Living in the 70s

David, our local historian is hosting an historical bus tour of the area on Wednesday May 16 – taking an amusing and affectionate look at how the ‘decade that taste forgot’ was experienced in Tea Tree Gully. The 70′s saw an explosion in population, and major changes in landscape; including the transition from vineyard and farming to residential land use and the creation of Tea Tree Plaza. Come along for an eye opening journey through the seventies. More details are available on our website.

Change History Competition – Time To Vote

The entries are in and it’s time to vote for your favourite in our “Change History” competition.  We asked you to take a photo from our collection and reimagine it, and your imaginations ran wild!  Dinosaurs in Tea Tree Gully, UFOs in St Agnes, come and see them all at the library service desk and have your say in who will walk away with one of the Kindle Fire prizes.

The lucky winners will be announced at a special event in the library Saturday 19th May at 2pm.

Local History – As Time Slides By

This Monday night and Thursday morning don’t miss out on this wonderful exhibition by Carole Simmonds of the Tea Tree Gully and Districts Historical Society.  Travel back in time through the most intriguing slides from our collection and discover the history of Tea Tree Gully with us in the Community Learning Centre.

Wine and cheese will be provided on Monday evening (7-8pm) and morning tea on Thursday (10-11am).  Bookings are free and can be made at the library or by calling (08) 8397 7333.

Bonza bus tours

Interested in Tea Tree Gully’s history, but don’t want to sit around reading about it? You should go on one of our bus tours!

The Library’s historical bus tours are a great way to get out of the house, meet other like-minded history enthusiasts and take a day trip through the Tea Tree Gully area. The $30 cost includes a home-cooked lunch at the Old Highercombe Hotel Museum, and you get to have a look through the museum afterwards.

Our next upcoming tour is the “3 G’s” – Golden Grove, Glen Ewin and the Gully. It’ s on Monday 30 April from 9:30am to 2:30pm and bookings open on April 13.  Later this year we even have a couple of brand new bus tours, including a 70s themed one! For more details, see our Local History Program.

Enter our Change History competition!

If you’re aged between 13 and 25, enter our Change History competition for the chance to win an Amazon Fire tablet PC. 

We are asking you to creatively ‘improve’ a photo from our local history collection, as we’ve done here. Use your Photoshop skills or some good old art and craft to go crazy and change history!
See the website for all the details.

Exploring Christmas past

Where does Santa Claus ACTUALLY live? Why did Houghton school students have to get to school at 7:00am on Thursday 21 December, 1905? What year did the Westfield Tea Tree Plaza Christmas pageant start?

Find out the answers to these questions, plus a lot more, at our final History Bites talk for the year. “A History of Christmas in Tea Tree Gully” will look at how locals have celebrated Christmas since the 19th century, as well as some current traditions that your family might follow.

When: Tuesday 13 December from 11:00am – 12 noon
Where: City of Tea Tree Gully Library

This event is suitable for young and old alike – book now!

Recent history

Whilst recently cleaning up  folders on my hard drive I came across some photos of the Library from 2007. It’s amazing to see what has changed in such a short time. This was pre-Toy Library days and featured the old photocopier alcove, Local History Office, and the Library workroom (where all the cataloguing and processing occurs) was a garage!

Check the before and after photos below.
The directors garage became the Library workroom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An internal view of the garage and now the Library workroom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Local History Office is still in the roughly the same location, however the Local History collection was moved, and the photocopier alcove demolished to make way for the new Toy Library.

If you have any photos or memories of the region, we would be very happy to find out about them. You can also see our range of books, photos, maps and other items on the history of the region in our Local History collection.

History of wine @ your library

Anstey's wine cellars and vineyards, Highercombe c1920

With the recent closing of the Angoves St. Agnes cellars, Tea Tree Gully lost one of its last links with what was once a thriving wine industry in the area. Our next History Bites talk will concentrate on the history of the wine industry in the Tea Tree Gully area. Come and join us on Monday 6 June from 6:00pm and have a glass or two on us.

Bookings are essential – give us a call on 8397 7333!

History Bites

Have you ever thought about how everyday life might have been different 150 years ago? Here’s your chance to find out.

The first History Bites talk for this year is coming up on Wednesday 23 March at 6:30pm. It will be held in the Community Learning Centre and is all about life in the Victorian era. Discover what your ancestors would have seen, done, worn or even eaten. No bookings are necessary, just come along!

A new addition to the Library family!

Welcome Remy!

All the staff at Tea Tree Gully Library would like to congratulate our Local History Officer David and his lovely wife Natalie on the birth of their son, David Remy Rex.
Big sister Jean-Louise is very excited too!
Remy was born Saturday, 5th March at 3:15pm, weighing 3.6kg and measuring 51cm.
First visit to the Library at four days of age is pretty impressive.
He looks impressed doesn’t he!