Donation helps to capture history

DOZENS of photographs showing the moment the old Terang Express office was demolished after more than 100 years are among the items helping to fill the gaps in the town’s historical record.

Missing history: Margaret Parnell (left) has donated around 50 photographs to the Terang and District Historical Society showing the final days of the old Terang Express office on Bayne Street. She is pictured with Terang and District Historical Society research officer Margaret McIntosh.

Terang’s Margaret Parnell recently uncovered old photographs showing the 2003 demolition of the old Terang Express office on Bayne Street.

The photographs document the removal of press equipment, which was done through the partial removal of the building’s roof, prior to the demolition.

Mrs Parnell, who had been an employee with the Terang Express at the time, said she had made the donation of around 50 photographs to the Terang and District Historical Society to ensure the moment would not be lost to time.

“I liked to take photographs, I was always all over the place taking photographs such as at Mount Noorat, so I went down on the day to take photos of the office being pulled down,” she said.

“I also don’t like to throw things away so I still had the photographs.

“As a member of the Terang and District Historical Society, I thought that if they’re here people will be able to come and have a look if they’re interested.”

Mrs Parnell said she had fond memories of working for her town’s newspaper.

“I was an assistant in advertising, so I would answer the phones and collect the advertising from businesses around town,” she said.

“I quite enjoyed it – I got on very well with Joan Head, in addition to Bill Robb (printing) and Yvonne Court (journalist).

“After the Bayne Street building was demolished we moved to the office in Johnstone Court until that closed down.

“That was when the Terang Express, Camperdown Chronicle and Cobden Timboon Coast Times had joined.”

Terang and District Historical Society research officer Margaret McIntosh said she was appreciative of the donation of photographs, which captured a moment otherwise not represented among the society’s visual archives.

“I think it’s fabulous to have this,” she said.

“Often, we don’t have those kinds of photographs until something like this turns up.

“If Margaret had not donated those photos, we would have no visual record of the Terang Express office being brought down.

“We’ve got a number of photos of the Terang Express office in different ways, but these are the only ones we have of the office actually being pulled down.”

Mrs McIntosh said anyone interested in donating items of their own, particularly photos, was invited to get in touch on 5592 1354 as the society was interested in filling some gaps in its records.

“We’re always happy to accept things which we can itemise and catalogue,” she said.

“Photographs are good because there’s probably a bit of a gap in our photographic collection – we’ve got lots of old photos but there’s a gap from around the 1920s and 1930s through to the 1970s where we don’t have a lot of photos in our collection.

“We’re happy to have anything that relates to Terang and its history.”

Mrs McIntosh said anyone interested in seeing displayed items was welcome to visit the Terang and District Historical Society Museum, located at the old Terang College Junior Campus.

“We’re open on the third Sunday of the month from 1pm to 4pm and we’re often here having a working bee on a Thursday,” she said.

“If somebody gives me a phone call on 5592 1354, we can arrange to come up and have a look.

“If they let us know what they want to see, we can get it out for them.”