Minutes of Public Meeting 10 July 2005

Minutes of Public Meeting

Held on Sunday 9 July 2006

Venue: Linnwood, Byron Road, Guildford

Welcome & Apologies
John McKenna opened the meeting at approximately 2.12pm and welcomed all in attendance. John also welcomed our Guest Speakers, Steve Mould and Sharon Moxham, as well as other members of Guildford Rotary.

Apologies:
Julie Beck, Carol Duane, Tiffany Duane, Hilda Corrick, Flo McMaster, John Walz, John Warwick, Russ Werner

Today’s Guest Speakers
Today we changed the order of the agenda, and John McKenna introduced Steve Mould and Sharon Moxham who will speak about the Rotary Club of Guildford, which is unfortunately closing after 44 years of service to the local community.

In its 44 years, the Rotary Club of Guildford has been most active, incredibly interesting and very rewarding for all the Rotarians and their families, and particularly rewarding for the many thousands of lives touched by the activities of the club both in Australia and around the world.

The highest Rotary award is the “Paul Harris Fellow” (Paul Harris was the ‘father of Rotary’). Being a recipient means that you have been honoured by your peers for outstanding work in your community, either locally or across the world.

The Rotary Club of Guildford was officially formed on 23 March 1962, with its Inaugural President being Mr Reg Dunshea (who many of our Holroyd members will remember).

One of the first major undertakings of the Rotary Club of Guildford was the Youth Exchange Program which has welcomed young people from Japan, Indonesia, Denmark, Austria, Sweden, USA, Belgium and Canada. Many of our local Australian youth have also ventured overseas as ambassadors to enhance the Club’s reputation across the world.

Some of the Club’s general projects included supporting the girls of Linnwood with the provision of sewing machines, a piano, a MixMaster and library books. Blood banks were started in the community, and assistance was given to local Girl Guides and Boy scouts. Internationally, the Club founded three water wells in Wewak, Papua New Guinea, and Club members, together with the then Head of Linnwood (Gladys Johnson) physically assisted in building a teachers training building at Tari, Papua New Guinea.

One of the most remembered undertakings of the Club was the installation of the Guildford Town Clock in 1967. It is believed that the clock, pole and fittings were valued at $500 (expensive at the time). Unfortunately a careening truck knocked it to the pavement and it lay in a warehouse for many years gathering dust. It has since been replaced (twice) by a more modern timepiece.

The NSW government “borrowed” some of the forward-thinking of the Rotary Club of Guildford and formed the Association for the Assistance of Intellectually and Socially Handicapped Persons. AAISH was designed to “de-institutionalise” mildly retarded people and re-introduce them into society. The Club, as part of the Association, then took on the task of leasing cottages for both men and women, and these were supported by government community nurses, and Rotary ladies who taught domestic tasks and management of personal affairs. The Club also started a farm at Rooty Hill to raise chickens and vegetables which by the 1980’s the government assisted in privatisation, and the farm is probably the largest supplier of seedlings and potted colour plants to the Sydney Flower Markets.

The Princess Quest raised $25,000 for the Oncology Unit at Westmead Children’s Hospital, and a further $15,000 was added at a later date. A plaque was erected on site which recognises the Rotary Club of Guildford as a major sponsor.

One of Rotary’s favourite major projects was sending sick children to Disneyland, in conjunction with the Oncology Department at the Westmead Children’s Hospital. The trip also included visits to Universal Studios and Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch.

There were many, many projects which the Rotary Club of Guildford instigated or was involved in – too numerous to mention, but included Pecky’s Playground, Group Study Exchange, Kiddie Cars, replacing the floor of the School of Arts building, smoke alarms for Guildford’s elderly, the pool lift at Guildford Pool, and as part of Rotary International, the long term eradication of Polio Plus, as partners with the World Health Organisation. The Club was also involved in raising funds for Police Legacy which helped the families of fallen officers.

Peter McGann, the current, and sadly the last President of the Rotary Club of Guildford, then presented Dorothy Warwick and the Friends of Linnwood with the Club’s memorabilia for safe-keeping and display at Linnwood. This includes a huge book of newspaper clippings and photos, the bell which they used to start each meeting, and a framed chain which shows the names of all past presidents.

The Friends of Linnwood thank the Rotary Club of Guildford for entrusting their precious items to us, and everyone can be assured that these will be treasured and on display for all to see.

Confirmation of Minutes of Public Meeting held on Sunday 21 May 2006
The Minutes of the Public Meeting held 21 May 2006, which were mailed or emailed to members, were accepted by the Meeting.

Correspondence
Correspondence inwards and outwards, as per the agenda, was accepted by the Meeting.

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to Linnwood. A special welcome to our visitors from Guildford Rotary and we thank you for coming today. For those who may be visiting with us for the first time, this report is given to keep members up to date with anything that has happened concerning Linnwood and the Friends since our last meeting and also anything that may be coming up in the future.

We also acknowledge by way of “Show and Tell” any donations that may have come in since the last meeting and as usual I will begin with them.

From Jacqui Douglas we have 2 clay marbles found at 21 Chamberlain Road, Guildford. We have no idea how old these may be but I would think that they aren’t new, that’s for sure!

From the Committee of the Body Corporate of 448 Guildford Road, we have a branding iron – found in the grounds of the building. Again there is no telling how old this may be or if it was from the original dwelling on the property. Lynette Lloyd, one of our new stallholders on our Open House Days, has donated some J&P Cotton reels – brought to Australia in the 1940’s by her grandmother and thought to be at least 80 years old.

Both Coral Hamilton and Pat O’Brien have donated some lovely doilies that we can use for ‘everyday use’. We are constantly looking for doilies to help show off some of our treasures.

From Claire Muzzatta, a parent of one of Christine’s embroidery pupils, we have a pair of white sheets made by a Mrs Stornelli for her trousseau in the 1940’s. The top sheet and pillowcase have been beautifully hand embroidered. From an anonymous donor we have a ‘Glomesh’ shoulder bag – do you remember these?

The Porcelain Artists have donated 4 boxes of ‘kitchenalia’ – platters, a large old ‘church’ type tea pot and lots of cups and saucers. You may even have your afternoon tea in one this afternoon – they are quite pretty and too nice to keep away in the cupboard.

Helen Mewitt from the Lace Guild has kindly donated a pair of ladies nylon lace gloves – remember wearing a pair like these to church?

Guildford Rotary has very kindly donated a booklet on the history of their club, written recently by one of their members, and two women’s scarves. Also, Peter McGann, President at the time of the club’s closure, has brought quite a few things with him today and we would like to express our gratitude to Guildford Rotary for allowing their memorabilia to stay in Guildford for all to see. We are very honoured to be the new custodians of their history. Peter and I were invited to Rotary’s final dinner and it was interesting to hear that one of their first projects, when the group formed, was to take the Linnwood girls on picnics and outings – so the circle closes, with one of their final gestures being to bring their treasures to Linnwood for safe keeping.

To all those who have made donations, we thank you. The cataloguing committee is making steady progress, getting together most Tuesday mornings, but we could always do with some help if anyone is interested. But, better to check first to make sure we are going to be here – sometimes one or all of us get better offers!

Now to catch up with what’s been happening in the past 2 months and what is coming up in the future, and I will try and keep it in some sort of order:

Helen and I attended a meeting of the Lane Cove Historical Society, and using our new overhead presentation gave a talk about Linnwood and the Friends, and were very kindly presented with a book about ‘Carisbrook’ an historic house their society is involved with. A book like this is something we would like to aspire to with Linnwood. Maybe one day………………

Pat and I had a meeting with Murray Brown from the Heritage Office and Diane Jogia from Holroyd Council, to discuss the progress, if any, in the plans for the future of Linnwood. There does not appear to have been much progress made, but it would seem the Heritage Office will soon be asking for tenders to complete the repairs to the roof and to the floor in the back room – left unfinished by the previous contractor.

Some committee members attended the second meeting of the newly formed Holroyd Historical Forum, held at Hambledon Cottage. The next meeting will be hosted by Granville Historical Society and we will host the November meeting. Both meetings of this new group have been very positive and we thank Holroyd Council’s Local Studies Librarian, Stephen Coppins, for initiating the formation of this group.

Unfortunately, the Linnwood property was the target for some major vandalism in May with a break-in at McCredie Cottage which resulted in the loss of power to the whole site. Luckily, our ever vigilant gardeners discovered the problem when they couldn’t boil any water for a cuppa – and we were able to contact the security company, Integral, the police and the Heritage Office, who then gave approval for a ‘static’ guard to stay overnight to secure the property. When the Integral technician came to inspect the damage, he commented that it looked like a professional job, so it would appear that there may have been plans to attempt break-ins to either or both Linnwood and the Dormitory building once the alarm systems had been disabled. Anyway, power was restored to the site and we have been informed that there is a ‘static’ guard on the site every weekend now, so hopefully the situation will not arise again.

We had our pre-spring, spring clean early in June and I would like to thank all those who turned up on the day, buckets and cleaning cloths at the ready, to do some much needed cleaning. We were able to do quite a bit, mainly to the front drawing room and to the library, and also changing the displays, which really made a big difference to the appearance of each room. Thanks also to Michael who was also able to fix the hinges on the library door which has made it more stable. Pat and Coral have cleaned out the little room off the main kitchen and this will be a very welcome extra storage and work room for catering purposes.

We thought we were going to have our first ever WET Open House Day in June, but instead it was just cold and overcast. We all thought that we would be here on our own, sitting around all day having lots of cuppas, but to our surprise and delight, we had a very good crowd come through on the day – much better even than April’s Open Day. Just goes to show that no matter the weather, visitors just like coming here – we had some really good displays and exhibits on show, and of course everyone likes the arts and crafts and especially the yummy refreshments we serve. Again, Bruce and Doreen McCredie came to visit, and it’s always such a pleasure to see them. To make the old kitchen on the southern side of the house more ‘user friendly’ we purchased a large carpet off-cut from the carpet shop in Merrylands and it has certainly made a big difference to the room. We are hoping that this room will now be able to be utilised more for displays etc. and we would like to have another working bee in the future to try and give it a good clean and freshening up – volunteers always welcome!

You may remember at our last public meeting we had a visitor beforehand – a lady who had been a ‘Lynwood Hall’ girl and who told us some stories of her time here. When she went home, she emailed me and I would like to share with you her comments: “Dear Dorothy, Thank you for your understanding and help on my first visit to Linnwood in 44 years yesterday. As promised I am attaching the only photo I have, in front of the small hut at the rear of the main building. I entered Linnwood on the 17th June 1960 and discharged on the 22nd June 1962. Thank you once again, best wishes, Anita.” Here, I have a copy of the photo she sent me – and it actually looks like she is standing at the side of the small laundry building, which is still down behind the dormitory building. Once again, we have been able to help one of these ladies come to terms with her memories of Linnwood. It seems to go in cycles, we have had quite a few ladies return in the past few months and it is always heart wrenching to hear their stories.

With this in mind, we have approached the Heritage Office with a proposal to build and dedicate a rose garden to the children of Linnwood. It is well documented that there were always roses at Linnwood and many girls have spoken of having to care for the gardens. It is hoped that we will be permitted to go ahead with this project – our gardening committee is very keen and thanks to Pam, have drawn up a plan which has been presented to the Heritage Office, and we are just waiting now for their reply. Money raised by the gardeners from their stall at our open days will provide most, if not all of the funds required to finance this project, which is a great credit to this very hardworking group. They have also recently worked on the bank on the south eastern corner of the house – replacing the old worn sleepers with new ones, and stopping the bank from eroding further. Many thanks also to Russ and Winston for their hard work on this project.

Journalists from the Daily Telegraph’s history page have contacted both Stephen at the library and ourselves and we have been able to send information and photos to them about Linnwood. I believe they will be doing an article in the future about the history of Holroyd but am not sure when the article will be published – so if you are a regular reader of the Telegraph, keep your eyes peeled!

We had another wedding at Linnwood last Saturday – Carolyn McElroy from Pioneers asked if she could have her wedding here and although I couldn’t be here myself, I believe the day went off beautifully. Many thanks to those Friends who were here to set up and then serve a Devonshire tea to the wedding guests and then have to turn around and wash and clear up afterwards.

In the last few days we have been contacted by a lady in Tasmania who discovered that we were collecting some Nell McCredie pottery. This lady used to live in Sydney, returns on a regular basis and has indicated that she may be willing to donate some of her own pieces to our collection. The wonders of the internet!!!! We think she must have come across our website when she was doing some research on Nell – who we had mentioned at previous meetings – and as we put the minutes of our meetings on the website – the connection was made! Amazing! We will be sure to keep you informed if anything comes of this contact.

Local Government Week is coming up and we have been approached by Council to open Linnwood as part of a ‘local history’ bus tour they hope to run. We also have a tour booked by members of the Embroiderer’s Guild for a day in September.

Hewitt House Neighbourhood Centre is planning a Neighbours Day for October and has asked if we would like to have a stall on the day. If anyone would like to help ‘man’ the stall on the day, please let us know, as any help would be greatly appreciated. Again, as we hear more details we will let you know. At this stage, it looks to be planned for Saturday 14th October.

We have recently confirmed our guest speaker for September – Mr Bill Little will be our guest and his talk will be about “Arnott’s Biscuits” – an icon dear to all of us! Don’t forget that this is our Annual General Meeting and membership renewals will be due. At the suggestion of some members, we will be introducing a ‘Perpetual’ or ‘Life’ membership – so you don’t have to remember to renew each year. Details will be on your renewal form when it is sent out.

Our August Open House is looking to be a big one. We have confirmed the participation of Scottish House, with representatives from some Clans, the Highland Dancers from the Justine Banks School of Highland Dancing, the Australian Gaelic Singers and the FULL band of the Pipes & Drums of the Parramatta RSL Caledonian Pipe Band, together with a large exhibition by the Porcelain Artists of Australia (NSW Branch), who will also being running a workshop for a small fee. The Brush Farm Dog Training Club will be here as well, and not forgetting our regular arts and crafts stalls will have lots of goodies to look at and buy. What a day – definitely not a day we want the drought to break – or we will be in big trouble!

October will be different again, with the NSW Spoon Collectors Club and The Western Woodturners having displays, and the Friends having our annual Trash’n’Treasure stall – so don’t forget, when you do your spring cleaning if there is anything you would like to donate, give us a call beforehand and if you can’t bring it here yourself, we will organise to pick it up – but only if it will fit in a wagon – no large furniture!

The year is just racing away and plans are already underway for December. We hope to have our own display that day of all donations – so it should be very interesting – and will certainly spur the cataloguers on to get busy! Don’t forget we will have our annual Christmas dinner get-together afterwards for members, so make sure you pick up a current Calendar of Events so you can mark your calendars at home with these dates.

With thanks to both Julie Owens and Laurie Ferguson, we have been made aware of a Small Equipment Grants scheme available for volunteer community groups, so we will be applying for one of these to buy some equipment. On our ‘Wish List’ is some computer software for cataloguing (instead of having to do it all by hand as we are now), a multifunction centre (for printing, scanning and copying), a good, well-equipped First Aid box and some traffic control barriers and safety vests. The grant is for up to $3,000 including GST so, along with every other community group, we will be hoping to be successful.

Well, I think that just about covers everything. Again, thank you all for coming and I hope you enjoy Steve’s talk and can stay and have a cuppa with us afterwards.

John McKenna advised the meeting that the June Open House had raised $1,300, a much better result than expected due to the cold weather and the long weekend. John advised he will give a full report for the 2005/2006 financial year at the Annual General Meeting, however not taking into account the funds auspiced to the History of Guildford Project, during the year our income was approximately $13,000 and expenditure approximately $9,000, giving a total profit of around $3,500.

The update was included in the President’s Report. It is hoped that the majority of donations will be catalogued by the December Open House when we will showcase the many items which have been donated to Linnwood.

Pam Zopf advised that the major item recently completed was the installation of sleepers on the south-eastern corner of the house, and the Gardening Committee has just about cleared the mulch pile. We are awaiting a response from the NSW Heritage Office in respect to a request to establish a triangular-shaped rose garden near the fountain, and to dedicate this garden to the many girls who lived at Linnwood when it was a home for State Wards. All the girls who have visited the house have memories of tending a beautiful rose garden surrounding the fountain.

Gerry O’Brien raised the possibility of hiring a bus on Open House days which would meet visitors coming by train to Guildford Station and transporting them to Linnwood, and returning them to the station. The bus could also collect residents of Cardinal Gilroy Retirement Village in Merrylands. Gerry offered to drive the bus free-of-charge, however the cost of hire would be approximately $170 plus fuel. If this service was promoted well, we could potentially attract more visitors. John McKenna advised the meeting that the Committee has been discussing this service and there is a possibility of trialling it for the August Open House.

John reminded the meeting that the Annual General Meeting is being held on Sunday 10 September 2006, and positions on the Committee will be elected.

The next meeting of the Friends of Linnwood will be held on Sunday 10 September 2006. This meeting will incorporate the Fourth Annual General Meeting and the election of office bearers.

Our guest speaker will be Mr Bill Little who spent 40 years with that Australian icon, Arnott’s Biscuits.