FHACT August Monthly Meeting

FHACT August Monthly Meeting: Tuesday 5 August at 7.00pm.  (In person at the FHACT Education Room, Cook Community Hub, Templeton Street, Cook, or online via Zoom). 

All welcome. Members and guests interested in attending should register for this event here

Topic:  People of Old Queanbeyan

Special Guest Speaker: Nick Swain from the Canberra & District Historical Society.

Join us at our August monthly meeting to hear Nick Swain from the Canberra & District Historical Society speak about the people of old Queanbeyan.

This presentation gives a slightly different perspective of the lives of some of Queanbeyan’s early residents, using old photographs from the CDHS collection, including those taken by the famous travelling photographer Henry Beaufoy Merlin and his assistant, Charles Bayliss, in 1870.

The photographs provide entre points for looking at the lives of the people who lived, worked and studied in the places photographed.

The result is not a series of comprehensive biographies but some impressionistic sketches that emanate from these photographs.

                                 Family of John James Wright outside Mill House. Severne Mill in the background.

                                 Henry Beaufoy Merlin 1870.

Nick Swain’s local history journey began in 2007, wanting to find out more about a heritage cottage in Barton.  He has held several CDHS offices including Secretary and President and is also one of two ACT delegates to the Federation of Australian Historical Societies. In 2023 Nick was the recipient the inaugural National Trust award for outstanding Heritage advocacy. Nick has a special interest in the CDHS photographic collection