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.
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.
August 2024 Meeting
In August 2024 it was 110 years since Australia lost its first World War I casualty, William Malcolm Chisholm, the grandson of Albury pioneer Elizabeth Mitchell. He was the first of over 60,000 Australians lost during the four years of conflict.
Honor Auchinleck’s father, Tom Mitchell, was a first cousin of Malcolm. Tom wrote about “the pall of silence” when the news arrived at Towong Hill. He described the scenes in the memoir he wrote when he was a prisoner of war in Changi.
Honor discussed concerns of those families whose sons had been killed in action in WWI, the formation of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and how the community, including nurses and female doctors rose to a desperate and tragic need.
July 2024 Meeting
The Annual General Meeting of the Society, chaired by president Geoff Romero, was held at the Commercial Club. Thirty six members and guests were in attendance and there were six apologies.
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.
After outlining his many contributions to the Society, Geoff Romero called on Bruce Pennay to accept his much deserved Honorary Life Membership.
Geoff then declared all committee positions vacant before calling Society Society member Simon Barlow took the chair to conduct the election of our Society’s committee for 2024/25. 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 and Howard Jones.
Geoff then took the chair and after thanking Simon Barlow and retiring committee members Steve Judd and Victor Selway, he closed the AGM and opened the July General Meeting.
There is a local Bhutanese community numbering about 1500, from infants to the elderly. Dr Malcolm Moore gave up his Albury General Practice in 2006 to move with his wife Wendy to work in eastern Nepal. Some of the people that they worked with were refugees of Nepalese heritage who had been ejected from Bhutan in the early 1990s. There were seven refugee camps in eastern Nepal.
Malcolm and Wendy returned to Australia at the end of 2010 and settled again in Albury last year. They gave us a brief account of their time in Nepal and talked about the journey that brought the Bhutanese refugees to Albury Wodonga.
The photo shows Bhutanese working in their community garden close to the Murray River.
June 2024 Meeting
Touch Trolleys at ALM.
With over 1000 primary school students visiting the Albury LibraryMuseum each year, for many it is their first experience in a Museum. How do we give them a thrill and a passion for history and get them interested in the history of Albury and surrounds? Victor Selway (a former employee at the Museum) and current staff member Kat Kitch told us about the activities used.
The Museum uses touch trolleys – historical items that students can touch and wonder what the items were used for. These trolleys were on display for Society members to touch, wonder and reminisce along with the local Wiradjuri touch trolley.
May 2024 Meeting
Digitisation – Is it really the panacea we’ve been searching for?
Wayne Doubleday is manager of Charles Sturt University Regional Archives and University Art Collection. He has been a professional member of the Australian Society of Archivists since 2000. Wayne asked us ‘Should everything be digitised?’ He used digitisation projects as case studies to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of adopting a digitisation strategy.
April 2024 Meeting
The main focus of our April meeting was to commemorate Anzac. Last June, Simon Burgess completed the Kokoda Trek. Simon’s grandfather was a soldier with the AIF on Kokoda fighting the Japanese in World War II. Simon gave an excellent description of the trek and compared his trek with that of Australian (and Japanese) soldiers and in particular the experience of his grandfather.
We also watched a 15-minute film describing the experience of Malcolm Chisholm. He is acknowledged as the first Australian killed in World War I, months before the Gallipoli campaign. Malcolm’s great grandmother was Albury pioneer Elizabeth Mitchell (née Huon), and he was the first cousin once removed of Society member Honor Auchinleck.
March 2024 Meeting
Over 250 years ago, Aboriginals marked each distinct group’s Country boundaries, directions and important landmarks by manipulating young and flexible Gum Trees into Aboriginal Ring Trees.
Dr Pieter Mourik has an interest in Aboriginal Ring Trees. With assistance from Peter Harper and others, he has collected photos and locations of over 100 trees in this region. Pieter shared his knowledge of this important aspects of Aboriginal heritage and culture.
February 2024 Meeting
Murray River Police District Commander, Superintendent Paul Smith, invited members to the Police Training Centre for our February meeting. Members had the opportunity to inspect displays of items relating to local policing followed by a presentation on local policing with a focus on dealing with closed borders during the Covid pandemic.
November 2023 Meeting
There was a lot of energy in the room when well respected Albury builder Garry Zauner addressed us at the November meeting. The early life of Rudy Zauner, also well known to many of us, revealed the story of a hard working Austrian migrant who made the most of his chance to start a new life in Albury. Rudy, in partnership with his wife Greta, went on to establish a successful construction company and to raise a family of children who became their pride and joy. Garry was peppered with questions from the floor all of which were handled with modesty and skill.