LOCAL historian Helen Hennessy is encouraging people to donate any Gawler Show-related items they no longer need, to help “gather, preserve and share the valuable records that have been created since 1854 when the Gawler A.H. & F. Society began”.
The project will build on the work previously undertaken by Mary Peacock (nee Cockshell) who, as society historian, researched and collated many valuable documents including minutes, photographs, medals, posters, trophies, correspondence, ribbons, certificates and show books.
Mrs Hennessy – who was named the state’s 2019 Regional Historian by the History Council of South Australia earlier this month, for her ongoing commitment to preserving Gawler’s heritage – said cataloguing the show’s extensive history was a vitally important initiative.
“With the exception of the region’s birth, death, marriage and
cemetery records, this might be the most comprehensive list of the people who lived, worked or did business in Gawler over three centuries,” she said.
“It will be a very valuable resource for historians and genealogists, as well as a source of pride for all of Gawler.”
To date, weekly sorting, documentation and storage of existing
records has been carried out, while the ‘Mary Peacock Gawler
Show Research Collection’ has been obtained to be included in
the project.
Mrs Hennessy said she has begun engaging with various industry partners – such as the Gawler Heritage Collection and Royal Adelaide show museum – to explore possible future collaborations, and displaying of the collection once complete.
The whole project is estimated to take “two to three years” to finish.
For now, Mrs Hennessy is asking the community not to throw
out any old items that could be show-related, and instead hand
them into the Gawler Show office for safekeeping.
“They might be old pictures, old programs, certificates, anything,” she said.
“I had somebody come up to me at the Gawler Show launch the other night and say ‘I’ve got my uncle’s materials, my family’s not quite sure what to do with it; would the show be interested?’
“I said ‘yes, we would’.
“We’re interested in getting just about anything.”
For more information about donating historic Gawler Show
items, contact the show office on 8523 1477.