A glimpse of Elaine Thru the Lens

IF last weekend’s turnout at the Elaine Hall is anything to go by, local historians will be celebrating.

The degree of interest was evident in the strong attendance at the Elaine Thru the Lens photography exhibition on Saturday and Sunday.

The exhibition provided a pictorial journey back through time, showcasing many hundreds of photographs documenting enterprise, industry, architecture and endeavour at Elaine from the 1920s right through to current times.

“Before it gets lost,” said one of the event organisers with Meredith History Interest Group, president Marg Cooper.

Some of Elaine’s yesteryear residents were also captured in the photographs, among them current day resident Jim Connell now aged in his early 90s.

Mr Connell was among special guests over the weekend and, in keeping with the theme, sported a leather jacket that he had bought in the early 1970s and wore to 46 Interdominion races.

“We believe Jim is currently the eldest resident living in Elaine,” Ms Cooper said.

“We had him up on the stage and he featured in quite a few of the photos making his debut, working on the hall roof, sitting in a buggy with his parents when he was a child.”

Ms Cooper said the biennial Thru The Lens exhibition features different towns or localities in the district each time it’s held, and was very well received at Elaine, creating plenty of discussion.

“We had a big crowd and one of the most important things was the social aspect, people connecting with each other people who they hadn’t seen for a long time,” she said.

“Next time, in two years, it will be Meredith’s turn.”

In the meantime, Ms Cooper said about 200 of the photographs that featured in the exhibition are set to be published in a book expected to be launched around this time next year.

“We can put about 200 of them in the book and it will be a big job deciding what goes in.”