ALEXANDRINA LIBRARY SERVICES, goolwa
HISTORY ROOM NEWS
Oct 2014 by Dawn Juers
No 123
In the last month’s ‘news’ I wrote of the “Lost Diggers of Vignacourt” collection which can be viewed at the State Library of SA until October 19th. I visited the Library and was fortunate to meet the filmmaker Kris Kerehona who was visiting Adelaide from Canberra. The film is showing continuously the photos of the glass negatives and the process of cleaning the silver gelatin slides. There are many framed photographs of the soldiers in the exhibition. The trunk which belonged to photographer Louis and Antoinette Thuillier is actually in the exhibition encased in a glass box.


One of the photographs The trunk in which the negatives were found.
NEW BOOKS IN THE HISTORY ROOM –
Pioneers of Mostly Goolwa - A collection of obituaries written by myself and Margie Anderson. This will be an ongoing project as time permits.
The Currency Creek Mill and Daniel Charles Myrick by Margie Anderson.

Last month I wrote about the Coorong oil exploration and the monument that was to be built. It was officially opened on 23 June 1986 by Mr Ron Payne, Minister of Mines and Energy some 120 years after the first drilling.
Coorongite or “Fool’s Oil” came into general use in the 1870’s. One person said his shepherds used it to burn as candles. It was also known as “oil cake”.
We have a copy of a letter from the Government Analyst Laboratory, Pt Adelaide(1903), in which the author states that coorongite has “an analogy with similar products from india rubber” and “the oils were not like petroleum products, but more like those derived from peat or perhaps shale.”
Thanks to Anthony Presgrave we have a photo of the Exploration Monument at Salt Creek, right on the edge of the highway.
VALE – Walter Pretty – our friend, benefactor and patron. 7 /8/1921 – 25/9/2014


Trish (Alderman) Steele (above) sorting part of the collection donated to the Alexandrina Library by Walter Pretty. (The Times’ 14 Oct 1994).
We are forever grateful to our benefactor who died after a very short illness.
HAPPY RESEARCHING
DAWN
The History Room is now locked when a volunteer is not on duty. Please phone 85557000 for an appointment if you are making a journey from out of town. At this stage a volunteer is on duty Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday 10-4.
For comments or suggestions - email history.goolwa11@gmail.com
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Back copies of this newsletter can be sourced on our wiki http://alexhistory.pbworks.com
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