the Imperial Hotel, 5.30pm Tuesday 20th June. The speaker will be Dr Thomas Fudge, professor of Medieval History at UNE who has delved into the diaries of a former dean of St Peters’ Cathedral in Armidale, Evan Wetherall (1912 – 1989). Wetherall recorded diverse entries including clocks, dogs, student and religious life, realising that ‘later on, people will wonder’…’and historians of the future will not be able to see the picture at all’. From Wetherall’s perspective, Thomas Fudge’s talk is: Reflections on Life in Armidale- a view from the Deanery 1961-1970. All are welcome and dinner at the Imperial is available after the meeting.

The June newsletter is available below:

The next meeting of the Society will be held at the Imperial Hotel on Tuesday 18th April at 5.30pm The speaker will be Barry Dawson, President of the Armidale and District National Service Association Sub Branch, who compiled the recently-published book Nashos – in War and Peace. This book documents the lives of men from the New England who, at 20 years of age were required to register for National Service and were conscripted to serve for 5 years in the Regular Army by means of ‘Birthday Ballott’. They became known as became as ‘Nashos’ and served both at home and abroad and in the Vietnam War. This form of conscription ceased in 1972 after the Vietnam War.

The April newsletter is now available:

The next meeting of the Society will be held on Tuesday, 21st March, 5.30pm at the Imperial Hotel. The speaker will be Ron Vickress, whose multifaceted career has included being a submariner in the Royal Australian Navy, enlisting at the age of 17 and serving on the corvette HMAS ‘Pirie’ for the duration of WWII. A teacher, author, playwright, who has written, directed and performed in many productions, he is the recipient of the 2023 Senior/Elder Armidale Citizen of the Year.

The March newsletter is now available for download:

Welcome back for another year of fascinating history!

The first Meeting for 2023 will be at the Imperial Hotel, 5.30pm on Tuesday, 21st February. Guest speaker Christine Perrott will give a talk based on the History of PLC Armidale. Christine, who attended PLC, recently published We Survived, Collected Memories of School Days at PLC Armidale 1936-1964, a compilation of recollections from girls who boarded at PLC. Their stories provide an interesting and extraordinary contrast to twenty-first century boarding school life.

Dinner is available for those wishing to stay after the meeting.

The February newsletter is now available to download:

The next meeting will be on Tuesday, 18th October, 5.30pm at the Imperial Hotel and as this will be the final meeting for 2022, it will be a fun photographic ‘Trivial Pursuit Night’, asking you to identify some of our many photographs and sharing information about them. David Betts has commenced indexing and cataloguing the photograph collection, providing reproduced images to allow us to share them, rather than have them hidden in computers. This is a project everyone will be able to appreciate.

The newsletter for October has information about the November excursion, the Family History Group’s annual seminar on October 22nd, and Heritage New England North West’s inaugural conference and AGM on the 29th. Download it by clicking on the link belo: