Journey to the West : The Chinese in Wagga

If you could time travel, which period of Wagga's history would you travel to ? I think one of the most exciting times would have been during the 1880s, when the town had a bustling Chinese community on the banks of the Murrumbidgee, down near Hampden bridge.
Historian Sherry Morris quotes a report from 1883 on the Chinese camps ; according to this report, 233 persons lived in the main camp, and businesses included lottery houses, opium shops, and general stores.
Six European wives in the camp apparently caused a great deal of trouble through gossip and violence, to the point of the majority Chinese population signing a petition for the women to be removed from the camp
(Morris, Daily Advertiser, 2/12/95, p. 26).
Wagga City Library's local studies collection has some great resources to get you started in your research. One of these is Golden Threads: The Chinese in regional New South Wales 1850 - 1950, by Janis Wilton. There is also a website : http://hosting.collectionsaustralia.net/goldenthreads/
Local studies also holds a folder, The Chinese in Wagga Wagga, containing information collated from the Golden Threads website, material on the Chinese graves in Wagga, and news items from early Wagga newspapers and much more.
The Chinese community in Wagga Wagga have made and continue to make a significant and welcome contribution to the city.Come down to the library to discover more about the hidden history of our local area!

Gurwood Street : the Paris end of Wagga

Gurwood Street has had a large and enduring part to play in Wagga Wagga's history, right from the very beginning when Surveyor Townsend first laid out plans for the town in 1849. This wide, tree lined, gracious street retains some of it's former bohemian influences and a slightly raffish charm, and encompasses one of the nicer parts of "old" Wagga.
Cafes, lawyers, Speirs famous jewellery store, and a cinema, were just a few of the businesses that made their home in Gurwood Street over the years. According to "The progress of Wagga Wagga and District", Hanson's Butchery in Gurwood Street (at the turn of the previous century) was built on "the original site occupied by Tom Castro, the notorious Tichbourne claimant".Other businesses included H. Oates, Merchant Tailor,The State Stores Ltd.,and even a funeral director and enbalmers service, Hoye and Colbeck's,
The Wagga Wagga City Library local studies collection has a few handy references on Gurwood Street's history, including entries in the Urban Heritage study ( available to look at within the library ). Many schools were established in the street, some lasting, some active during the war years 1939-1945, and the library has a selection of these histories for loan.
If you are researching the history of a particular street another handy reference is "The street names of Wagga Wagga" compiled by William "Bill" Ellis, who was the Town Clerk of the City, from 1960 - 1984. This guide to street names also has the year the street was named- quite helpful for assisting historical research. Another fun way of researching a street is using the extensive collection of local microfilm to find businesses, people and events that may have a connection with your street. Check when your street was named, then pick the corresponding year in the newspapers on microfilm, then start searching!
Come into the library and spend a few happy hours looking into Wagga's history!

Old Wagga Wagga : Fitzmaurice Street

Photograph : commercial building,Fitzmaurice Street,1978. National Trust RRC

Wagga Wagga City Library and it’s local studies collection have some excellent resources for anyone researching or with an interest in Fitzmaurice Street. The original business district of the town, Fitzmaurice street has undergone boom and bust, floods, and a major makeover in recent years.

Three resources to get you started: 

Fitzmaurice Street: Now and then, compiled by Jill Harris of the Riverina Archives, 1989, contains a concise history, a plan of the street, and encourages the reader to carry out their own research using the book as a guide.

The Fitzmaurice Street , Wagga Wagga Streetscape Review : is the report commissioned in 2002 by Wagga Wagga City Council for a makeover of the entire street .

There is a fascinating exhibition now showing at the Museum of the Riverina, "People and place : Fitzmaurice and Baylis Streets, Wagga Wagga", until the 30th of March, at the Museum's Historic Council Chambers site, opposite the Victory Memorial Gardens. Check the Museum of the Riverina's website for further details and opening times. www.wagga.nsw.gov.au/museum/exhibitions/current-exhibitions

  

The Wagga City library catalogue also has entries from the historic rate books and the local studies local history photograph collection has been partially digitised and those images are accessible through the library catalogue.

If you are a member of the library you can request to view any item in local studies, for use within the library. Have fun researching! 

Back to the future : Back to Wagga 1927

There have been three “Back to Wagga” events over the years : 1927, 1956 and 1970. The pick of these, in my view, would have to be the very first, in 1927. The week long celebrations, presided over by a committee (which, ahead of its time, included two women in a group of ten) were the focal point of community interest and participation over a number of months leading up to and during the festival itself.

Community events were packed into daily programs:  athletic carnivals, tennis tournaments, Diggers “smoko” ( a gathering for WW1 surviving ANZACS) church services, movies, a massive dance line up at the Dixieland, chess and draughts tournaments, massed displays of dancing and marching by school children, and my favourite, a huge confetti battle at the end of one day’s events,  which, it seems, anyone could join in . Local bands including the City Concert Band played. Local businesses got on the “Back to” bandwagon and worked the theme into their advertising and specials.

The “Back to Wagga” souvenir for 1927 contains some over confident, self-congratulatory self -adulation, appropriate for the time, but slightly nauseating to read now, and if you can get past that, the booklet is quite a good resource for researching the mainstream side of between-the-wars Wagga Wagga just before the full force of the Depression hit.

Hard core, hard copy, *old school* : the Wagga Wagga City Art Gallery's Arty Facts, 1989 - 1993

Cover : Chen Liu, A little mischief, 1988, woodcut.

Back in the day, before the interwebs, before email, blogs, twitter and facebook, how did cultural institutions share information ? One way was the printed newsletter or journal, (still around today) and tucked away in  Wagga Wagga City Library local studies there is a set of newsletters produced by the Wagga Wagga City Art Gallery between 1989 - 1993. 

The newsletters, published twice a year, during this five year period, were produced with the help of a grant from the New South Wales Ministry of the Arts. Information includes national touring exhibitions, locally curated exhibitions, workshops, performance art and installation art, as well as articles on teaching and experiencing art, gallery tours and talks. General image quality isn't great but woodcuts ( a favourite of mine) turn out well.The newsletters are a valuable historical and cultural reference. 

We're not sure if this is a complete set of newsletters for this period of time or if there was another version of the newsletter before or after 1989 - 1993. We'd love to hear if you have any information to share about Arty Facts - email is wagga.local.studies@gmail.com or drop into the library . Or if you would like to read the newsletters, and you are a member of the library, they are available for viewing within the library. 

World War W

If you have an interest in world war two and would like to get an idea of what it was like in Wagga Wagga around this time , the local studies collection contains some compelling memoirs, factual accounts and formal biographies . There is also a copy for loan in the general collection, in biography.

One of these is Ray Kelly's Tail of a Gunner : a WOAG from Wagga Wagga, covers Ray's childhood and teen years before the war, growing up in Pleasant Hills and moving to Wagga, enlisting, and then his wartime experiences as a Wireless Operator Rear Gunner in the RAAF. This book is a moving and memorable chronicle of a difficult time, and the book closes with an afterword on the survivors of the 463 Lancaster Bomber Squadron :

Courage is something about being cool, calm and collected. It is what makes a man feel warm inside and confident, but nagging at his mind ( and thus at his physical self) is that gremlin that sits on his shoulder waiting, just waiting, for the thin line to be crossed and his spirit to be broken. No one can really speak about courage unless he has to test his own.

No matter what your stance on war, this book is a powerful read and personal, showing what it feels like to move from childhood to the dark and frightening time of world war.

Telling stories : Treasures from the local studies collection

 

These three books are in the literature section of the local studies collection. Each story is of its time ; space travel, shipwrecks, strange lands with strange creatures.And stories are a great way to connect to to times and places past. Come in and discover many other literary treasures the local studies collection holds..


Cybertales - an anthology of fantasy and science fiction by young writers, published by Wagga Wagga Writers Writers, 1999. "Back on Xyron..."

Bertha and the silver suit - a lovely tale about Bertha the astronaut, her moon cat Monty, and Bentley the space dog. 2006. A production of Kurrajong Warratah.

Shipwrecked on a mysterious island - written by the third and fourth grade pupils of North Wagga School 1966. All the elements of a great story...a journey, delays, a storm at sea, a shipwreck and..a volcano?!