The True History of the Kangaroo Valley Historical Society<\/b><\/p>\nIntroduction<\/i><\/b><\/h2>\n
At the meeting of the Kangaroo Valley Historical Society on 11 November 1986 the late Mrs. Edith Vance-Chittick presented a detailed outline of the beginnings of the Historical Society. Below are extracts from this presentation. Edith\u2019s information was gathered first-hand as she was married to Wes Vance and after Wes died she married Archie Chittick. Wes and Archie were both greatly responsible for establishing the Society.<\/span><\/p>\n Both Wes and Archie were involved with the A & H Association and both passionate about history, especially regarding Kangaroo Valley, the beautiful town where they both grew up. A motion was presented by Archie Chittick at an A & H meeting in 1951 \u201cThat an Historical Society be formed to preserve our local history\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Archie\u2019s motion was accepted. Interest continued to grow to the point when it was decided to have a \u2018History Book\u2019. It was also agreed that this should be launched at a special gathering such as a \u2018Back to the Valley Week\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n William Bayley (Bill) wrote the first edition of \u2018Kangaroo Valley NSW\u2019 in 1953. Bill was a retired schoolteacher and Fellow of the Royal Australian Historical Society and well known for his many \u2018local\u2019 histories. The Society later approached John Griffiths to write a book called \u2018A History of Kangaroo Valley\u2019 which has been a huge success and was launched in June 1977.<\/span><\/p>\n Bayley\u2019s book was ready for the \u2018Back to the Valley Week\u2019 and Bill Bayley\u2019s book sold like hot cakes for 5\/- each. Held from 10<\/span>th<\/span> October to 17<\/span>th<\/span> October 1953, the week was a huge success and the local folk got behind it –\u00a0 absolutely amazing. They worked really hard to make the whole week of festivities a time to remember. There were entertainments every day and night. It was great to see so many ex-residents and to renew many acquaintances and friendships.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n For two years the Historical Society had been under the wing of the A & H Association, but now we were established in our own right. The book was selling fairly well; people who had lent money to assist its production had been repaid but we kept an interest by having a \u2018picnic-type\u2019 of gathering annually at various localities such as Bendeela, Upper River, Beaumont, Wattamolla, in the Village and Glenmurray Crossing. These continued from 1954 to 1972.<\/span><\/p>\n By this time we had established Nugent House, a building that had been part of the \u2018Nugent Store\u2019 which became available to us. The red tin building we acquired with a room, which was the second Post Office in Kangaroo Valley, was prepared for a museum. It was \u2018manned\u2019 voluntarily at week-ends by the six Nugent House ladies who gave wonderful service to the Society.<\/span><\/p>\n The Nugent House Museum was opened in January 1969 by Mr and Mrs Ainsworth Harrison, the people who gave us the sun-dial. The old museum was very popular but far too small for all the exhibits we had. Eventually it was bursting at the seams.<\/span><\/p>\n Meanwhile thought was being given to acquiring a piece of land adjacent to the Hampden Bridge, a \u2018dream\u2019 of both Wes and Archie.<\/span><\/p>\n The area was originally the local Pound Yard which was occupied by the Department of Main Roads (DMR). About this time, in 1970, the Water Board and Hydro Electricity Commission had commenced work on the Tallowa Dam and Bendeela Pumping Station. In those days Kangaroo Valley was a very busy and populous place.<\/span><\/p>\n So that was the scene when a few members of the Society, under Archie\u2019s chairmanship, had an interview with Mr Tom Lewis, a state MP, to try and get the DMR site. Tom Lewis in those days was the Minister for Lands and later he was State Premier. Finally, the DMR moved to a much better equipped site on Bendeela Road.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Water Board was resuming farms down in the Bendeela area. We heard that the old Rendall home was to be bulldozed or allowed to collapse with age and the elements. Discussions between our representatives and the Metropolitan Water Board achieved the outcome where we were given the buildings to pull down and re-erect on the existing park site. The Rendall homestead was the only building available of an era suitable for a museum piece.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In May 1971 the Historical Society was requested to nominate seven of its members to form a Trust to administer the site and the buildings to be erected on it. At this time the Trust was named \u2018The Hampden Bridge Museum Park Trust\u2019.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Additional to its responsibility for the upkeep and control of all buildings and grounds, the Trust was empowered to employ a person or persons to be answerable for the day-to-day management of the reserve and accountable for the receipt of admission fees and custody of all exhibits.<\/span><\/p>\n The Trust was to be a totally separate body from the Historical Society, which owns all the artefacts on display. But from the outset it was clearly understood that the interests of the two bodies were the same and there would have to be close collaboration between them. In the early days this was secured by the fact that all members of the Trust were also members of the Society.<\/span><\/p>\n In January a \u2018Museum Park Appeal Fund\u2019 had been opened under the chairmanship of John Griffiths. The fund raised $12,146 in about 12 months. The money raised was used to pay many of the debts incurred mainly to establish the park.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It took most of 1973 to move objects from Nugent\u2019s Store to the museum site as well as add additional donated artefacts. There were many thousands of exhibits. Installing them in an appropriate fashion in the new setting was a huge job.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The official Opening Ceremony was on 10 November 1973 and was performed by the Honourable Tom Lewis, MLA and Minister for Lands. Mr Lewis announced that the Lands Department was in the process of acquiring land over Tanner\u2019s Creek at the cost of $14,000 and an area of 21\u00bd acres was offered to the Trust as an extension to the Park. Further grants were also offered.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Other indispensable help in the foundation and development of the park was received from Citra Constructions, Leighton Contractors and the Snowy Mountains Authority. The contractors not only contributed handsome donations but lent us heavy equipment in particular the time we bought the 25 ton Fossil Rock to the park.<\/span><\/p>\n With great help from these sources, together with the tremendous effort from our local community, the historic settlement was established.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In 2023 the Kangaroo Valley Historical Society is planning to celebrate the 70+ years we have preserved the history of the Kangaroo Valley community and surrounds, and also 50 years of operating the Kangaroo Valley Museum. The date will be in early November. Keep an eye out \u2013 we plan to make it BIG.<\/span><\/p>\n Christine Murphy<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The True History of the Kangaroo Valley Historical Society Introduction At the meeting of the Kangaroo Valley Historical Society on 11 November 1986 the late Mrs. Edith Vance-Chittick presented a detailed outline of the beginnings of the Historical Society. Below are extracts from this presentation. Edith\u2019s information was gathered first-hand as she was married to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":1919,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-historical-snippets"],"acf":[],"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Kangaroo Valley Voice","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/kangaroovalley.nsw.au\/valleyvoice","push-errors":false,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kangaroovalley.nsw.au\/valleyvoice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kangaroovalley.nsw.au\/valleyvoice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kangaroovalley.nsw.au\/valleyvoice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kangaroovalley.nsw.au\/valleyvoice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kangaroovalley.nsw.au\/valleyvoice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1918"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kangaroovalley.nsw.au\/valleyvoice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1920,"href":"https:\/\/kangaroovalley.nsw.au\/valleyvoice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1918\/revisions\/1920"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kangaroovalley.nsw.au\/valleyvoice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kangaroovalley.nsw.au\/valleyvoice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kangaroovalley.nsw.au\/valleyvoice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kangaroovalley.nsw.au\/valleyvoice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Association with K.V. and A & H Association<\/i><\/b><\/h2>\n
History Book<\/i><\/b><\/h2>\n
Back to Kangaroo Valley<\/i><\/b><\/h2>\n
After the Big Bang<\/i><\/b><\/h2>\n
Nugent House<\/i><\/b><\/h2>\n
Present site of the \u2018Pioneer Farm\u2019<\/i><\/b><\/h2>\n
Interview with Tom Lewis<\/i><\/b><\/h2>\n
Resumption of land at Bendeela<\/i><\/b><\/h2>\n
The Museum Park Trust<\/i><\/b><\/h2>\n
January 1973<\/i><\/b><\/h2>\n
Museum Park opening day<\/i><\/b><\/h2>\n
Historic site established<\/i><\/b><\/h2>\n