We are pleased to announce the first of our USB books Early Jottings of the Upper Page and Isis River Districts. Written in the late 1980s by J. E. (Betty) Haydon, Reg White and Mick Greer, the book outlines the history of the region from the early pioneers in the 1800s. Covering the early settlements of the Pages and Isis Rivers and Warlands Creek, the book embraces Blandford, Haydonton, and the development of Scott's Creek. This is an excellent tome written by the people who lived there. The book is a first in adaptation of the printed tomes into digital form with additional photographs — Copies at $25 plus postage can be ordered by ringing secretary Jenny Loasby on 0418647176. Happy reading.
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70 years sands of time

History is near and far. In my business as a trainee journalist we were told the public has a three day memory span so if your story had a history go back further than that then you had to go to the files and include past events.

There was another earlier lesson that has long gone past the sub-editors and that is you had to have how, when, there and why in the first three paragraphs of your story.

The reason for this was stories often came down by wire across on the clickety telex machine or by telegram. The distance of the message often was broken by the technology either the wires coming down or telegraph contact breaking so the idea was to have the basics of the story in three paragraphs and you could use the file system to fill the story out.

All that doesn't matter in today’s digital world although it would not hurt for some recognition.

Today we go on the 70 year memory span.

Fortunately our museum had long, gone workers with a foresight to keep copies of local newspapers hence we have the story sources to expand our local history much to the delight of some researchers and history buffs.

Among the newspaper covering important events is a collection of magazines covering generalities or public interest and this is where you get a feel for the history of our times.

A particular tome we are looking at today is The Australian Magazine A.M. — a four-color pictorial magazine put out by Consolidated Press which also published the Womens Weekly, the Bulletin (long gone) and of course, the Daily Telegraph.



The edition that brought back a flood of memories was a 1954 one which had the £150 all metal caravan advert.

The motor of choice was the HI International fashionable Family Transport station wagon which from the photographs, looked as if it would probably tow a tank!

Of course you had to have your box brownie as this camera was called. It used film in those days which had to be processed so is cost you for the film and then also cost you to see what was on it - regardless whether you had stuffed it up by having the lens cap still on!


In 1954 if you were going overseas you would usually clamour to book a cabin on the Crack new Liner for Australia the P&O 29,600 ton Iberia capable of carrying 1414 passengers. Today the latest from P&O is the Arvia, which boasts a gross tonnage of 184,700 and a capacity for 5200 passengers.


Australia was served by three British (of course) shipping lines; P&O, Shaw Savill and Orient Line.

To go from Sydney to Melbourne (return) by train cost £14/3/0; ($660 in today’s money); £17/10/0 ($807) by sea and £18 ($830) by air).

In 1954 Sydney’s airport (Kingsford Smith Airport) Mascot was the busiest outside the United States and was being enlarged to take 2m passengers a year — last year the airport handles 14.6m passengers.

We will finish off on a musical note with the local columnist Kim Keane taking a swipe at the new high fidelity of records and how people now argued about the quality of the sound.

To quote: It appears that Americans now spend more on tickets for concerts and symphonies than they do on tickets for baseball games. Music over there has reached 'the billion dollar category'. Juke boxes and their records were sold last year to the tune of 300,000,000 dollars and the new hifi (high-fidelity recordings) craze concerned mainly with serious music on long-playing records, is expected to equal that figure this year.

There you go mum . . . keep up with the times! .

 Name: Step back to 1954

 Editor: Des Dugan

 Date: 13/3/2025

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The above society is both a museum and historical society and subscribes to the International Council of Museums dictum. A museum is a not-for-profit, permanent institution in the service of society that researches, collects, conserves, interprets and exhibits tangible and intangible heritage. Open to the public, accessible and inclusive, museums foster diversity and sustainability. It operates and communicates ethically, professionally and with the participation of communities, offering varied experiences for education, enjoyment, reflection and knowledge sharing. This website is sponsored by the Murrurundi Pioneer Cottage and compiled by Des Dugan, © Email address © Phone: Jenny on 0418 647 176 or: Des on 0418 211 404.