Beginnings : Wagga Wagga Botanic Gardens

This image was kindly donated by Graeme Hanlon. Not a great deal is known about this photograph or the words on the sign. It would be great to hear from anyone who has information or memories about the early days of the gardens - email wagga.local.studies@gmail.com if you would like to share your knowledge!

The official opening ceremony for the Wagga Wagga Botanic Gardens was held on Saturday 24 August in 1968, starting at precisely 2.30 pm. According to Gary Croker, in Willan's Hill , Wagga Wagga (2000) , the gardens had unofficially been open for business since 1963.

The planning and work for the Botanic Gardens started in the 1960s, Trees were planted on Willans Hill in the 1950s by councillors, and Council staff , particularly Tom Wood, developed and grew the gardens into the beautiful and well maintained, well used, and well loved place it is today.

Graeme Hanlon also donated a copy of an article , "Wagga Wagga ..a city to crow about" , from a 1967 issue of " Your Garden" on the gardens of Wagga Wagga, describing the inland city as having a legitimate claim to being called a "Garden City" : "With it's tree clad streets (over 30,000 have been planted ) , its many parks and playing fields, one feels like entering an oasis when visiting this city" . Although slightly badly written, (implying perhaps, in that first sentence,  that visiting makes the writer wish they were entering an oasis) , the article is a quaint snapshot of civic Wagga Wagga in the 1960s. A full copy of the article is available to view in the library.

not -so-dull family history

Many people put their years of family history research into book form and Wagga City Library has a number of  these for loan, some in the local studies collection.
Members of the library can look at the items from local studies within the library- and borrow the family histories from the general collection.
Here's a sample of three histories :

The story of Mary Wade starts in England , 1778, when Mary was aged 10, and sentenced to death for taking some clothing. In 1789 her death sentence was changed to transportation to Australia aboard the ship the Lady Juliana.It was another year before the ship set sail, and finally arrived in New South Wales in 1790....

Uranie Figaro was born in Mauritius in 1816 , the 

child of slaves (her parents  names are not recorded) , who then became a servant, at the age of fifteen, to a Miss Blanchard, soon to be Mrs Manton. Uranie then accompanied the now married Mrs Manton  and her husband to land near the Yass River...

The Lindsay and Facy families start their story on the Marianne, on a whaling trip in the South Pacific in 1846. Drunkeness, more exotic boat journeys involving wool or timber, smuggling, and more weave their way through this tale and end up in Big Springs just fifty kilometres out of Wagga Wagga...

As you can see from this small sample family histories are far from boring. Come into the library and get some inspiration for writing your own family history! 

House history

Are you interested in exploring the history of  your house ?
Perhaps you live in a heritage area ? Or you live in an older style house and you would like to know more about the history of the house ? Not sure where to start ?
The New South Wales Land and Property Information website is a great place to start - especially if you don't have copies of the original property deeds.
Click on Historical searching under " I want to learn about" . There are heaps of searching tips and links.
New South Wales State Records is another fantastic resource that has ideas and advice about researching the history of your property.
The local studies collection has Parish maps and the Wagga Wagga City Council Valuation and Rate books for 1908 through to 1931 are on microfilm. Come in and book the microfilm reader to start your research today!

Local studies resources : Indigenous resources

Local studies has a very good selection of resources around local area Indigenous history, geography, language and more.
The featured book, Survival Legacies : Stories from Aboriginal settlements of southeastern Australia , by Peter Kabaila, is a valuable resource which includes information on the Cootamundra Girls Home, various settlements along the Murrumbidgee , Macquarie and Lachlan rivers and a wealth of other meticulously researched information.
There is also a copy of Survival legacies in the general collection for loan, but if someone gets that out before you do, ask for the copy from local studies so you can have a look at this excellent book in the comfort and cool of the library.

What's your line ? : how to use local studies resources

What's your area of research ?
The local studies collection is catalogued in exactly the same way as our general non - fiction collection by the Dewey decimal system - for example, Wagga Civic Theatre history is in the 700s, local sport and sporting heroes around 796.
Council documents are to be found in many different subject areas, depending on the subject matter. For example, salinity is in the 630s, and social planning 300s.
Family histories are to be found in the 929 area, and Indigenous history in 994.
If you are a member of the library, items from local studies are issued onto your card as a short loan and the item can be read or viewed within the library for two hours.
Not a member of the library or from out of town ? Ask at the information desk on how we can assist you to view items.
And to save time , you can access the library catalogue online and make a list of the items you wish to look at - and if you're not sure if we do have an item ask at the information desk - the friendly staff will be happy to help you with your area of interest !

Music, dancing...

Two more great resources in the local studies collection :

Bruce Carty's history of Australian radio is a recent addition and has information on all Australian radio stations , station logos, including  wireless radio history , and more importantly , explains the letters in station identifiers - which were always a mystery to me..

Bill Forrest has compiled a history of dance bands in country New South Wales - photographs of early dance bands with names like the Col Thompson Swingtet ( Harden Murrumburrah 1953 - 1960) , the Ganmain Revellers (1938) , The Blue Diamonds ( Forbes 1958 -1966 ), and smoothly named Rhythmaires ( Molong 1960s ) and the stories surrounding the bands and the venues make for interesting reading. If you played in a dance band or went to dances where local bands played send me an email ( wagga.local.studies@gmail.com ) or come into the library to tell us your memories.

News on microfilm

Another great resource in the library for local studies researchers is the collection of newspapers on microfilm .The collection includes :

• The Wagga Wagga Express ,October 1858 to December 31 1929
• The Wagga Wagga Advertiser October 17 1868 to June 30 1911
• The Wagga Wagga Daily Advertiser July 1 1911 to the current day.

There are also some district papers. These include :

• The Ardlethan -Beckom Times
• Coolamon Farmers Review
• Tumut and Adelong Times
• Australian Town and Country Journal 1880 -1889

other records of interest on microfilm that may be of use to researchers are

• the Wagga Rate books 1917 -1931
• Tichbourne case papers
• The Police Gazette 1900-1930

There are also a lot of records on microfiche too numerous to mention here but well worth a look for the merely curious or the serious researcher.
The microfilm reader is fully computerised and you can save the documents you choose to your USB / thumb drive to take home. The newspapers hold a great deal of valuable information that suits a variety of research purposes and looking at old advertisements and news stories from different eras can be a lot of fun in itself.


One of my favourite pieces from this edition of a 1938 Wagga Wagga Daily Advertiser is the example below - the Railway Time table on top of an advertisement for a rheumatism cure- from the mundane to the melodramatic - the "devilish torture" of rheumatic pain.


 The district news has snippets of information about local people and events which can be useful for family history researchers, as long as you have the patience and time to look through the papers. It's free to use the microfilm reader - but you must be a member of the library and book the reader at the front desk.

 Come in and enjoy hours of entertainment travelling back through time!