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FEDERATION OF AUSTRALIAN HISTORICAL SOCIETIES INC

 

e-BULLETIN No. 103 – 8 August 2012

 

Hon Editor, Dr Ruth S. Kerr

 

 

1) Mawson's Huts historic site

 

2) ICOMOS warns on Aleppo's cultural heritage in Syria

 

3) Celebrating our heritage seminar, Brisbane - 25 August 2012

 

4) Definition of Australian charities

 

5) Dandaloo, New South Wales

 

6) Tennant Creek, Northern Territory

 

7) Tarkine region in North West Tasmania

 

 

1) Mawson's Huts historic site

 

An invitation has been issued to comment on the draft replacement management plan for 2012-2017 for Mawson’s Huts, a National Heritage place and Commonwealth Heritage place under s.341(6)9b) of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. Copies are available on the Australian Antarctic Division’s website (www.antarctica.gov.au). Comments are to be forwarded to the Antarctic Division by 24 August 2012.

 

(Source: Weekend Australian 21-22 July 2012 p.30)

 

 

2) ICOMOS warns on Aleppo's cultural heritage in Syria

 

On 27 July 2012, the UN Human Rights Chief expressed concern about the likelihood of an “imminent major confrontation in Syria’s second largest city Aleppo.”

 

The Ancient City of Aleppo has been inscribed on the World Heritage List of UNESCO since 1986, as it “reflects the rich and diverse cultures of its successive occupants” and is “an outstanding example of an Ayyubid 12th century city with its military fortifications constructed as its focal point following the success of Salah El-Din against the Crusaders.”

 

ICOMOS is extremely concerned about the risks of any heavy conflict that may threaten the World Heritage site of Aleppo and the other precious cultural heritage of the city.

 

‘By recalling the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, ICOMOS calls upon all parties involved in this conflict to respect and protect the cultural heritage of Aleppo. UNESCO has also appealed for the protection of the World Heritage City of Aleppo.

 

ICOMOS is also concerned about other World Heritage sites, and cultural heritage properties with national and local values in other parts of Syria, including monuments, ancient cities and villages, archaeological sites, scientific excavations, museums and other important repositories of movable cultural heritage. Since the beginning of the conflict in Syria, the Blue Shield has also issued two statements for the protection of the country’s invaluable cultural heritage.’ Paris, 27 July 2012.

 

(Source: Australia ICOMOS E-News No. 546, 3 August 2012)

 

 

3) Celebrating our heritage seminar, Brisbane - 25 August 2012

 

Celebrate 20 years of heritage legislation in Queensland with a seminar at Brisbane’s only convict-built structure still in use, on Saturday 25 August 2012.

 

Queensland Heritage Council (QHC) and the Royal Historical Society of Queensland (RHSQ) are presenting a presenting a seminar, Celebrating our heritage,  which traces the beginnings of the state’s heritage protection and will highlight different aspects – shipwrecks, lighthouses, national parks, religious and workers’ heritage and more.

 

The seminar will also feature examples of successful adaptive re-use of heritage buildings. Speakers will include historians, heritage professionals and owners/custodians of heritage buildings and places.

 

Date: Saturday 25 August 2012
Time: 10am – 3.30pm, with registration available from 9.30am
Venue: Commissariat Store, 115 William Street, Brisbane
Entry fee: $10;  Tea and coffee: gold coin donation

 

Further information is available at the Queensland Heritage Council and RHSQ websites.

 

(Sources: Australia ICOMOS E-News No. 546, 3 August 2012;

RHSQ website www.queenslandhistory.org.au/Activities.html)

 

 

4) Definition of Australian charities

 

Historical societies undertaking commercial activities may be affected by the Commonwealth government’s proposals on definitions of charities for the purpose of the Income Tax Act. (This has been referred to in previous E-Bulletins.) An Australian Charities and Not for Profit Commission is to commence in October 2012. A vital discussion continues in newspapers on the meaning and activities of charities. One of their key roles as espoused is in supporting other Australians. Historical societies do this through increasing social capital in suburban and regional Australia.

 

(Source: Letter to the Editor on the issue by Stephen Judd – Australian Financial Review 26 July 2012 p.55)

 

 

5) Dandaloo, New South Wales

 

The work of the Tottenham Historical Society has proven very valuable through the use and acknowledgement of the book they published in 2009, Window on Dandaloo: a Community on the Bogan River, by their Hon Secretary, Diana Chase. A national newspaper, the Australian Financial Review, acknowledged the book in its article, ‘Australian ‘sleeper’ found under the house’, by Terry Ingram, on 26 July 2012.

 

Two nineteenth century portraits (unsigned and unknown) (92 x 71 cms – oil in canvas) of the Martels of Dandaloo were sold at Aalders decorative arts sale in Camperdown in Sydney on 22 July 2012. The purchasers were believed to be a couple who have purchased many Australiana works in the past two years. The paintings were believed to have been owned by the great great grand daughter of the Martels and had been stored under a house. The two paintings sold for a total of $5,250 but will need approx $2,000 of conservation work.

 

The portraits are believed to be of Florant and Cherubim Martel who settled in the area in 1857, calling their property Dandaloo. They were French. The Martels left their Dandaloo property in 1902 after the disastrous drought and subsequent flood in the Bogan River which destroyed the brick homestead and surrounding buildings. They sold the property to H.C. Rogers.

 

The Martels built a church in 1888 and it remains in use once a month for services which are ecumenical. John Martel had gifted the title of the land for the church and surrounding graves to the Trustees of the Presbyterian Church on 28 August 1906. The church contains six deeply colourful stained glass windows depicting stories of the Christian faith.

 

(Sources: Australian Financial Review 26 July 2012 p.54 including photograph; Window on Dandaloo: a Community on the Bogan River by Diana Chase, Tottenham Historical Society Inc,2009)

 

 

6) Tennant Creek, Northern Territory

 

Many local newspapers publish short articles on local history issues. The Tennant & District Times of 20 July 2012 published a 1945 letter on Tennant Creek health issues, which remain vital concerns today. A copy of the letter by C.M. (Snowy) Renfrey of 20 October 1945 to an unnamed newspaper was published in full in the newspaper of 20 July 2012. Renfrey stated that up to June 1942, Tennant Creek had a doctor and nursing staff. The Australian Army took over the staff and equipment when they arrived in 1942. When they left in 1945 they removed the hospital equipment and the staff went too. At the time Tennant Creek had a population of 212 and the nearby Eldorado mine employed 32 people.

 

(Source: Tennant & District Times of 20 July 2012)

 

 

7) Tarkine region in North West Tasmania

 

The mining history and the physical evidence of mining in the Tarkine region are currently a focus of attention in Tasmania and amongst environmental groups who campaign for the protection of the Tasmanian Devil and temperate rainforest. Three hematite mines proposed by Venture Minerals Ltd. are undergoing full federal environmental assessment under the Environmental Protection Biodiversity and Conservation Act 1999. History books and journal articles have been written on the Tarkine area outlining history of the approx 900 mining sites since the late 1870s and cattle industry history, including that of Australian’s largest tin mine at Waratah. These include Tim Jetson’s and Nic Haygarth’s historical research.

 

(Sources: The Australian 26 July 2012 p.7; Nic Haygarth, ‘Tasmania’s Mount Bischoff Tin Mine: Dalcoath of the Antipodes?’, Mining Perspectives: the Proceedings of the Eighth International Mining History Congress 2009, edited by Peter Calughton and Catherine Mills, (Published by the Cornwall and West Devon Mining landscape World Heritage Site, Cornwall, 2011) pp.145-153; Tim Jetson, ‘It’s a Different Country Down there’: a History of Droving in Western Tasmania (Circular Head Bicentenary Project Team, Smithton, 2004); A peopled frontier : the European heritage of the Tarkine area by Nic Haygarth with Simon Cubit  (Smithton, Tas., Circular Head Council, 2008).