When Hats were a thing : Prosperous Wagga Wagga,1926

I recently rediscovered a valuable resource in the local studies collection – a promotional booklet published by the Wagga Wagga Express in 1926. It's title is suitably and unnecessarily long : "Wagga Wagga  Its Resources for Primary and Secondary Industries". In broadsheet form, it contains what we might now call advertorials; also stories, photographs, statistics about businesses, utilities, the early history of Wagga Wagga, industries in the town and region – in short an excellent reference on the place and time of 1926.

I found the history of utilities extremely interesting – water, gas and electricity all provided by the council of the time – information on kilowatts, price, machinery and processes used, all described in detail. If you are writing the ultimate Wagga Wagga historical novel, then every bit of background information you’ll ever need is here J

Farming, stock sales, education, flour milling, parks and gardens: nearly every aspect of (respectable) town life you could think of is written about.   A couple of my favourite stories include the Riverina Fruit and Confectionery Distributors Wallace & Co., illustrated with a delightful photograph of a stockroom filled with boxes and boxes of delicious sweets stacked to the ceiling. 

The other story is of Anstice and Mackay – “Noted for Hats” – which was a business situated, in 1926, on the School of Arts corner, in Fitzmaurice Street. My favourite photograph is of the Hat Department display. 

Left : from the Daily Advertiser, August 1926

As with all items in the local studies collection, you are very welcome to come into the library and look at the different resources and discover how they may help you in your research - ask at the information desk! 

Birds of a feather : The Crow, the Annual magazine of the District Rural School Wagga Wagga

The annual magazine of the district Rural School in Wagga Wagga, The Crow, was published in the first half of the last century. The Wagga District Rural School was an earlier incarnation of the Gurwood Street school.  Wagga Wagga City Library holds some editions of the magazine, which have a quaint mixture of information about teachers, sports, students, articles written by students (and ex teachers and ex students), cartoons, short stories, poetry, advertisements from sponsors,and more.

These school magazines are a handy research item, containing such a diverse array of bits and pieces about school life in the earlier part of the last century. You never know what you will find – I learnt that there was a sport called Vigoro and it was pretty popular at the time, and is still played in Australia today.  Schools in Wagga Wagga and district had teams and competed with other country towns in the region, so it was a big part of school life back then.
It is also interesting to revisit pre-technology era cultural artifacts and discover how people communicated their culture to each other. Cartoons (and drawing in general) were a popular medium, as is the way Shakespeare is used to illustrate contemporary everyday school concerns and amusements.

These magazines are part of the Wagga Wagga City Library local studies collection and are available to view within the library. There are also a few copies from the latter part of last century, with greatly different production values and topics.

Images :  Cartoon , The Crow, September 1927

                Shakespearean Wisdom, The Crow, October 1928

                The Vigoro Team, The Crow, 1927

                Advertisements, The Crow, 1930

Education in Wagga Wagga : three local schools

Wagga Wagga City Library's local history collection has a number of school histories, so here are three to get us started:

Wagga Wagga Grammar School 1915 – 1946, by Sherry Morris and Phyllis de Jersey

The history of a private school in Wagga Wagga, bought in 1914 by Eileen and Dora Day, open through to World War Two, closing in 1946. Reminiscences from students, photographs, details of courses and tales of The Day family who ran the school, gives a cosy and very local aspect to school history.

Above: from the Daily Advertiser, December 1940

Brass bells and ink wells: A history of Wagga Wagga Public School, 1861-1997

Otherwise known as the Gurwood Street School, the Wagga Wagga Public School has a long and illustrious history through its various incarnations, starting in 1851, and still operating today. It features an excellent map showing the different buildings pertinent to the school grounds and times they were established.


Above : from the Daily Advertiser, August 1937

The Belltower : A history of the South Wagga Wagga Public School 1892 -1992 , by Ruth Lewis

A detailed account of the South Wagga Wagga Public School, with maps, plans, photographs and ex-students memories of their time there. Some of the more famous ex- students include cricketer Mark Taylor, General Thomas Blamey, and Bill Kerr, who was a radio and movie star during the early part of the last century.

Left : from the Daily Advertiser, April 1942



The Wagga Wagga City Library local studies collection has much education related material available to view within the library, so if you are researching the subject or just have a general interest in local history come down and have a look ! 

A refreshing cup : Wagga Wagga's Cafe Society 1920 - 1954

Above : from The Daily Advertiser, January 1943

Cafes were a huge part of the community in the first part of the 20^th century.  More than just providers of food and drink, cafes were meeting places, landmarks for giving directions to events or other businesses, and they hosted events and parties of all kinds. 

Street stalls were part of the war time fundraising effort and directions for such were printed in the newspaper when announcing when and where the stalls were operating. People could buy goods from the stalls and the money raised went to supporting war related or other similar charities.  The Greek café community in Wagga Wagga also contributed greatly to the war effort by raising large amounts of money in 1942.

Above : from The Daily Advertiser, December 1942

Cafes also made the news through brawls, breaching food health and safety laws, people behaving weirdly (yelling or knocking tables and chairs over) and being removed from the premises, fires, and over pricing of cigarettes, to name but a few examples. Farewells and bridge nights, engagement parties, musical evenings, in fact anything that involved people gathering for an event would most likely involve one of Wagga’s many cafes.

Above: from The Daily Advertiser, March 1923

Here is a by no means exhaustive list of cafes operating in Wagga Wagga from 1920 to 1954 :  

Riverina Café (Gurwood Street) 1920

St John’s Café (Baylis Street) 1921

Austral Café 1923

Mother’s Union Café 1926

Picone’s Café 1928

Wonderland Café (adjoins the Strand arcade) 1928
Siver Key Café  (Baylis Street) 1929

Page’s Wattle Café, 1930

White Rose Café 1931

Majestic Café (Gurwood Street) 1932

Black Cat Café (240 Baylis Street) 1933

Popular Café, (Fitzmaurice Street) 1933

Watson’s Café  1933

Café Royal (210 Baylis Street) 1934

Elizabeth Café (over Edmondson’s in Gurwood Street) 1934

Toby’s Tavern, ( Glamis Court, Gurwood Street) 1938

Continental Café 1940

Aussie Café 1942

Blue Moon Café (next to the Plaza Theatre) 1943

Crown Corner Café 1948

Alpine Café 1948

Ideal Café (Baylis Street) 1950

Bidgee Café 1951

Bridge Café 1951

In the early part of the 20^th century the  Café Chantant was also popular, a form of café event held outside in garden settings, where people sang and recited poetry and stalls sold different foods like ice creams and fizzy drinks, tea, coffee and little cakes. Gardens at twilight, with strings of fairy lights and Chinese lanterns decorating the trees, were pretty backdrops for the evening's programme. Mount Erin held a number of successful Café Chantants in the 1920s.

Above : from The Daily Advertiser, November 1928

The Bridge Café is famous in Wagga Wagga’s history and is featured in Selling an American Dream : Australia’s Greek Café, the book accompanying the national travelling exhibition in 2013. Lex Marinos is a descendant of the original owner of the Bridge café, Anthony Karofilis. This book is part of the Wagga Wagga City Library local studies collection and is available to view within the library.

Above : from The Daily Advertiser, May 1951

Above : Anthony Karofilis and staff, Bridge Cafe Wagga Wagga, 1950s. From  Selling an American dream : Australia's Greek Cafe

Different faces of Wagga Wagga : new books in local studies

The 1960s Aboriginal Fruit-Picking Scheme – A critical evaluation: An instructive history of social policy, social work, and Central Australian Aborigines by Milton James.

This study of the policies, procedures and outcomes of a fruit-picking scheme created to solve a labour shortage in selected rural areas covers the groups based at Gundagai, Leeton and Griffith, amongst others further afield.

The study contains statistics regarding pay rates, properties used in the scheme, as well as reminiscences from various people involved, from property owners to workers.

Wiradjuri Reserve Gobba Beach (Murrumbidgee River): Statement of Significance for an Aboriginal Place Declaration. Compiled by Go Green Services, Wagga Wagga.

Another extensively researched and readable report from Dick Green at Go Green Services, containing Indigenous history, maps, environmental facts, photographs and more.  There is a copy of this book in the general collection as well as in local studies, and is available for loan.

Faces of Wagga Wagga by John Egan.

A series of portraits of people who have contributed to the local community in diverse ways, taken by the photographer (and author) John Egan. There is a copy of this book in the general  collection as well as local studies. 

Wagga Wagga in the 1950s : "Quiet as the morgue"

By January  1950, Wagga Wagga had become a quiet and mostly respectable town, to the extent that its inhabitants felt it was generally dead as a doornail. The anonymous "Staff Reporter" (see above) felt that Wagga had improved somewhat from his first year in the town. The start of a new year was still a cause for celebration, especially at this time as it took the town further away from the austerity years of World War Two. A national debate about ending petrol and butter rationing was just beginning.  

So what was Wagga really like in the 1950s ? The pages of the Daily Advertiser provide a snapshot of a mostly wealthy, comfortable and progressive town with a reputation of being a little on the dull side.

But the future was arriving, with the newspaper announcing that "movies by telephone" were on the way :

The quirky side of Wagga also appears in sometimes startling, many and varied news items (also interesting to see what passed as news in that era), from the country beer shortage, snakes spotted in West Wyalong, the scandal of drunk, nude swimmers on Wagga beach, new Croquet lawns and a car inadvertently stolen twice by the same thieves.

Wagga Wagga held an annual Gift Race day, which brought an influx of people to participate and watch (the Gift included a cycling category). There was also a Boxing event which was always popular: 

What was on the menu in the early 1950s? Curried pilchards, tinned cauliflower and peas were another, perhaps explosive, carryover from the war years when people may have been less fussy about what they ate.

My favourite items from the 1950s are the clothing and other advertisements, elegant but somehow faintly ridiculous, like the sophisticated self supporting trouser, and the evening gown required for cigarette smoking.

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This blog post is the first in a series about the 1950s in Wagga, and we’d like to know what are your memories of the 1950s in Wagga ? Do you have any photographs, favourite toys or books, movies or events you would like to share with us ? contact us at wagga.local.studies@gmail.com and we can share your 1950s memories !

New to Wagga Wagga City Library’s local studies collection : A history of the North Wagga Public Hall by Geoff Burch

 

Local Historian Geoff Burch has written a concise and thoroughly researched history of the North Wagga Wagga hall, with its origin as a church and community hall for North Wagga particularly.

 

Local people’s memories of the social occasions held at the hall are many and varied, with dances, friendship clubs, weddings, and different community groups using the hall as a meeting place over the years.

 

There is extensive and precise historical information on architectural plans, ownership and leasing by various groups. The ownership of the hall is particularly covered in detail, with the author untangling a slightly confusing tale of two halls in the same area.  

 

A highlight in the North Wagga hall’s history is when it was raided by police in May 1950, when the businessmen of Wagga got together to hold a “fete” in the hall, which was actually a gambling event (p 13, A History of the North Wagga Public Hall, Geoff Burch) .

This item will soon be available to view as part of the local studies collection, and is well worth the read.