July meeting, and June and July newsletters

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The next meeting of the Society will be held at 5.30pm on Tuesday, 20th July.
The speaker will be Rose Lovelock, Director of the Armidale Aboriginal Cultural Centre and Keeping Place, where the meeting will be held. The title of the talk will be -‘Getting to know the Armidale Aboriginal Keeping Place and its Director.’


The Keeping Place is at 96-104 Kentucky Street and is beautifully set up as a Museum, Art
Gallery and display centre and where we can comply with the 4 square metres per person
rule. Masks will need to be worn.

I apologise for not uploading the June newsletter and meeting information -see below links for the June and July newsletters:

ADHS-Newsletter-June-2021Download
ADHS-Newsletter-for-July-2021Download

A reminder also that membership renewals are now due:

ADHS-Membership-form-2021-22Download

May meeting & newsletter

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The Imperial Hotel (est. 1890 on the site of the 1869 Court House Hotel which burnt down) will be the venue for the May meeting on Tuesday, 18th May. The meeting will commence at 5.30pm and Graham Wilson will present
‘Sharing memories of Bruyn’s Caledonian Hotel’.
Following the recent death of Lee Bruyn, the Society was given some memorabilia from the Caledonian (‘Bruyn’s’) Hotel. The Hotel was a popular meeting place for staff and students of the Teachers’ College and ACAE and it is hoped that those who shared social occasions at the ill-fated hotel will bring some of their memories to the meeting. ‘Bruyn’s’ was unceremoniously demolished to make way for the K-Mart complex in 1980, when not even the façade could be saved. The Bruyn family’s ‘Caledonian dynasty’ was gone after 57 years with the destruction of a pub which had served Armidale since 1881. All are Welcome.

The May newletter has information about the centenary of the Dangarsleigh War Memorial, the current displays at the Historical Society, and the lost pubs of Armidale.

ADHS-Newsletter-May-2021Download

April meeting and newsletter

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The monthly meeting on Tuesday, 20th April will be held at 5.30pm at Dumaresq
Chambers. This will be the first meeting for over a year that we have been able to
hold in our own premises.

Jim Swales will talk on his extensive collection of fundraising badges which provides a unique history of organisations which have supported a variety of causes over the years: Wartime and Fund-Raising Badges of Australia.

Badges are now rarely sold and we have lost another tangible aspect of history.

The April newsletter is now available:

ADHS-Newsletter-for-April-2021Download

March meeting and newsletter

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The next meeting of the Society will be held on Tuesday, 16th March 2021 at 5.30pm.
It will be held at the Dangarsleigh Hall, just over 8kms along the Dangarsleigh
Road. The speaker will be Sue Tanner, who has researched and prepared a talk on
‘A Mystery Bushranger’ the New England, which will be a fascinating insight into
the bushranging days and one of the wily men involved.

The March newsletter is now been available. Click on he link below to download:

ADHS-Newsletter-for-March-2021Download

February newsletter and meeting

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A Happy New Year and may it be an improvement on the last! As we need to be Covid19 compliant, we are unable to have our meetings at Dumaresq Chambers.

The February meeting will be held the New England Art Museum (NERAM) at 5.30pm on Tuesday, 16th February with Margaret Bain’s talk, Hinton and Friends: The Beginning of Life-long Friendships. This talk is based on the recently found diaries written by Howard Hinton which provide a fascinating insight into life around the turn of the 19th century.

The February newsletter is now available:with a report of October’s AGM, and the November excursion, and other news and snippets of history.

ADHS-Newsletter-for-February-2021Download

November excursion and newsletter

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The November Newsletter, wth updates about the excursion, the AGM, the journal, the Museum of Education, and the UNE Archives & Heritage Centre can be now downloaded:

ADHS-Newsletter-for-November-2020Download

November Excursion

Covid19 regulations will allow the traditional November bus excursion to go ahead
on Saturday, 21st November. The bus will leave the Visitors Centre at 8.30am. It can
accommodate 30 people socially isolated and more when family/friends/partners are
happy to sit together. Masks optional.

Cost $40 includes bus, morning tea, lunch.


The plan is to go to Black Mountain via the old settlements at Saumarez Ponds and
Dumaresq and basically follow the rail route to Guyra. A tour and morning tea has
been booked at the Springwater Trout and Yabbie Farm at Black Mountain.

David Barclay will then show us the Baptist Church (1902) and we can visit the Railway
Station and Cemetery and see the school (1882) which currently has 14 pupils.

From Black Mountain to the Mother of Ducks Lagoon in Guyra for a BBQ lunch and
there is a Peony Festival on the day in the main street. Then a visit to the newly
refurbished Guyra Historical Society premises followed by a drive around Guyra to
view the tomato and peony farms before heading south to the Black Mountain Plant
Nursery on the way back to Armidale. Graham Wilson will be our tour guide.

Hope you can come!

Bookings can be made at Dumaresq Chambers, per phone 67751205 or email at
contact@adhs.org.au

AGM notice and October Newsletter

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The Society has still to have an Annual General Meeting and October is our final meeting for the year. Covid 19 has called for new arrangements for a meeting on

Tuesday, 20th October, 7pm at the Dangarsleigh Hall

This will be an Annual General Meeting at the Dangarsleigh Hall at 7pm.
At this meeting elections for President, Secretary, Treasurer, Committee, Patrons, Public Officer, Newsletter and Journal Committee need to be undertaken. Please consider nominating yourself or others to assist in the running of the Society. Following the elections entertainment in the form of excerpts from Barbara Albury’s excellent play: ‘Armidale – Our Town’.

Dangarsleigh Hall, 8.4kms on the right hand side of Dangarsleigh Road is large enough to have 45 people gather to comply with current Covid 19 regulations. Attendances at our last three AGMs have been 31, 35 and 41, so it seems unlikely that attendance would exceed 45. A ‘Covid Marshall’ is required to monitor social distancing, signing in, hand sanitation and to request that people remain seated.

The October newsletter has information about the November Excursion to Black Mountain, the Journal, and two articles – one about the Armidale celebrations for the Inauguration of the Commonwealth in 1901, and the second about the history of the Dangarsleigh Hall and its origins in Hillgrove. Click on the link below to download it:

ADHS-Newsletter-for-October-2020Download
Image of Dangarsleigh Hall

August Newsletter

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The August newsletter is now available.

ADHS-Newsletter-August-2020Download

As it is not possible to hold our August meeting, John Atchison has written an article on Ketterick’s Ridge, which Council has recently signposted on Kelly’s Plains Road and at Lynland Park.  A view of the undeveloped east side of the Ridge (where William Hipgrave lived) with its undulating terrain (rather than straight lines on a map) can be seen at the end of Karina Close which runs off the top of The Avenue.  I believe that this vista is earmarked for development, so gradually we replace with houses the image of land like Ketteridge Ridge on which people like Walter Craigie walked.

June and July newsletters

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I’ve just uploaded the July newsletter, and realised that I missed uploading the June one. My apologies – that’s now remedied!

Good news in the June newsletter is that the Society’s rooms are now open again, with Covid strategies in place, Please use the provided hand sanitiser, sign in on the book at the entrance, and maintain a 1.5m distance from others. And it should go without saying, please do not attend the rooms if you are unwell, or have been in contact with anyone at risk of exposure to Covid.

Unfortunately, our monthly meetings will not be able to resume yet as we do not have sufficient space to provide the 4 sq metres per person required for safe gatherings.

However, in good news, on Tuesday, 21 July we will have a 1.30pm meeting at ‘Middle Farm’!

Julia and Phillip Rose who are in the process of selling ‘Middle Farm’, the property originally
belonging to the Blencowe family have invited us to hear the history, and see the original
house and sheds on our normal meeting date on site at 1.30pm Tuesday, 21 July. This is a
great opportunity, but will be Weather and Covid19 Permitting. There will be around 20
chairs available, rug up and bring your own mug for a cuppa. There is ample parking and
anyone who requires transport will need to contact Judith at 67751205, while anyone who can
offer transport please let me know on that number.

The July newsletter is a bumper edition with updates, reports on current projects, and an article by John Burrell – Across Australia by Train 1920 – about the journey required t cross the continent in the days before the Indian Pacific service. So make yourself a cuppa and download it now.

And in the June newsletter, as well as updates and news, there is a report about the fire that ripped through Beardy Street in 1887.