Celebration of local history

October is history month and the Warragul and District Historical Society will open its doors next week with a number of history focussed presentations.
The open week will run from Monday, October 9 to Friday, October 13 from 10am to 2pm each day.
Home to this historical society, the Old Shire Hall at 72 Queen St, Warragul is a grand old building which opened in 1892. There are four rooms of museum items, photographs, and a special display of "Memories of Warragul High School".
Upstairs is the meeting room which has a very special coved ceiling, where the society will present a different power-point film each day to showcase aspects of Warragul history.
History Powerpoint displays will be held daily at 11am.
Monday - History based around hotels of the area
Tuesday - Drouin, Warragul and histrict history.
Wednesday - Warragul history – coach stops, hotels, Buildings, Monuments.
Thursday - Warragul through a century - railways, factories, churches, stores.
Friday - Warragul from then to now – high points 1886 to 2020, and Darnum.
The Warragul and District Historical Society was established in 1967, it is affiliated with the Royal Historical society of Victoria and under the patronage of the Baw Baw Shire.
The society's aim is to collect and preserve as much history of the local area through archival storage methods - everything is itemised and catalogued with computerisation.
Local history is featured throughout the Old Shire Hall in many ways including a large display of objects of historical interest.
WDHS receives many inquiries about the history of the Warragul and district area. At the museum members do research using the library which has a large collection of books about the area plus memoirs from those who have written or recorded about their local experiences.
The Warragul Gazette newspapers dating from 1898 to the present and some of the Warragul Guardian newspapers are stored at the museum and available for anyone to access.
There also are maps, micro-film and archival materials available. The collection of photographs, of which a large number have now been scanned, tell the history of the area and copies are available to purchase.
A three-piece green silk wedding frock dated 1876 will be on display with a number of other early costumes including the early municipal band and fire brigade uniforms.
A for-sale table will feature many interesting books, some framed and some unframed sketches and small photograph albums of photographs of Warragul in the 2020s.