Wandong History Group

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

Registered Office: Affleck Street, Wandong, 3758

Telephone: 57871 314

Inaugural office bearers 2012/2013:

President - Karen Christensen

Vice President - David Moran

Secretary - Diana Vidal

Treasurer - Sandra Moran

The Wandong History Group was formed to collate, catalogue and preserve the past history of Wandong and Heathcote Junction for the benefit of future generations.

HISTORY

The Wandong History Group (WHG) evolved when a group of local residents recognised that before it was too late, there was the urgent need to collate, catalogue and preserve the past history of Wandong and Heathcote Junction for the benefit of future generations. Wandong - Heathcote Junction has a unique and interesting settlement and social history that included one of Victoria's largest timber and seasoning operations. Wandong was a hive of activity during the mid-1880s with tramways, a seasoning works, joinery and terra cotta lumber plant, as well as a coffee palace and boarding house, all built around a privately created subdivision owned by Robert Affleck Robertson. The Mt. Disappointment area was also home to prisoners of war who worked in forest camps during World War II. Wandong also laid claim to initiating the first Country Music Festival during the 1970s. Wandong and Heathcote Junction have many unexplored stories yet to be told

The WHG held its first formal meeting on 26 September 2012 when office bearers were elected and at a subsequent meeting it was unanimously decided to apply to be an Incorporated Group. The WHG is a not for profit group and any membership fees, donations, fund raising money will be put toward the collation, cataloguing and preserving our history.

The Wandong History Group has elected to adopt the Model Rules for an Incorporated Association [Associations Incorporation Act 1981]

MEMBERSHIP

Membership fees will be set at Annual General Meetings. Financial members are encouraged to participate in Group activities and in discussion at monthly meetings.

OPERATION

The Wandong History Group initially aims to collate, record and store information on the history of Wandong - Heathcote Junction. It is intended to meet monthly and all residents interested in the great history of our towns would be most welcome to participate.

The Group will meet regularly and consensus decision making will be adopted. Regular history presentations will be conducted for the benefit of residents and visitors.

Committee members for 2014- 2015 are:

President: Karen Christensen

Vice President: David Moran

Secretary: Di Vidal

Treasurer: Sandra Moran

Membership fees were set at $10 single and family $15

HISTORY BULLETINS - follow the links

NOVEMBER 2020

HISTORY GROUP

I was hoping that by now we would be able to announce the date of the World War II exhibition that was planned for October and was postponed due to Covid.

It would seem that by the time this edition is actually published more than likely the restrictions on opening the Public Hall will be lifted. Given that the exhibition planned is based around the 75th year of the ending of the war we are still hopeful that we can stage this, so although we are not yet “officially” advertising we are striving for the last weekend in November to have this event. If it becomes possible to stage the event we will advertise using posters in the local shops, face-book and any other means we can use.

In other news we are still waiting on the church grant announcement so no news there. We have been working on other projects during the shutdown including working with ARTC on the area of impact for the new high bridge replacing our old 1961 overhead bridge at Wandong. We are also working with the shire on site card issues from the last Heritage Gap study. Hopefully those issues will be resolved by the time this edition goes to print.

The moving of the internment hut has stalled as we wait for council, apparently until the election is decided the officers cannot proceed with the work required to obtain the permit to move the hut. This is a frustrating hold up and we were hoping the hut would be in place by now, we don’t now know how long the shires procedures will take so the date of moving is unknown at this stage.

However we plough on with other work in the meantime, we are also working on a project for next year but more on that later.

Stay safe

Karen

Attention, Businesses and Local groups

The Wandong History Group is putting together a pack of local information to help both new and old residents learn a little about our history and what services, businesses and groups operate in the area. If your business or group would like to be involved with this please contact the Wandong History Group via email wandonghistorygroup4@gmail.com or phone 57871314