Category Archives: History and Heritage News

Post Haste Floor Talk, ANZAC Day Opening

The Museum will be closed over Easter 18-21 April, however we have two great events for you shortly after:

The Museum will be open on ANZAC Day from 10.30- 12.30.

Come along and taste Karen’s home cooked ANZAC biscuits.

Post Haste Floor Talk

Queanbeyan Museum Honorary Curator Gillian Kelly, will give a Floor Talk about the newest Queanbeyan Museum Exhibition Post Haste

Saturday 26th April at 2pm,
Queanbeyan Museum, 10 Farrer Pl

Come along and hear the fascinating story of Ernie Beaver’s Morse Coder amongst other gems. The Exhibition celebrates the themes of:

How postal services arrived
The post offices….where they were and the services they offered
The post man arrives
The telegraph
The telephone

Exhibition Curator Gillian Kelly says “It is amazing how early the postal service began in Queanbeyan. 1836 was two years before the town’s proclamation in 1838.”

All Welcome!

Please pass on the message to those who may be interested.

QBN_Historic_01 Post Office built 1879-1880
Queanbeyan Post Office. Built 1880.
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Ernie Beaver’s Morse coder from the Queanbeyan Museum Collection. On display in the Post Haste Exhibition.
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Letter scales from the Queanbeyan Museum collection. On display in the Post Haste Exhibition

Queanbeyan’s 175th Birthday – What a Year!

We had a very busy year last year with Queanbeyan’s 175th Birthday Celebrations.  The celebrations started with a bang with an historical film screening:

Queanbeyan’s Moving Memories

We began the year with our involvement with Queanbeyan City Council’s film screening : Queanbeyan’s Moving Memories. Members assisted with the original concept and choice of historic film clips and the Feature Film Around The Boree Log (Australia 1925) from the NFSA collection. This silent film was adapted from the poems of John O’Brien (Patrick Joseph Hartigan) and tells of a priest’s life around the southern highlands in the 1870s. Council assisted by hanging the Museum’s 1920s Cinema Curtain in the Foyer of The Q Theatre. We also provided a slide show of historic photographs which screened before the screening and at interval, and a display about the history of cinema going in Queanbeyan. There were two sold out shows, showing that locals are keenly interested in their town’s history. The clips of billy cart races, robbing bees at Burra and the Raiders win in 1989 were popular. Check out part of the Raiders clip on the NFSA website: http://www.nfsa.gov.au/blog/2013/09/09/canberra-raiders-1989-grand-final-heroes/

There were many requests for a DVD of the chosen historical clips. This may be a project the Museum could undertake in the future.

IMG_3717_2Almost 90 years old!

For more information on the history of cinema in Queanbeyan go to our media page

Queanbeyan’s Living History Oral History Exhibition Launch

What a lovely community day we had for the launch of the oral History Exhibition at the Museum on 7th September 2013 as part of our History Week Celebrations! Nine exhibition boards were launched. Transcripts and audio copies of the interviews were presented to the interviewees by the project leader  John McGlynn.

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Dr Mary Hutchison launching the exhibition

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