History Notes - some ANZAC Day local history
History Notes
Well, with all the holidays over it is back to work for everyone - it is a long time since Easter and Anzac Day have been so close together, although a few normal weeks with normal work days and everything open, will get things moving before the frosts arrive.
This week our meeting saw a few more members present and discussion centered not so much around history as menial tasks such as storage, markets and someone to open the museum for tourists passing through.
There has been a request for Golf History and so I referred first to our Back to Barraba Booklets for a start, to find that the Golf Club is listed in the directory only in 1946, when C.D.Cook was President and Mr. A. R. Millar was the Secretary.
The Back to Barraba Booklet in 1983 only has a few lines about the ladies golf. The President was Allan Lynch. Ron Bridges was the secretary. There is certainly more golf history in the files so the search is now on - perhaps there will be more next week.
In the meantime, I am writing this early on Anzac Day and I am sure readers will be able to remember the Anzac Day marches of the past. The march began down at what was Collin's Garage, now Denyer's Garage, with people milling around, getting into the right order behind the Band. The diggers usually out numbering the school children, if they were included in the march. About halfway up the block there were a few older or wheelchair people who joined in there.
Up at the clock there was a big crowd, families of service men and women and residents of the Barraba district. Lots of wreaths were laid at the clock in quite a lengthy service. Who
could forget people like Trixie Garland, Mrs. Baldock and a number of other women who saw to the smooth running of the event.
There are lots of photos of the Anzac Day March but I think one of the best is the 1945 March in the 1946 Back to Barraba booklet which lots of people still have in their possession. Even the cars of the era are in the photo and the grass is growing well on the vacant block where the Post Office and St.Vinnies are now.
The Pepper trees in the centre of the street are in their prime but not as shady as the trees we have now.