The 1882 Queanbeyan Perseverance Lodge is on display for the first time in 60 years as part of the Queanbeyan-Palerang Heritage Festival. Photo: Claire Fenwicke.
On three walls of The Q’s exhibition space are three pieces of community works that are shrouded in mystery.
Two textile pieces and one unfinished quilt have been carefully cleaned and displayed as part of the Queanbeyan-Palerang Heritage Festival with the hopes someone can fill the gaps of their stories.
Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council arts and heritage team leader Janita Byrne said the textile pieces were stitched together when the Jerrabomberra and Letchworth communities were established in the 1980s.
“Each of those communities had a community centre established and so as part of community building there were projects for creating textiles to be displayed in those centres,” she said.
“People got together, met one another and made something special, and those textiles hung in those community centres for some time.”
Queanbeyan Quilters member Amanda Pratt has seen the Letchworth Quilt hanging in the hall for the past six years.
“The mystery was, when Janita came out and had a look at it, just over a year ago now … she peered behind and under, and we even looked at the crosses in the cemetery to see if there were any makers’ names, but there’s no names on any of that textile,” she said.
“Whereas the one from Jerrabomberra has actually got a scroll on it with the names [of the makers] on it.
“So it’s a bit of a mystery.”
The quilt, which was found in Cooma, has a few more clues. It’s a Women’s Day of Reconciliation Quilt that was sewn in 2000.
But there’s so much more that isn’t known.
“It’s obviously been made in the Queanbeyan region by Queanbeyan people, but we don’t know if it was just First Nations people or whether … maybe the Queanbeyan Quilters helped a First Nations group to create that,” Ms Byrne said.
“But putting these things on display will help uncover the stories.”
Some readers may wonder why it’s important to find out who were the people behind the materials.
Ms Pratt described them as “part of the fabric of this town”.
“These are collaborative works … a whole group of people would have been behind all three of those works; there’s patchwork textiles, handwork, embroidery, beadwork and all levels of skills, but they were all welcome to be part of putting something together, which is the beauty of them,” she said.
“They are treasures of this community and whoever made them … so it’s good not to lose that.”
Of course these three works aren’t the only historical items to be enjoyed as part of the Queanbeyan Heritage Festival.
The 1882 Queanbeyan Perseverance Lodge banner has also been carefully displayed for the first time in about 60 years.
The Grand United Order of Oddfellows Perseverance Lodge opened in Queanbeyan in May 1876, and acquired the banner in time for the town’s celebration of Queen Victoria’s 63rd birthday.
Among the festival’s old favourites include extended opening hours at the community-run Queanbeyan and Braidwood museums (along with special talks), as well as heritage walks and the potential for another Queanbeyan Cemetery Walk (the first session has already been booked out).
“The number of events each year waxes and wanes depending on what’s going on for people in various places,” Ms Byrne said.
“But we always try to create a heritage exhibition that brings part of the Queanbeyan region’s heritage to people, and that’s what our change and perseverance exhibition is all about.”
Discover the Queanbeyan-Palerang’s history by exploring what the festival has to offer here. The festival runs from now until 3 May; some events will have their own individual dates and times.
