Snapshots to highlight small town’s past

ONE of the region’s smaller towns is set to be the subject behind the Meredith History Interest Group’s next major showcase.

Running this weekend on Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 October, the group will display more than 100 photos showcasing the history and people of Morrisons, a small hamlet 13 kilometres east of Elane.

MHIG president Margaret Cooper said it’s important to highlight the character of the town and how it was shaped over the decades.

“The aim was to capture the history of Morrisons while people still know about it,” she said.

“That’s what we do here. We capture and collect history before it disappears forever. Some of the people who know a lot about the history of Morrisons are getting older.”

The collection was inspired by a photo album depicting Morrisons in 1906 which belonged to a Meredith History Interest Group member.

The group organised a similar exhibition for Steiglitz in 2021 which resulted in a photobook collecting items from that show.

The same is set to happen for the Morrisons exhibition, aimed to be released next year.

With hundreds of additional photos and information gleamed from their search for photos, Ms Cooper said are many highlights to be featured in the show.

“We’ve put them into sections like the river, schools, churches, people, and enterprise or industry with big old haystacks and threshing machines,” she said.

“A lot of photos of the river were taken when there were floods. Every second year there were floods until they put in the Bungal dam.

“We’ve gotten a lot of photos from people whose families used to live in Morrisons. A few weeks ago, a lady came in with a photo of her ancestor, who was Chinese, panning for gold.”