Kogarah Council
OATLEY HERITAGE &
Hurstville Council HISTORICAL SOCIETY
P.O. Box 121, Oatley NSW 2223
4 April 2013
Dear OHHS member,
We will have our next “Coffee and Chat” meeting at 1015 Friday 26th April at the back of the Library. Members are invited to bring along interesting historical items to share, and for discussion
Next Main meeting is at 1030 Friday 24th May 2013 at Oatley RSL when Graham Lalchere will present a report on Oatley Bowling Club. He is still open to any information you may have on 9580 3107.
We welcome Winifred and Kevin Wilcox, Betty Goodger, and Julian Sheen, elected at the AGM, on to our committee. We express our gratitude to Margaret Forbes and Jean Woodward, long term committee members, and Anthony Martin, who did not seek re-election. John Whitbread has taken over from Bernard Bogan as Treasurer. We thank Bernard for his work over a number of years firstly as Committee Member, and more recently as Treasurer. The Committee has met and we are moving ahead on work in the archival area, and Julian is writing a report on “Oatley 100 years ago” for our November meeting (in place of Cliff Crane’s report “Early Oatley Families” which will now be given in 2014).
In the Library we have a filing cabinet with much collected material from members and others on the history of Oatley. We intend to catalogue and digitise all records and present on our website so that many can share. This has been achieved to a certain degree but needs refinement. Of our many manuscripts a lot will need to be translated to readable digitised form. All this will take some work.
The above work raises the prospect of producing an “Oatley History Book”. The committee wants to start this process with the production of possible chapters of the book using existing and/or new material. We don’t see this as a quick process but we will begin this year.
Nearly all the “Oatley Now and Then” calendars have been sold but still we get some requests for copies. They are now $5 each. The proceeds from the sales has put around $950 into the coffers of each the Lions Club and OHHS. The important achievement though is that our “village” and its history is now spread to many corners in Australia – and worldwide!. It has reminded many who used to live in Oatley of their experiences here. We have lots of suggestions for a future calendar!
The committee reported to the AGM that it had fixed annual subscription rate for membership at $6 per family. To maintain financial membership status the subscription is to be received by 22nd May 2013. Payment can be made by cheque or money order, or with a $6 book of postage stamps, and should be sent to PO Box 121, Oatley, 2223 - so, if you have not already paidyour subscription we would be pleased to receive it and confirm your membership on the register we are now required to maintain.
I am looking at bodies that provide grant money for projects. These grants occur annually so we have to wait till they come up for submission. One of the objectives of incorporation was to enable OHHS to apply to for grants.
Jim Douglas a respected long-term Oatley resident died in February. Although we hadn’t seen Jim at meetings in recent years, he continued to receive the Newsletter (and donate stamps toward our funds!). Jim showed me an interesting legal title document going back to the James Oatley Grant and let me make a digital copy. If we do a report on this aspect of our history then this document will be useful.
Rodger Robertson
95707471