Work that Lives On

Robert (Bob) Auchterlonie, 1961

In 1947, Robert Auchterlonie compiled a catalogue of books in the Narracan Mechanics' Institute. Book by book, he packed them into boxes, and took them home in his red Standard 6. Working on the large dining room table, he meticulously wrote them into a book that is now held by Old Gippstown. Fiction was ordered alphabetically, non-fiction by subject.

As he finished a group, back the books would go, the boxes would be emptied, more books selected, and the process repeated.

The writing is clear and beautiful.

The catalogue will be used for comparision once all books in the collection have been entered in our database.

A Cataloguer's work lives on.

(And our appreciation goes to Dr Walter Savige for the provision of the photograph, and to Don Auchterlonie for the memory)

Gippsland's Oldest Stove

The stove in the Yallourn (Dr Andrew) House has an interesting history.

When the house was being established at Old Gippstown, the State Electricity Commission (SEC) held a competition to find the oldest electric stove in Gippsland. This one was found with a Mrs Christian at Tyers, and the SEC swapped a brand new electric stove to obtain it.

The stove is a Hughes "Hotpoint", made in 1923.

Dr Andrew and Yallourn

Dr James Moore Andrew (whose collection is our current focus), is a very important figure in Yallourn history.

Dr Andrew delivered the greater majority of babies born in Yallourn, and was an important participant in many community orgnisations. Here he is shown (centre back), with his wife, Catherine Andrew, introducing the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester to Yallourn Brownies in the 1940s

Memories of Yallourn are kept alive by Yallourn Old Girls' Association (YOGA) - check out their webpage.

Cataloguing Stats

The Cataloguing Team has been operating at Old Gippstown now since May 2006, and steadily been plugging away at identifying and recording all sorts of objects in the collection. However we have only been keeping detailed statistics on a monthly basis since July 2007 - which means we can now look at how we are going on an annual basis.

So just for a bit of fun, for those who like playing with numbers:

2344 items have been added to the catalogue since the team started in 2006

887 items were catalogued in the past 12 months

47 items were added in the past month (but it has been a slow month, as we were off doing training on one of the days)

And these figures don't take into account all the time spent locating and photographing items that have previously been catalogued, and updating the records for them.

We catalogue all sorts of items - this is a Drill Press that Glen and his team are working on at the moment, cleaning it up, giving it a good oiling, and bringing it back into service.