From the President,
Bruce Smith
April is a time of reflection of lives lost in war. This year we are highlighting animals in war. Our month banner includes purple poppies, the animal symbol of remembrance. Their courage in supporting our service personnel is to be admired.
Our community spirit was alive and well this month with our participation at Council’s Birkdale Precinct (Willard Farm) fun event. Involvement in such activities enables us to connect with the community that we serve. They were great days! Best wishes.
Theatre Redlands' production Love Thy Language - MATE!, written to celebrate the National Trusts' Australian Heritage Festival for 2021, will have one showing at Redland Museum on Thursday 13th May. Based on the theme Our Heritage for the Future the show takes a whimsical look at the way we communicate. Where does language come from - and where is it headed in this multi-cultural, cyber-oriented world?
Ticket price:
$22 per person for Members of Redland Museum
$25 per person for Non-Members Ticket includes admission into the Museum and a Devonshire Tea of scones with jam & cream, served with tea or coffee. Additional charge of $2 for the gluten or dairy free option.Doors open from 10:00 am
Devonshire Tea served from 10:30 am
Performance commences at 11:00 am
A SWAGGIE AND A SONG AND A SHEEP…
Theatre Redlands presents Down Came a Jumbuck – a whimsical theory about how Banjo Paterson might have come to write Waltzing Matilda. Redland Museum’s inaugural Queensland Day production takes a satirical look at what happens when a mixture of business, patriotic fervour and creativity are brought to a rolling boil. In the second half, The Droving Days takes the audience to “Pub Redlands” to join a group of retired drovers and their mates, reminiscing about horses they’ve known and ridden and tall tales of unlikely characters, all woven through with Banjo Paterson’s timeless ballads.
explore and learn at Redland Museum
Millions of animals have served in wars and conflicts. It’s estimated that some 16 million animals served in World War 1 alone. Both sides had horse and camel mounted troops. Most Australians are familiar with the famous waler horse of the Australian Light Horse in the Middle East campaign in WW1. Sturdy animals able to travel long distances with little water, they were called walers
because they were originally bred and sold throughout New South Wales. There were some 136,000 Australian horses used in WW1. After the war, the horses could not be returned home because of strict quarantine regulations. But one did – Sandy, the horse of Major General Sir William Bridges who died at Gallipoli. Below: Model of a waler horse in a display at Redland Museum.
The Imperial Camel Corps Brigade, formed in Egypt in 1916, consisting of men from Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, fought at Gaza and Beersheba. At full strength, the Brigade consisted of nearly 4000 camels. Disbanded in 1918 because of changed military requirements, the men were transferred to the Australian Light Horse. Camels were also used as ambulances with stretchers placed on either side of their saddles.
During WW1, animals were also used in transport and communications. Horses, donkeys, mules, and camels carried food, water, ammunition, and medical supplies to men at the front and they carried the wounded and saved lives. Dogs were sentry guards alerting the soldiers to approaching danger. Some were Casualty Dogs, trained to find wounded and dying soldiers. They carried medical equipment so that an injured soldier could treat himself and if the soldier was dying, the dog stayed beside him to keep him company. Dogs, together with homing pigeons, also carried messages. Canaries were used to detect poisonous gas.
Subjected to gas attacks, horses were provided with nose plugs, and dogs provided with gas masks. In addition, cats and dogs were trained to hunt rats in trenches. But animals were used for other purposes besides work. Dogs, cats, monkeys, bears and lions were either kept as pets or used for mascots to raise morale. Winnipeg, or Winnie, an American black bear was the mascot to The Fort Garry Horse Regiment of the Canadian Army, and was kept at London Zoo. He was the inspiration for A.A. Milne's series of children's books on Winnie the Pooh.
The valour of animals has been recognized. Albert Marr, took his pet baboon, Jackie, with him when he joined the 3rd South African Infantry (Transvaal) Regiment which fought alongside the British Army in WW1. Jackie became the mascot of the Regiment with his superior hearing and night vision enabling him to warn troops of approaching enemies. Marr and Jackie fought in France and Egypt. Jackie was awarded a Medal of Valour and promoted to Corporal for remaining at his post in the French trenches even though he was wounded. The Dickin Medal (the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross), established in the UK in 1943, has been awarded to pigeons, horses, dogs and one cat for conspicuous gallantry or devotion to duty while serving in military conflict. In 2014, an Honorary Dickin Medal was awarded to a WW1 warhorse, Warrior, to commemorate all animals in that conflict.
Many millions of animals suffered and died in WW1 and more died in later conflicts and in peace-keeping operations. It is appropriate that we remember their role in supporting our service personnel. Purple poppies commemorate the contribution and sacrifice of animals in war.
A War Animal Memorial (left and below) in Cleveland, comprising of a statue of a dog, was sponsored by the Australian War Animals Memorial Organization, installed by Redlands RSL, and officially dedicated in a service on 22 April 2015.
By John Hargreaves, Blacksmith
Members of the Northern NSW Blacksmiths' Association paid a short, but enjoyable, visit to the Redland Museum on Saturday 6th March. The photo right shows their assistance with our manufacturing capacity in producing the small bedside bells that will be appearing as a sales item in reception. Two NSW folk flank our senior blacksmith, Paul Jones, on the power hammer. The white hot billet is being forged to be an addition to our guillotine fuller, used in the "necking' of our bells. The NSW suggestion should make our bell making a little quicker and easier. The photo below shows the visitors at morning tea and was taken especially for two of our members (Barbara Matthews & Annabelle Alexander). It proves convincingly that skilled smiths can forge without soot covered aprons and grossly blackened faces and arms, as we do!!
excite your imagination at Redland Museum
Tiny, the Museum's cow, was there highlighting the old creamery at Willard's Farm at Birkdale on 16-17 April. At the invitation of Redland City Council, the Museum participated in this fun event at the farm by providing Tiny and other small farming objects. Museum volunteers sold Devonshire teas, raffle tickets and other products.
The Birkdale Community Precinct Open Day provided the opportunity for Council to show the community the previously inaccessible site and hear their aspirations for future development. Below: Mayor Karen Williams and Councillor Paul Bishop with some of the Museum volunteers.
Willard's Farm is one of the oldest surviving farms and residences in Redlands Coast. The homestead was built in 1876 and was owned by James and Margaret Willard. James and his brother, Edward, lived in the area since 1865 and were involved in felling trees on the property. A later owner, Madeline Toms, named it The Pines after hearing from Margaret Willard that her parents had planted the Norfolk Pines
on the property.
Photos by Sylvia McGarry and Bruce Smith
Thank you to all the volunteers
who worked at Willard's Farm to
make it successful.
escape to a different world at Redland Museum
By Sylvia McGarry
I think just about everyone knows the stories of the Hon Louis Hope of Ormiston House and the Hon Francis Bigge of Grandview Hotel and Old Courthouse Restaurant fame. But few may have made the connection between these distinguished men and Redland Museum. It's all about the land on which the Museum sits. Hope and the brothers Bigge purchased a lot of land in Cleveland and what is now Ormiston in the 1850s. The 1874 map below of land in Cleveland (obtained from Cleveland Library) shows Sections 70 (LXX), and 73 (LXXIII) in Smith Street Cleveland. Section 70 was
purchased by Francis and Frederic Bigge on 17 May 1852. Section 73 (together with Sections 72, 74 to 76) was purchased by Louis Hope on 13 February 1855. The corner of Section 73 (Smith and Long Streets) is where the tennis courts are now. Between Sections 73 and 70 was a corridor provision for Princes Street (a continuation of the current Princess Street - at some point an extra "s" was put on the name "Princes" and it became "Princess" Street). Section 71 (LXXi) to the east (right) of Section 70 was declared a reserve by
1874. By the time Cleveland Shire Council was formed in 1885, Sections 70 and 72 were no longer in the Rates books and appear not to be privately owned. The reserve was extended to include Sections 70, 72, and 73 around 1922 as it was really swampy ground and probably not much use for farming.
In December 1922, the Qld Lands Department advised the Cleveland Shire Council that the land (Sections 70 to 73 and the Princes Street corridor land) had been regazetted for racecourse and recreation purposes - the Racecourse Reserve or Reserve 257 (see map below) consisting of over 46 acres. By 1949, the reserve land had been transferred to Cleveland Shire Council which had earmarked it for showground and recreation purposes. So where does the Museum fit into all of this? The first building of the Museum in Smith Street (ie where Stories of the Redlands is now) is most likely wholly within the old Section 73 previously owned by Louis Hope. As the Museum buildings have expanded to the north along Smith Street, they covered the old Princes Street corridor land and extended into the old Section 70 owned by the brothers Bigge. Last year, I undertook an internet search on Francis Bigge (amazing what you can find!). He was much more than the "Grandview" or the "Courthouse". He won
international awards for his wool from sheep on his Mount Brisbane Station in the Brisbane Valley where he also bred prize winning horses. He was a renown horseman and heavily involved in the early Moreton Bay horse racing scene, owned land and a building (likely a wool shed) in Ipswich, and was a noteworthy pioneer in the sugar cane industry together with Louis Hope, Claudius Whish and John Davidson. His interests also included sailing and, in his later years in England, numismatics, being a founding member in 1903 of the British Numismatic Society. Thank you to Angela Puata at Cleveland Library for
her tremendous help in identifying the land purchases of Hope and Bigge. I have donated my research to the Museum and you can read it, together with copies of most references at the Rotary Heritage Library. I have also given a copy of it to Cleveland Library. References: Angela Puata, Cleveland Library, and Tracy Ryan 2006.
At the General Meeting on 6 April, Mark Robinson, State Member for Oodgeroo, presented a ceremonial cheque to President Bruce Smith in the amount of $13,047.40 which was the successful grant from the Gambling Community Benefit Fund. The funds will be used to upgrade the Museum's website and to purchase some essential equipment.
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The editors, Sharon Vassallo and Sylvia McGarry, will endeavour to provide you with articles about items in our Collection and historical facts on the Redlands. But we would like to hear from members. What would you like for inclusion? Do you have a story to tell? The newsletter will continue to be sent at the end of each month (except for December which may be earlier). Editors can be contacted at recollections@redlandmuseum.org.au
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