Wimmera Mallee Pioneer Museum - Building for a Big 2023
Published on 07 February 2023
Happy New Year everyone! This is the time of year we reflect on the past year’s achievements and look forward to the new year ahead.
Following the COVID-19 impacts of the previous two years, 2022 started on a high with the Museum receiving our Significance Assessment. With the support of a Local History Grant from the Victorian Government’s Public Records Office (PROV), Euan McGillivray did a great job providing us with a comprehensive report detailing the importance of our collection, building on the Master and Interpretation Plan commissioned by the Shire in 2016. This report now becomes an integral part of the road map for our future.
In 2022 the museum held its two-day Rally over the Queen’s Birthday weekend. It was fantastic to welcome everyone back and everyone had a great time dressing up and listening to stories of our past. Uncle Wazza and former Mayor, Cr Melanie Albrecht, opened the Rally with a Welcome to Country Smoking Ceremony, and reminiscences of growing up in the area. It was a bit scary too as Dan ‘Mad Dog’ Morgan made his appearance, but thankfully the policemen saved the day in this fantastic representation of the region’s bush ranging past. Stay tuned as this coming year we hold our first King’s Birthday Rally!
2022 was also a year for change. The museum welcomed Clem Paech and Craige Proctor to the Asset Management Committee. Both are avid historians with very different backgrounds, Clem in farming and Craige a former English teacher, recently receiving the Royal Historical Society’s Award of Merit for service to Victorian history - a great honour. Both Clem and Craige will be a great asset to the committee! Thank you to Craige for accepting the position of Secretary.
Also this year Peter Pumpa decided not to renominate for President. We thank him for his fifteen years of diligent service as President of the Museum. He continues to volunteer on the committee and we look forward to his input as Vice President. A big thank you to Maryanne Paech for her valuable contribution as our Treasurer and Tige Mannington for organising our Exhibitors for the Rally. As always our volunteers are a huge asset. A small band of six regular volunteers keep our doors open five days a week. This is an outstanding achievement and we are very grateful to them. We also welcome the return of our new Mayor Brett Ireland, and our Tourism Officer Jeff Woodward for their continued and valuable support.
Looking ahead the committee is excited to take on some new challenges following up on the Significance Assessment. We look forward to applying for a preservation assessment grant with the National Libraries Association in March, and beginning an update on our catalogue of domestic items. We are excited to build on our relationship with the Barengi Gadjin Land Council, updating our Cultural Heritage Display following our Assessment last year, and working with the Menzies Institute to bring an exhibit highlighting Sir Robert’s formative years. We will be updating our exhibits, focusing this year on improvements to the McKay Shed, and we will try to tackle the question of storage which will enable us to display our exhibits in a much more accessible way. Lastly but certainly not least we look forward to bringing you more wonderful stories of our past.
The museum committee and volunteers look forward to another busy and successful year ahead.
All the best for the year and we hope you will come and join us in celebrating our past at the Wimmera Mallee Pioneer Museum, 5371 Dimboola-Rainbow Rd, Jeparit.
For more information, please contact Jeff Woodward, Tourism and Economic Development officer on 03 5391 4444, or email jwoodward@hindmarsh.vic.gov.au.
Greg Wood
Chief Executive Officer