Secretary of the Gundaroo and District Historical Society, Esther Robinson (left), with president Sue Burns holding butcher Albert Sibley’s 1937 ledger in the Gundaroo Literary Institute. Photos: Sally Hopman.
In Gundaroo, it’s all about the history. Stories of a thriving village community back in the 1800s where the main street boasted a butcher, baker and likely candlestick-maker, general store and a couple of pubs.
Today, most of those shops are gone, but the old Crowe’s Wine Bar still serves bevvies to weary travellers and everyone else – albeit a little fancier than in Matt Crowe’s day – and the 1865 Royal Hotel, built for William Affleck, now houses the award-winning restaurant Grazing.
Over the years, the village has grown rapidly, with new houses sprouting up on old farmland, and many Canberra folk moving out there for a greener life.
But for Gundaroo local Sue Burns, who is also president of the Gundaroo and District Historical Society, the town’s past will always remain in the foreground. Not just historic buildings and plaques, but the real-life pieces of days gone by, from old shop ledgers showing who spent what on meat a week to musical instruments used to entertain at the local dance, to an old CWA cookbook with the name of one of the best country cooks in the village, Mabel Whittaker, written on the front cover.
Mrs Whittaker, a village stalwart, is featured prominently in a new exhibition, Gundaroo’s Golden Oldies, being held from 3-4 May.
One of the items on show will be her beloved blue-and-white china Willows teapot, from which she must have poured thousands of cuppas, along with the old iron pots she always had on the go on her wood stove even in the height of summer.
“I was out at the Gunning Show,” Sue Burns said, “and in between the cakes and zucchinis they had this section of relics and curios.
“Lots of old kitchen stuff people had used, old maps, postcards, that sort of thing. I thought we had relics like that in Gundaroo so we should do something like that too.”
A page from the Gundaroo baker’s ledger from 1915 for the Barlow family account.
So she put the call out and named the date. Wanted: Memories of Gundaroo for a Golden Oldies weekend, May 3 and 4.
And in came the treasures, items that illustrated what life was like in the village’s heyday: an old Shell service station sign someone had been using as a fence; a stack of children’s books, including The Magical Painting Book, believed to have belonged to Kay Crowe; a stack of lace in a sewing tin; a stained and dog-eared 1963 copy of the countrywoman’s bible, Fowler’s Method of Bottling Fruit and Vegetables; an autographed invitation for the 1927 celebratory dinner for the Canberra No 1 cricket team; and a stack of old tins, including something called groat along with metal containers for coffee and tea – and even a Bluebird tin that looks to have contained a piece of wedding cake.
One of the special items on show will be a 1904 drawing of the Gundaroo Watch House, which has been lent by the Yass and District Historical Society.
A clearly well-used copy of the bush cook’s bible, Fowler’s bottling guide, which belonged to Gundaroo’s most popular cook, Mabel Whittaker.
“We also have an old Ampol sign, which was used to keep the chooks from getting out,” Ms Burns said.
She said most of the Gundaroo material had come from locals and Canberra people with some connection to the village, as well as others in the Yass Valley.
“That’s what it’s all about,” she said. “Connection.”
People with items connected to Gundaroo who would like to share them in the Golden Oldies display can contact Ms Burns on 0418 496 908 or email [email protected].
The Gundaroo Golden Oldies display is at the Gundaroo Literary Institute, Cork Street, Gundaroo, on 3 and 4 May from 10 am to 3 pm. Entry is free, but donations to the historical society are welcome.
