PAST MEETINGS
Published here is a short summary of A&DHS meetings over the past twelve months.
More detail of our past meetings can be found by going to Our Bulletin.
August 2025 Meeting
A number of Society members will presented short segments on aspects of local history. Allan Wilson spoke on aspects of life in West Albury, Geoff spoke about the current state of research on Albury’s first Medical Practitioner, Dr John Crichton. Ron Haberfield highlighted five generations of his family who attended Albury Public School. Greg Ryan spoke about the deconsecration of the Church of the Pioneers at Bowna. Chris McQuellin showed how an old photo can be enhanced to display more detail. Narda Reid’s sister spoke about 100 years of Girl Guides in Albury.
July 2025 Meeting
The Annual General Meeting of the Society, chaired by president Geoff Romero, was held at the Commercial Club.
Minutes of the previous AGM were read and confirmed and the President’s Annual Report received together with the Treasurer’s end of year report.
Members were assured that Society membership fees remain unchanged.
Geoff then declared all committee positions vacant before Society member Simon Barlow took the chair to conduct the election of our Society’s committee for 2025/26. Duly elected were:
President: Geoff Romero;
Vice President: Greg Ryan;
Secretary: Helen Livsey;
Treasurer: Simon Burgess;
Committee: Jenny Romero, Yelly Evenhuis, Peter Harper, Robyn Hawking, Howard Jones and Steve Judd.
Geoff then took the chair and after thanking Simon Barlow he closed the AGM and opened the July General Meeting.
With the celebrations for 175 years of Albury Public School only a few weeks away, former APS student Jenny Romero spoke of the advent of public education in Albury. Going back to the mid nineteenth century, we heard of the changes in legislation that led to the beginnings of APS in 1850 as Albury National School on the south-east corner of Dean and Kiewa streets. The school moved to its present site and evolved into the school that we know today.
June 2025 Meeting
Uncovering Albury’s World War One Story
On Anzac Day, Albury commemorated the centenary of the dedication of the Albury War Memorial.
To prepare for the historic occasion, a series of guided tours took locals to sites with special significance to Albury’s involvement in World War I.
At our June meeting at the Albury Commercial Club, a “virtual tour” duplicated the tours. Members and visitors “visited” sites around Albury. Society members, dressed in period and/or military costume, shared stories of those who enlisted and those who supported the enlisted from home. Letters from the front and from home highlighted the heroism and the tragedy of war.
Cast: Albury LibraryMuseum staff and Albury & District Historical Society members.
May 2025 Meeting
Death by Misadventure: The True Story of the Wodonga Tragedy
Author Andrew Johnston spoke about his new book which uncovers the 1943 bus and train crash at Wodonga—a devastating yet mostly forgotten chapter of Australian history. The book honours the victims and survivors while shedding light on this national calamity.
We also heard from Superintendent Paul Smith of Albury police and Senior Constable Ash Bold of the police media group. They told the tragic story of Constable First Class Cyril Howe of Oaklands Police Station, shot and killed while on duty in December 1963.
April 2025 Meeting
The Montevideo Maru was a Japanese merchant ship that was torpedoed and sunk by the American submarine USS Sturgeon on 1 July 1942. 1,054 people perished, mostly Australian prisoners of war and civilians who were being transported from Rabaul. It was the deadliest maritime disaster in Australian history. Two Albury men were among the dead and many more had Albury connections.
The wreck of the Montevideo Maru was discovered on 18 April 2023. We heard a fascinating story of the search for and subsequent discovery of the wreck of the ship at a depth of over 4,000 metres. Our guest speaker at April’s meeting, Captain Roger Turner, former British Navy submarine commander, was a key member of the search team
March 2025 Meeting
Jeff Brownrigg sang, recited as part of an entertaining talk on Father Hartigan, a priest at St Patrick’s Catholic parish in Albury in the first decade of the 20th century.. It was in Albury that Hartigan discovered his exceptional capability at writing humorous verse. But he also discovered his interest in speed. Abandoning the horse for a motorbike, by 1911 he had transferred his attention to fast cars. The Albury & District Historical Society has a photograph of Hartigan in his 1911 Renault (photo).
After the publication of Around the Boree Log, under the pseudonym ‘John O’Brien,’ he found he had money. Sales of this first book of verse took off in Australia, in Ireland and also in North America. Some people, of a certain age, might remember ‘Said Hanrahan’ or ‘Tangmalangaloo’ or ‘The Little Irish Mother.’ By the middle 1920s he was able to visit the Alvis car works in the UK, to place an order for a car built to his specifications and to have it sent back to Australia.
February 2025 Meeting
From the Wiradjuri people to the first German settlers in the mid 19th century and onwards, Tom Doolan followed a few historical events including the Great Wirlinga Car races of the 1930s, 4COD army base, the horrific fires of 1990 and the introduction of Woolshed Landcare group in 2006.
Since its beginnings in the early fifties and sixties the residents have battled fires, droughts and wild storms, not to mention on-going battles with amenities like garbage collection, telecom services, internet connectivity, bus routes and road improvements. Fifty odd years down the track the community of Wirlinga has grown into a close-knit, caring and inclusive village of approximately 30 homes with a great social calendar.
Photo: Tom Doran stands at the petrol bowser of his store on the corner of Sydney Road and the Riverina Highway, 1963
December 2024 Meeting
Our December meeting included our Christmas Dinner. After dinner speaker was Deborah Lawrie AM, the first woman to become a pilot with a major Australian airline. Deborah gave us an enlightening speech describing how she won a landmark sex discrimination case against Ansett Airlines. Her case in 1977 was the first sex discrimination in employment case contested before the Equal Opportunity Board. She won the case and Ansett failed in their appeal to the High Court in 1980. What followed was a successful career as a pilot both in Australia and overseas.
November 2024 Meeting
For the bicentenary of the Hume and Hovell expedition, a departure from our regular meeting procedure in November saw us conducting our first Q&A style meeting. We had 98 members and guests at the Commercial Club with a panel of Peter Harper, Wiradjuri woman Kat Kitch and Bruce Pennay. Each gave a short presentation on aspects and impacts of the arrival of the first Europeans to this district. The audience asked many probing questions which were well answered by the panel. The moderator was our own Society Patron, Greg Aplin.
October 2024 Meeting
In October we were guests of Father Peter MacLeod-Miller and his mother Sandra at the beautiful Adamshurst in David Street. Peter treated our members to a tour of this historic home and garden. The original home dated back to about 1890 with substantial additions in 1907. Check the Border Mail article on our website, click on the link: Adamshurst.
September 2024 Meeting
From the Mountains of Lebanon, they came!
Daughter of Victor and Jacqueline Nesire, Yvette was born and educated in Albury, surrounded by a vibrant Lebanese community. She went in search of her great grandmother and found three sisters and 645 new relatives!
Yvette related the story of the Keamy (Keimi) sisters: Saleemy Nesire, Marion Haddad, Kathrina Dihood and their families’ contribution to the commercial and cultural life of Albury.
The ‘Then & Now’ photo is of A M Abikhair’s building, 477-479 Dean St, the older building looking more impressive than the 2024 building. On the footpath in the ‘Then’ photo is A M (Antonio Milham) Abikhair with family members outside the shop.