Events/Activities

Hume and Hovell bicentennial commemoration activities in Albury 2024
Click on the link to our webpage for details of the Hume & Hovell expedition.
In November, a number of activities were held in Albury to commemorate the bicentenary of the Hume and Hovell expedition reaching what we now know as the Murray River. Over four days we recognised the beginnings of European settlement in our district and we acknowledged the impacts of colonisation on local First Nations people.
Albury LibraryMuseum curated a display of memorabilia and information panels relating to the expedition of 1824, on display in the foyer of the AlburyCity administration building until December 13, 2024.
Commemorative activities got underway with a Q&A panel of three on Wednesday November 13 at the Commercial Club Albury, with panel members Dr Bruce Pennay, Peter Harper and Wiradjuri woman Kat Kitch, moderator Greg Aplin. Ninety-eight members and guests formed an involved audience with many probing questions that were well answered by panel members.
On Thursday November 14, Peter Harper and Keith Wiencke presented their stories and experiences of the Explorers’ Bike Ride 2024 at the Retro Cafe. Later that same day at the Albury LibraryMuseum, Dr Bruce Pennay previewed work on a digital educational resource looking at the impact of European colonisation.
On November 16, exactly 200 years after the arrival of the Hume and Hovell expedition party at what is now known as the Murray River, new information panels were unveiled by Albury Mayor Kevin Mack and Karen Schmidt, great great great great granddaughter of William Hovell, at the newly rejuvenated Hovell Tree surrounds. Proceedings included a welcome to country by Auntie Edna and a smoking ceremony by Wiradjuri man Darren Wighton.

Joining us for the commemorative events was Karen Schmidt. She has posted on her YouTube channel as she followed the timetable of her ancestor 200 years later – go to Life in the Bush.

Karen was interviewed by Sandra Moon on her ABC Breakfast Show on Monday November 18.

On the same day Karen was featured on Prime Local News.

Click on image to enlarge

: Q&A - Peter Harper

: Q&A - Wiradjuri woman Kat Kitch

: Q&A - Dr Bruce Pennay

: Karen Schmidt (William Hovell descendant) and Mayor Kevin Mack cut the ribbon

: Karen Schmidt and Kevin Mack at the Hovell Tree

: A hug for the Hovell Tree

: Karen Schmidt, Geoff Romero, Greg Ryan, Mayor Kevin Mack and Wiradjuri man Darren Wighton

: Some of the visitors at the 'unveiling'

: Relatives of the expeditioners, Bruce White (Hamilton Hume), Karen Schmidt (William Hovell) and Ross Chapman (Henry Angel)

Savernake Station Excursion
Twenty-three members of Albury & District Historical Society visited Savernake Station on Saturday April 13, 2024. The tour came highly recommended and exceeded expectations. The property has been in the same family since 1862 and very little has been thrown away – machinery, motor cars, kitchen goods, kids’ toys, memorabilia and relics of pioneering days, the list goes on and on. Ann and Alex Sloane gave us a two-hour tour of the homestead (we could have spent another two hours) before visiting the recently renovated woolshed. The tour gave us a great insight into the challenges faced by pioneering families in the Australian bush. Many thanks to Ann & Alex.

Click on image to enlarge

: The visitors are greeted by Ann Sloane

: Looking around

: The verandah of the servants' quarters

: 1936 Dodge utility

: The station generator

: Kids' play truck

: The dining room

: The pantry

: Alex Sloane with his train set in the boys' room

: A break for afternoon tea

: Some aboriginal artifacts

: The office

: The driveway

: At the shearing shed

: The steam engine

: Geoff & Jenny in the shearing shed

: Savernake stencil with Greg, Alex & Ann Sloane, Mick and Leo

: Inside the shearing shed

Explorers Bike Ride – Launch
The year 2024 is the bicentenary of the Hume and Hovell Expedition. Albury & District Historical Society’s activities for the bicentenary got underway with the February 28 launch of the Explorers Bike Ride 2024 which commemorates the expedition. The ride is intended to give adventure cyclists the opportunity to follow the explorers’ route through the backcountry of eastern Victoria following the line of the 1924 monuments. Riders will relive their journey from Albury to Werribee learning about the expedition and the trials undertaken by the party of Hume and Hovell and their six convict servants: Thomas Boyd, Claude Bossawa, Henry Angel, James Fitzpatrick, William Bollard and Thomas Smith.
The Hume Bank is a generous major sponsor of the ride.
The photos in the gallery below were kindly supplied by Simon Dallinger.
Go to the 7News coverage of the launch on our YouTube channel

Click on image to enlarge

: Riders are flagged away by Peter Harper.

: The riders and a Swiss visitor.

: Peter congratulates our Swiss visitor.

: The riders prepare.

: Good luck!

: Society president Geoff Romero chaired the occasion.

: Wiradjuri man Mick Bogie addresses the riders.

: We hear from Peter.

: Ready to ride.

: Peter congratulates Jim Brodie who has completed the ride.

Christmas Dinner 2023.
Fifty members and guests attended our Christmas Dinner to end the year on a very positive note. Our Society demonstrated what an energetic and busy group we are and what a broad reach we have in our community. We were very pleased that Justin Clancy MP was able to make time in his busy schedule to speak to us about the history of parliamentary representation in the seat of Albury. We were even given a behind the scenes look at Parliament House, itself steeped in history. Justin thanked us for the work we do in history and heritage and is always a strong supporter of ours.

Click on image to enlarge

: Guest speaker Justin Clancy MP

: Members and guests

Digitising Albury newspapers for the National Library of Australia’s Trove website.
Albury’s first newspaper was the Border Post, first published in October 1856. After December 1954 copyright laws changed so that digitising of papers beyond December 1954 is more expensive. Our Society’s aim is to extend coverage from 1896 back to October 1856 and forward to December 1954.
In July 2017 the NSW State Government announced that funds were to be released to regional centres as part of the Regional Cultural Fund. Bruce Pennay put together an excellent application for funds, securing a grant of over $65,000 from Create NSW.
As co-contributions were required, our Society put aside a $10,000 contribution and started to consider other possible sources of donations towards the project. In 2018, Round 1 costing $86,782 for 37,568 pages was ordered from the National Library of Australia to get us started.
What have we achieved?
At December 2023, a further five rounds have been completed, with over 80,000 pages digitised. That has extended Albury’s newspaper coverage on Trove back to 1860 and forward to the end of 1952 as shown in the graph below.
Currently the cost of digitising is $1.54 per page. We are still looking for funds to complete the project, so if you can help with a donation, please visit our Donations page.

Click on graph to enlarge

Guided Walking Tours of Albury CBD 2023
Society president Geoff Romero, and new Society member Victor Selway led our first guided tour of Albury CBD’s many important heritage buildings as part of Albury’s 2023 Seniors Festival in February. Starting at the back of MAMA in QEII Square, tour leader Victor started with an explanation of the importance to Albury of QEII Square (started as Market Square then Dean Square) before heading east to the Olive St corner then west on Dean Street to the Post Office corner, along Kiewa Street to Swift Street before returning to the starting point.
The tour was originally planned as a one hour stroll but the enthusiastic group was treated to about 100 minutes of Albury history.
A&DHS conducted more guided walks of the CBD throughout 2023. In April we led a tour for the Australian Heritage Festival, then in September Greg Ryan led a tour as part of the Write Around the Murray (WAM) Festival. Our final walking tour for 2023 was in October for Society members – it was supposed to be a lovely twilight walk on a Sunday evening, but we had a bitterly cold day and unfortunately it was just a small group that braved the weather.
In November we jumped on board a tour bus from Sydney to show a tour group some of Albury’s finest heritage buildings and historic sites.
We will have more guided tours in 2024.

Click on image to enlarge

: Our tour guides, Greg Ryan, Geoff Romero and Victor Selway.

: The tour group.

: Tour guide Victor getting started.

Albury’s First Blue Plaques
Albury has received one of the first 21 Blue Plaques to be installed across NSW. The plaque honours Betro Abicare, a Lebanese immigrant, builder and entrepreneur who made a major contribution to the development of Albury’s commercial centre. Betro was nominated for the plaque by Albury & District Historical Society.
The plaque also honours the significant contributions that early Lebanese migrants made to Albury. It was installed at 453 Dean St, Albury, one of two prominent buildings in Albury that Betro built. He migrated to Australia in the late 1800s and began his life in NSW as a hawker, later expanding into drapery, clothes, and eventually property.
His first venture in Albury was a store with cousin Saad in the Beehive building on the corner of Dean & Townsend streets
As Betro’s business prospered, he built ‘The Big Store’ (‘The Australian Building’) in 1912 and in 1927 he opened, the magnificent Regent Theatre on the opposite corner. Both buildings remain notable Albury landmarks to this day.
Unveiling the plaque were Justin Clancy MP Who represented the NSW Govertment who fund the program and Tim Farrah as a representative of Albury’s substantial Lebanese community.
More information at Betro Abicare’s Blue Plaque

Click on image to enlarge

: Betro Abicare

: Tim Farrah, Justin Clancy

: Tim Farrah, Justin Clancy, Greg Ryan

A&DHS Commissions Commemorative Plaques

Greg Ryan, Kylie King and Geoff Romero at the Adamshurst fence
[a Border Mail photo]

In mid-2020 our Society committee discussed doing something to mark our 60th anniversary. A couple of options were considered before we decided to commission plaques on buildings, recognising that they had been sympathetically restored/renovated without destruction of the building’s heritage value.
There are many such buildings and we considered quite a few. Some buildings are already recognised with plaques (some of the plaques from A&DHS eg Carriageway and Kia Ora), with storyboards (eg the former Farmers & Graziers wool store) and with NBN box wraps (eg Bellevue in Kiewa St). An important consideration was we needed buildings with an appropriate fixing place so that the plaques could be securely installed where they could be easily seen and read from the street – that limited the field considerably.
Then we were held up by a few factors, especially Covid. The plaques are now in place on Adamshurst, Advance Australia (Soden’s) Hotel and the former Waterstreet’s Hotel. In mid-August 2022 we officially ‘commissioned’ the plaques in the presence of Albury Mayor Kylie King.

The text of the Adamshurst plaque:
With extensions built in 1908 for George Adams, proprietor of the Albury Banner, this building incorporated an earlier home.
The plaque was presented by the Albury & District Historical Society Inc in recognition of the preservation of this historic building.
Commemorating the Society’s 60^th anniversary in November 2020.

Click here to watch a short 7News item from August 17, 2022

Albury Celebrates 75 Years as a City
In 2022, Albury & District Historical Society helped recognise 75 years since Albury was declared a city on December 18, 1946 and proclaimed a city on April 10, 1947.

Bruce Pennay has produced and narrated videos for our Society to track Albury becoming the city it now is in 2022:
Click on the links to view each of the three YouTube videos prepared to mark the 75^th Anniversary
Declaring Albury a City (6 minutes)
Albury’s Greatest Day (12 minutes)
The New City of Albury (14 (minutes)

There is also a series of three previews ‘From the Ground Up’ produced for Heritage Week 2021.
Becoming Albury (11 minutes)
Becoming Albury City (20 minutes)
Becoming Albury Wodonga (8 minutes)

Albury Pioneer Cemetery Walk, April 2021
Our Society held a “cemetery walk” on Sunday April 18 at the Albury Pioneer Cemetery, the first day of Heritage Month 2021. The theme was “Distinguished, ordinary and forgotten women.” This event was twice postponed in 2020 due to Covid restrictions. Almost eighty people joined us on a lovely day to hear ten well researched and presented tributes to the ten women highlighted. There are many hundred such women, but we could only feature ten in the time available.
The ten women (in order of presentation on the day) were Elizabeth Romero (née Lee), Marthalena Selle (née Brumm), Annie, Lizzie & Jane Greenfield, Elizabetha Eberle (née Sommer), Margaret Mullavey (née Hickey), Catherine Scanlan (née Corley), Emeline Oakley (née Chubb), Emma Coom (née Dixon), Ingeborg Radevic (née Ramke) and Ivy Koschitzke (née Tomkins).
Over several months we will publish in our Bulletin an edited version of the talk presented on each of the women.

Click on image to enlarge

Good news for all who are interested in exploring our local past
The Albury Banner & Wodonga Express is now available on the Trove website back to when it was first published in July 1860 through to 1938. The Border Morning Mail is covered from its first copy in 1903 to 1920 and then from 1938 to 1951.
Extension of our coverage was made possible thanks to funding from the NSW Regional Cultural Grant, the Royal Australian Historical Society, the Public Records Office of Victoria and generous donations from local groups, businesses and individuals.
Our Society continues to explore ways to fund further local coverage on Trove.
To explore the Trove website click on the link Explore Trove

Celebrating 100 years since the start of the Hume Dam project
November 28, 2019 it was 100 years since Governor-General Sir Ronald Munro Ferguson turned the first sod to start construction of Hume Dam.
It was a project of huge regional significance not only in providing critical water storage, but attracting people to our region and helping shape our community. Locals continue to bring visitors here to admire the engineering achievement, and to swim, fish, ski and sail on Lake Hume – the dam is an iconic feature of our region.
This defining moment in the history of Albury-Wodonga and surrounds was commemorated with an exploration series ‘Living with the Hume Dam, 1919-2019.’ The event was presented by Charles Sturt University and organised by Society member Bruce Pennay in conjunction with La Trobe University and the Albury & District Historical Society. Nine short presentations covered a wide range of related themes from the significance to Aboriginal peoples, environmental and ecological issues, construction, impacts on fish populations and management of the river system.
WaterNSW, in partnership with Albury, Wodonga and Towong councils, commissioned two interpretative panels telling the story of the dam, unveiled at Hume Dam to commemorate the anniversary. A&DHS were consulted to help provide material for the panels.

Celebrations for 100th anniversary - click on image

: Living with the Hume Dam, 1919-2019

: The handle of the spade that turned the first sod

: Greg Ryan at the unveiling ceremony

: The panels unveiled - Justin Clancy (Member for Albury), Anna Speedie (Wodonga), David Thurley (Albury), David Wortmann (Towong)

: WaterNSW staff with the spade

: The first interpretive panel

: The second interpretive panel

: A&DHS members Helen Livsey, Joe Wooding and Bruce Pennay

: Part of the audience at Living with the Hume Dam

: Dr Treanna Hamm discusses Aboriginal perspectives

: Professor Katie Holmes on environmental change and the river

: Greg Ryan on dam construction

: Tim Tanner of WaterNSW on managing the dam

: Associate Professor Alison King on ecology issues

: Professor Lee Baumgartner on effects on fish in the Murray

: Andrew Reynolds of MDBA on managing a river system

: John & James Ross perform 'Water Music' a specially commissioned soundscape of the dam and river

: Available for $2 at Albury and Lavington Libraries

The Albury/America connections of William & Mary Brickell
Miami historian and author, Cesar Alejandro Becerra, is researching the Albury/America connections of William Brickell and his wife Mary (née Bulmer).
William Barnwell Brickell, with his partner Adam Casner Kidd, arrived in Australia from San Francisco in 1852. They headed for Yackandandah hoping to find gold but soon established as businessmen in Albury. Amongst many other money-making ventures, Brickell and Kidd owned the Exchange Hotel on the south-east corner of Smollett & Townsend streets (the site in 2020 is the Quest Hotel), a general store providing for a growing population and they won the contract to build Albury’s first Union Bridge for £7500, opened in 1861,
William met Mary Bulmer in Albury. Her family had travelled from England as bounty immigrants and originally settled in Goulburn then later came to Albury. Joseph Bulmer was a carpenter who owned a bit of land and Joseph Jr later would own a timber yard in Albury.
William and Mary married in Melbourne in 1862 and the next day they headed for America. The fortune that William Brickell made in Albury financed the purchase of land in Florida and helped create a city that is now one of the world’s holiday meccas – Miami. While structures tied to the Brickells have gone from Albury, their name is prominent in Miami with a district bearing their moniker as well as a park, a shopping centre and an avenue.

In January 2020, Cesar presented the results of his research to the “Miama Pioneers and Natives of Dade” – you can watch and hear Cesar’s talk in full on YouTube (approx 58 minutes, with more than half relating to Albury) by following the link William Brickell’s Links to Albury

Brickell - click image to expand

: Mary (née Bulmer) and William Brickell

: The Exchange Hotel, Albury

: Albury's first Union Bridge

: The Brickell Mansion, Miami

: William Brickell (centre) with his sons.

: Brickell Avenue, Miami

Visit to Albury’s Historic Pump house, May 11, 2019
A small group of A&DHS members were privileged to get a look over the historic Albury pump house at the Waterworks, having a chance to see it in something close to its original state. We were met there by Albury’s Cultural Development Coordinator, Narelle Vogel, who explained for us the future of the building now that it has been decommissioned. AlburyCity has received funds to re-frame the pump house as a creative artists ‘maker space’. It will cater for artists, start-up businesses, do-it-yourself clients, family, school and community groups. It will offer equipment and skills training related to woodwork, metalwork, ceramics and jewellery making.
The pumps were first turned on in January 1886, supplying a reliable source of running water to Albury for the first time.

Albury Pump House - click image to expand

: The Pump House building

: Inside the main hall looking north

: Narelle explaining plans for the building

: Looking below into the pump room

: The overhead gantry

: Inside the main hall looking south

Armistice Day Centenary, November 11, 2018
Albury & District Historical Society member Chris McQuellin played a significant role in organising the commemoration service for the centenary of the end of World War I hostilities. Society members placed flags on the graves of 115 World War I servicemen buried and/or memorialised at the Albury’s Waugh Rd and Pioneer Cemeteries.
Hundreds gathered at Albury’s Pioneer Cemetery on Armistice Day, Sunday November 11 for the special centenary service, organised by the city’s RSL sub-branch.
Member for Farrer, Sussan Ley, told of the reaction on the Western Front to peace on November 11, 1918: “Once the news spread, all over the world, people were dancing in the streets and drinking champagne, but at the front there was no celebration … No words today or any day can do justice to the lives of the 61,721 Australians who were then dead, but from the magnitude of their sacrifice our young nation emerged more confident to take its place in the world.”
Albury mayor Kevin Mack payed tribute to the role of local people: “The volunteers, the nurses, the ladies’ auxiliaries and those people who raised money for much needed war bonds and food to be sent to the front, they are the people who are unheralded in a lot of ways.”
Member for Albury, Greg Aplin reflected on what can be learnt from the commemorative service: “This is a reminder that the wickedness that leads to war will pass, that evil philosophies and atrocities will end, that friendships can be rebuilt albeit over time and a reminder that war is the failure of diplomacy.”
The Albury City Band, Scots School Pipe Band, the Sing Australia Group and vocalist Dianne Prince provided a musical focus for much of the service.
Wreaths were laid in memory of two decorated soldiers buried in the pioneer and general cemeteries, one by Darcy Bishop, great grandson of Charles Bishop and the second by Rowan Chalmers-Borella, son of Albert Borella.

Armistice Day Albury, November 11, 2018 - click on image to expand

: Some of the 115 graves of WWI servicemen marked with flags

: The 'tri-service' Catafalque Party

: The Scots School Pipe Band arrives

: The Scots School Pipe Band

: The Scots School Pipe Band

: The Scots School Pipe Band

: L to R: Rev Alan Kelb, Mr Kevin Mack, Aunty Nancy Rooke, Mr Greg Aplin, Ms Sussan Ley

: Mr Rowan Chalmers-Borella lays a wreath

: Saluting the Flag

: A&DHS past president Doug Hunter and current president Greg Ryan

Lake Urana trip, October 2018
Tour Leader Chris de Vreeze gave this account of our bus trip to Lake Urana on Sunday October 21, 2018:
Our first point of interest was Billabong Creek at Walbundrie which enters a zone of very low gradient and so follows its meandering course to Deniliquin.
Not far beyond Walbundrie, we stopped at Bulgandry, on its right bank. Once a declared gold field, as was Walbundrie, and both are Wiradjuri place names. Doug Hunter’s family has a long connection with the village and Doug writes “Bulgandry was a thriving hamlet around the turn of the nineteenth century with churches, school, hotels, post office, and football and cricket teams. The township faced the Urana Road and extended back across what is now a bare paddock. Only two pise (rammed earth) ruins remain. The decline began with the positioning of the railway five kilometres to the north where the town of Rand grew up.”
Next, on the Billabong’s right bank, is Rand, named after a prominent early grazier Robert Rand. From there we proceeded further before climbing to the hillock known as Mahonga Travelling Stock Reserve, from which can be seen 360 degrees of flat country, punctuated by the flat hill, Goombargana (“The Turtle”) – a memorial marker to the Cudderford family was located before we moved on past Uranagong on the northern side of the back Urana Road, and, given the dry conditions, was filled to near capacity.
Thence to Urana (or ‘Aireena’, the sound of quail rising), once a great rural centre but still home to the Lake and the wondrous eastern lunette. Calostemma lillies still flourish here.
We moved on to the southern lunette burial site which dates back many thousands of years. It was barred to entry but antiquity of habitation has been well established.
Under severe time stress, the bus was flown over the western shoulder of Goombargana, through the hamlet of Balldale, the State Forest of Kentucky, past both Howlong’s hotels, Jingerra lagoon and so home to Albury.
No pensioners were harmed in the production of this tour. See our gallery of images below.

Lake Urana Trip October 2018 - click on image to expand

: Bulgandry

: On Billabong Creek

: On Billabong Creek

: Mahonga TSR

: Mahonga TSR

: Lunch at Urana

: Adjacent to Lake Urana

: Atop a Lunette at Lake Urana

: Atop a Lunette at Lake Urana

: Our Tour Leader

: The McCaughey Ditcher

: The McCaughey Ditcher

History of Homes & Other Buildings in Albury

albury-house The Albury property database was funded by a community grant of $500 from AlburyCity. The aim of the database is to have available a searchable history of as many buildings in Albury as possible. The housing files collected over many years have been transferred to the database and the next step is to enter housing details from local history books and to add photographs where possible. Photos have been taken of houses listed for demolition from the AlburyCity advertisements for some years.The task is huge and any help would be greatly appreciated.

To assist us in data collection, click on the link to download a blank form: Albury historic homes and buildings information form