President’s Report – May 2025
President’s Report – May 2025
At the WHS February meeting at the Whittlesea Bowls Club, our guest speaker Anne Paul gave an informative presentation titled ‘Footprints on the landscape – the Willis brothers, squatters on the Plenty River in 1837’. Anne spoke about the very early days of exploration and settlement along the Plenty River, with a particular focus on the Willis brothers of Mernda. Her presentation can be viewed on WHS’s YouTube clip, available via the WHS website.
In March, our annual bus tour was focussed on Glenvale (between Whittlesea and Upper Plenty), once the site of a busy township with two hotels, a school, a public hall, a blacksmith, a general store and a post office. This tour was a very popular event, and due to high demand, was repeated two weeks later for a second group of attendees. Thanks to the Events and Fundraising team and our great presenters, who spent a lot of time researching and compiling information for presentation. Also, many thanks to all attendees, who were enthusiastic and willing to share knowledge and stories of their own.
The Yarra Plenty Heritage Group’s quarterly meeting is an opportunity for sharing of ideas between local historical groups, with plenty of good information which can guide the WHS into the future. The meeting in March heard about a popular drama production presented by Allwood House in Hurstbridge, about history listening posts available at the Eltham Library, and about an exhibition showing at the Ivanhoe Library. These are all great ideas for encouraging community engagement, and something which WHS can learn from.
Work on the kitchen building within the Pioneer Pavilion at the Whittlesea Agricultural Society Showgrounds is progressing well. We will soon be able to move our WHS collection into the new storage area to provide a workspace for the Research and Collections team, and to make the collection more freely available to WHS members and for research enquiries. WHS appreciates this valuable partnership with the Whittlesea Agricultural Society and looks forward to some exciting events and projects involving the Pioneer Pavilion in the future.
Congratulations to our member Amaria Stark on the publication of her book, ‘Silent Sentinel’, which was launched on the 26th of April. Amaria’s imaginative story, showing the development of the City of Whittlesea over time from the perspective of a redgum tree, is accompanied by her wonderful illustrations. Amaria is a trained primary school teacher and brings this experience to the production of a sensitive story which will appeal to many.
Barbara Miller. President, WHS.
