Tauranga Historical Society’s Vintage Garden Party 2019

Talented dancers perform moves from the 1950’s at the Tauranga Historical Society’s Vintage Garden Party, Sunday 3 March 2019. Image: Lee Switzer, Private Collection

A fun and festive vintage garden party, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Society’s custodianship of the Brain Watkins House, was enjoyed by a large and colourful crowd on Sunday. A highlight of the afternoon was a fashion show co-ordinated by Amy Turner. It featured clothing from her own vintage collection, while inside the house visitors were able to enjoy a display of garments, dating from the 1930s, that once belonged to sisters Elva and Bessie Brain.

Fashion parade model wearing a vintage dress is admired by the crowd.
Image: Lee Switzer, Private Collection

Society members received many positive comments about the afternoon, including this email:

Well done to the Historical Society team for how this afternoon flowed (from a first time attendee.) The music was great and that Welsh fiddle player really complimented Marion Art’s guitar and voice. I loved the fashion parade and the dances between runway walks. The models were great, their clothes wonderful, hairstyles astonishing, hats, shoes etc. - very professional. I appreciated my tour of the house and talked to each of the guides (Shirley, Lois, Susan and Justine) and learned something from each of them. I loved the timeline and even noted the first jazz festival was included! I seemed to be the only person reading the timeline but other people in the room were responding to the artefacts. Thanks for having such a wonderful celebration!

Tauranga Historical Society President, Julie Green, opening the garden party.
Image: Lee Switzer, Private Collection

Stall organiser Beth Bowden (far right wearing hat) admires garments for sale with Society member Justine Neal. Image: Lee Switzer, Private Collection

Heather McLean 1937-2019

Heather and a young helper at a cemetery working bee, Tauranga Methodist and Children’s Cemetery, 2011. Photo: Fiona Kean, Private Collection

Members of the Tauranga Historical Society will be saddened to learn that Heather McLean died yesterday, 31 January 2019, at Waipuna Hospice.

Born in Tauranga in 1937, Heather’s childhood was spent playing in and around the Te Papa Peninsula, a place and time she always remembered as idyllic. Heather attended Tauranga Primary School in 5th Avenue which was a short walk from her home in Cameron Road. In 1951 Heather started at Tauranga College and after leaving school she joined the New Zealand Post Office as a telephone operator. In 1954 this work took her to live in Wellington. Heather returned to Tauranga in 1964 and met her future husband Bill McLean at an Orange Festival dance.

Settled back in Tauranga, and with two young children, Heather's interest in genealogy began. In 1972 she joined the Tauranga Branch of the New Zealand Society of Genealogists and the New Zealand Society of Genealogists in 1973.

Heather and the Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy at a special ceremony where Heather received her QSM, Sunday 27 January 2019. Photo: Fiona Kean, Private Collection

Her research skills and sincere desire to help others would lead Heather to volunteer her time to many groups and organisations, including the Tauranga Historical Society.  Within the Society her knowledge of local history, and in particular her expertise on Tauranga’s cemeteries, was well respected. Heather’s transcriptions of headstones, completed over more than 40 years, continues to be an invaluable resource.

Recently Heather’s work was officially recognised, first with the Tauranga Heritage Award and then in the 2019 New Year Honours List, a Queen’s Service Medal for her services to genealogy and historical research.

Heather will be greatly missed by her friends in the Society, who offer their condolences to her family.

Historical Society member receives New Year Honour

Heather at the repaired grave of WW1 soldier Robert Cooper, for which she was responsible as part of her work with WW100 Tauranga committee. Photo supplied by Fiona Kean.

Respected genealogist and Tauranga Historical Society member Heather McLean, has received a Queen’s Service Medal for her services to genealogy and historical research in the 2019 New Year Honours. In October 2018 Heather was the recipient of Tauranga Heritage Award.

Interviewed by the Bay of Plenty Times, Heather said that the QSM came as a “wonderful” surprise and that “Genealogy is a bit like a rash … It’s like an allergy. You start, and that’s it, you keep going.”

 “Heather … was born in Tauranga in 1937 and has lived here most of her life. She is an expert genealogist and researcher, with 46 years experience of collecting useful data and delving into family history. Heather is well known for using her super-sleuth research skills to help others in their quest for genealogical knowledge.” Western Bay Women: Celebrating 125 Years of Women’s Suffrage

Tauranga Heritage Award Presented to Heather McLean

Newspaper clipping from 1982. The award was organised that year but not presented until 1983.
The first presentation was to Mr Duff Maxwell.

This year saw the return of the Society’s Tauranga Heritage Award, which was last presented in 2004. The most deserving recipient was genealogist Heather McLean. Heather was presented with an Illuminated Scroll signed by Mayor Greg Brownless and Historical Society President Julie Green. (SunLive article)

Stephanie Smith speaking at the presentation ceremony in the NZ Room, Tauranga City Libraries, 24 October 2018.
Heather McLean is seated to her left.  Image: Fiona Kean

The scroll, detailing Heather’s many achievements, was as follows:

‘In recognition of Heather’s exceptional contribution in the discovery and transmission of genealogical and historical information for Tauranga and the wider Bay of Plenty region. In particular, her knowledge of local cemeteries and her meticulous transcriptions of headstones, completed over more than forty years.
For her tireless and generous volunteer work, including:
Twenty-seven years of collecting and indexing death notices and obituaries.
One day a week at the Tauranga Family History Centre since its opening in 1993.
One day a week at the Pyes Pa Cemetery since 2012.
Many years of valued support to the library community.
WW100 Tauranga committee member since 2013. 
In acknowledgement of Heather’s investigative skills, her phenomenal memory and her willingness to assist researchers by giving both her time and financial resources.’

White Crosses on the Waterfront

The first of one hundred and nine white crosses were installed on Tauranga's waterfront this morning. The crosses are being progressively installed between October 17 and November 8, each new group representing a month of the four-year war and the soldiers from Tauranga who died during that time. The public is invited to join cadets from the Western Bay of Plenty Cadet Unit in bringing the crosses out at dawn. On November 11, Armistice Day, there will be an 11am centenary service at Memorial Park marking the day and time the war ended in 1918.

All images Copyright and courtesy of Fiona Kean

Raymond John Baker (1890-1915)

Read more: http://tauranga.kete.net.nz/remembering_war/topics/show/2358-ronald-tracey-matheson-1874-1915

Frederick Hugh Dodson (1891-1915)

Read more: http://tauranga.kete.net.nz/remembering_war/topics/show/2321-frederick-hugh-dodson-1891-1915

Ronald Tracey Matheson (1874-1915)

Read more: http://tauranga.kete.net.nz/remembering_war/topics/show/2224-Raymond-John-Baker-(1890-1915)

Helen Clark at The Elms

Julie Green, The Elms, 7 September 2018
Photo courtesy of Fiona Kean

The Society was well represented at The Elms last week (Friday, 7 September) for the planting of three Kate Sheppard camellias by former Prime Minister Helen Clark. The occasion was organised to honour Alice Maxwell and the Women’s Suffrage movement currently celebrating its 125th anniversary. Society President and member of the Maxwell family Julie Green spoke of her great great Aunt’s commitment to the preservation of The Elms and fundraising for charities that helped others. Alice was also one of just two Tauranga women who signed the 1893 suffrage petition, the other woman being Margaret Galbraith.

Helen Clark and Debbie McCauley, The Elms, 7 September 2018
Photo courtesy of Fiona Kean

The camellias have been planted near the chapel and alongside the area currently being transformed into a stunning heritage garden. In the evening Helen Clark went on to speak at an event titled "Are We There Yet" that is part of a series of events organised by the "Suffrage 125" Tauranga Committee. For further information visit www.mytauranga.co.nz search word: Suffrage 125.

WW100 Headstone Project

Heather McLean and a damaged headstone

This project was started back in April/May 2014.  Heather McLean (a committee member on WW100) raised $1170 towards the cost of three new headstones.  The stones have now been
installed in the Tauranga Catholic and Presbyterian Cemeteries.

Heather and the restored headstone of Tpr R.B.B. Cooper

Heather would like to thank the Tauranga Historical Society members for their kind donations.

Headstone and plaque for Cpl Lewis Jones

These two headstones are new ones in the Tauranga Catholic cemetery for Pte Lewis Jones and Pte.  P. (Barney) Retimana.  Someone had removed the Bronze plaque for Lewis Jones, possibly taken for the scrap metal value.

Headstone and plaque for Pte P. (Barney) Retimana

Private Retimana never previously had a headstone

The Masonic Hotel

You can see the Masonic Hotel in this photograph. This was taken in the early 1900s.
Photo courtesy of the Tauranga Heritage Collection

Not everyone knows that Masonic Park is named after a hotel . I didn’t until I looked it up. The Masonic Hotel was there for a very long time, more than a 100 years, before it was pulled down in 1993. This was before I was born!

If you visit the park you will see this!

When they were digging in the park a few months ago they found some bricks and stones. These were used to bake bread in a Bakery. It’s good they have kept the stones and bricks where they are.

Katikati Heritage Museum collection goes into hibernation

ITEMISED: Volunteer Lorraine Hunt with the next item for museum manager Paula Gaelic to log in before being wrapped and packed into boxes.

Boxes have replaced tables and chairs in the Museum Cafe as every item in the Katikati Heritage Museum collection is being packed up ready for storage until a new home is found. After 14 years the community museum closed its doors on May 14. Western Bay of Plenty District Council reached agreement with the museum’s Charitable Trust to hold the collection in storage until a suitable location can be found in the future. Museum manager Paula Gaelic, who has been employed by Council, says she refers to the packdown as ‘relocation hibernation’. “When we re-emerge hopefully our first exhibitions will be called The Dreamtime,” she says.

WHIZZ: Volunteer Robert Hubble cleans artefacts in the museum collection.

The many volunteers involved with the museum prior to its closure have returned to help with the packdown. This involves each item being cleaned, numbered, photographed, wrapped in tissue paper, bubble wrapped and rolled in cardboard, when necessary, before being packed into boxes. The number of each item corresponds with each photo, which is downloaded onto a database where it is detailed and catalogued. The photo is double checked for clarity and that it corresponds with the item’s number, which is also written on the outside of the box, before it is closed up. Every item is wrapped in tissue paper regardless of what it is, Paula says. If the photo is not clear enough the item is taken out of the box and re-photographed.

ACTION: Photo historian Brett Payne has been contracted to photograph every item in the Katikati Heritage Museum collection.

Photo historian Brett Payne has been contracted by Council to carry out the photography work. Brett had volunteered previously to help with the Tauranga Heritage Collection for three years where they trained him in photographing and cataloguing their collection. Brett spoke at the History Day at the Katikati museum last year. A geologist by trade, Brett’s passion is old photographs, the photographers who took them, the equipment and technologies they used, the people and scenes in the photos, and the stories behind them. The Katikati collection is proving interesting.  Brett says there are a wide variety of items to be photographed, more than he expected and having visited. “This is not a conventional museum - it’s a community museum so you have to expect that.”

DELICATE: Volunteers carefully wrap items in tissue paper, before being bubble-wrapped and put into boxes.

The packdown system sees six volunteers working on large tables. Every knife, fork, spoon, butter pat, possum—everything is being wrapped carefully, catalogued and packed. “Nothing gets thrown out,” Paula says. She believes the volunteers are seeing how well the collection is being looked after, which has been good for their morale. “It’s been really good and it’s bringing us (the museum) in line. For the first time we will know what we’ve got in the collection. “Council is doing it properly.” Items from the museum shop are being sold at heavily discounted prices for two days only, yesterday and today.

Reproduced from The Katikati Advertiser, 12 June 2014
by kind permission of editor, Christine Steel