History Notes - the old Courthouse

History Notes

 Well, a lovely fine weekend which I am sure everyone enjoyed.  Apologies to anyone who may have seen the Market sign out for Easter – it was a mistake as we had a very successful market on the second Saturday of the month and this week only the Museum was open.

Several members have spent last week removing our stored papers from the Court House in preparation for some repairs to be carried out on the Court House. At this stage we are not sure how much will be done but the white ants and the overgrown greenery are to go.  It is a case of watch this space.

 Amongst the forgotten papers we have found some more of the 1916 electoral roll – the condition is not as good as what is already in the museum but it will certainly help the family historian trying to track down an ancestor.  Also, in the rubbish we have found the lost telephone books, some war history from Vietnam, and the Bluett Award newspaper published when the Barraba Shire won the Bluett Award years before the amalgamation.  There is a large photo (A4) of a family group which also came from the Court House.  The photo is taken in front of a vertical slab home with a corrugated iron roof and there is a bark hut with a bark roof behind the crowd and to the left of the photo.  If anyone knows the photo we would like to know which family it is and where it is taken. I do not think it is a wedding photo but it could have been a christening.  Hopefully we may get a copy of it into the window of the museum in two or three parts.

A couple of other photocopied photos show the houses in Cherry Lane under water which is probably the 1964 flood, the same time as the 1964 flood photos in last week’s news.  Another copied photo shows the town leaders inspecting the damage, Mr Ian Sinclair, Mr W Brodbeck and Mr Grahame Matterson with the then Director of Civil Defence, General Doherty.  There is also a copied photo of the damage to the Manilla Show Ground in the 1964 flood, the iron fence flattened and the ring demolished around the broadcast box, shows what happens when two rivers meet in town!

Our area is rather lucky to have had smaller floods since the 1964 although with the weather at the moment it could still happen.  It is said that the 1864 flood broke its banks and took a short cut down Alice Street and the lower end of Edward Street across Cherry Street and into the river – let’s hope that does not happen again.