Education, one of the basic building blocks upon which people build their lives, will be the subject of Orange & District Historical Society's next monthly History Alive meeting, on Wednesday, November 9 at 7.30pm. The meeting will focus on the development of local schools as well as the teachers and the way children were taught.

The first schools started in Orange in the 1850s. Following the Gold Rush and subsequent expansion, schools were established in many of the small settlements which sprang up around the district. The first public school in Orange was a National Board school on the corner of Anson and Byng Streets. This later became Orange District School. Orange Public School was opened in the 1880s on its current site on the corner of Kite and Sale streets, while Orange East Public School started in the 1890s. Orange High School was established in Sale Street in 1912.

There were several church schools, including Patrician Brothers, Sisters of Mercy, De La Salle and Santa Maria. Private schools included Weymouth House (later Wolaroi College) and PLC, which later merged to become Kinross Wolaroi. Now Orange has the full range of public and private educational establishments from pre-school to kindergarten, infants, primary and high schools as well as a TAFE college and a university (formerly Orange Agricultural College).

Guest speakers at the meeting will be Denis Mullen and Ross Maroney. Denis Mullen started his teaching career at small schools near Kempsey, Cooma and Dunkeld before starting at Orange Public School in 1949. He was there for 12 years before becoming headmaster at Lucknow Public School, then Nashdale School. He retired in 1985. Now aged in his late 80s, he will be remembered by generations of local people he taught who are themselves now well into middle age.

Ross Maroney, who grew up near Young, started his teaching career at Condobolin in 1963 before teaching history at Orange High School from 1965 to 1990. He is well known as a passionate local historian and, like Denis Mullen, has a wealth of knowledge about local schools and education.

Members of the society as well as the general public and current and former teachers are welcome to attend and comments and questions from the audience are welcome. The meeting will take place at Orange Senior Citizens Centre (entry from Woolworths car park) at 7 for 7.30pm. There is a small charge of $3 for members of Orange and District Historical Society and $5 for non-members, to cover costs. Light refreshments will be served.

If you have any inquiries or would like to attend the meeting, please RSVP to Julie Sykes on 6362-1682, or Phil Stevenson on 0402 412 188 (email: ibiswines@bigpond.com).

Dairies, milkmen and ice cream and butter factories will be the subject of Orange and District Historical Society's next History Alive meeting, to be held on Wednesday, October 12 2011.

Cows were essential to all the early settlers in the Orange district: their needs were few – plenty of grass to eat – and provided milk twice a day, from which cream, butter and cheese could be made. These were some of the few perishable products which could be transported safely to Sydney markets before there were railways. In the early years every farm and smallholding had a few cows, even if they weren't dairy farms, and surplus milk could be sold if they were licensed or turned into cream and sold to the butter factories. Even the remaining skim milk was not wasted – it was fed to the ubiquitous pig.

There was a proliferation of dairies in the Orange district, some with as few as four cows, which were licensed to sell milk. They all had their particular group of customers and deliveries were made twice daily, seven days a week. In 1945 there were 130 registered dairy farms in the Orange district. The sale of milk locally was estimated to be worth £39,000, and for cream to factories £4000.

When pasteurisation of milk became compulsory in the mid-1950s the Milk Board set up offices in Orange and Barrett's became the agent. Deliveries were made once a day and eventually Sunday deliveries ceased. From the 1960s farms began to amalgamate as people moved into the city and the number of dairies was substantially reduced. Larger mechanised operations started, making regular milk deliveries to Barrett's milk and ice-cream factory (later Dairy Farmers), firstly in 10-gallon cans and later by bulk milk tanker. There are now less than 10 local dairy farms in the Orange district.

Guest speakers at the meeting will be: Merv Wilkie, who started his life on a dairy farm in Kenna Street; Dave Wilson, who drove milk trucks in the 1950s and became familiar with all the local dairies, particularly on the southern side of Orange; and Fred Brooking, who has had a career with Barrett's for many years. There will be a number of former dairymen attending and audience participation will be encouraged.

The meeting will take place at Orange Senior Citizens Centre (entry from Woolworths car park) at 7 for 7.30pm. There is a small charge of $3 for members of Orange and District Historical Society and $5 for non-members, to cover costs. Light refreshments will be served.

If you have any inquiries or would like to attend the meeting, please RSVP to Julie Sykes on 6362-1682, or Phil Stevenson on 0402 412 188 (email: ibiswines@bigpond.com).

Stone has been a critical part of the Orange district infrastructure and decoration since the earliest days from the foundations and walls of the first bridges, huts cottages and mansions to the base and surfaces of roads and the decorative elements of houses, buildings, monuments and gravestones.

Stonemasons and quarries will be the subject of Orange and District Historical Society's next monthly meeting on Wednesday, May 11 at the Senior Citizens Centre.

While our relatively wet climate and deep soils are a blessing for agriculture, horticulture and gardens, they represent a great challenge for the stability of roads and buildings. With the centre of town built on a swamp, the abundance of readily available building and road material was a great boon to development. In our varied local geology we have world-class marble for monuments, easily worked indestructible columnar basalt for foundations, walls, kerbs and gutters, and other rocks such as shales, granites and quartz for road bases and their gravel toppings. Basalt blocks were almost universal in the foundations of any respectable house until the 1940s when concrete took over.

There were many quarries with the best known being the marble quarries of Caleula, (north of Mullion Creek), Borenore (Rusconi's) and Spring Hill. There was the bluestone, (basalt) quarry beside the railway line on Racecourse Road (now closed), larger rock and shale quarries close to town on Ophir and Icely roads (Tucker's and Sharpe's) and innumerable pits along various other roads. Huge quantities of rock and gravel were also sourced from the massive mullock heaps left from mining activities in Lucknow.

The two speakers have worked at either end of the industry. Hillary Jenner is a bricklayer and stoneworker who maintains many of the old bluestone walls in Orange. He has recently worked on the restoration of Bloomfield House. Charlie Smith had 42 years with Canobolas and Cabonne shire councils working as a loader operator in most of their numerous quarries and pits.

There will be others in the audience with expertise in geology and other knowledge relating to the subjects to make contributions during question time. The meeting will start at 7 for 7.30pm. There is a small charge of $3 for members of Orange and District Historical Society and $5 for non-members, to cover costs. Light refreshments will be served.

If you have any inquiries or would like to attend the meeting, please RSVP to Phil Stevenson on 6362-3257, mobile 0402 412 188 or email ibiswines@bigpond.com

Orange District and Base hospitals will be the subject of Orange and District Historical Society's next 'Orange history alive' meeting at the Senior Citizens Centre on Wednesday, April 20 Guest speakers will be Liz Edwards and Dr Jann Hunt.

The old Orange Base Hospital may have closed but many doctors, nurses and ancillary staff remember the times they spent there with vivid memories and not a little nostalgia.

Those with long memories will also recall the days of the Base's precursor, the old 'District', which was demolished in 1959. The rich history of the hospital has touched many people, whether they worked there or were patients.Its evolution from a small 12-bed building in Anson Street to the 21st century marvel which was recently opened on the Bloomfield campus, is the result of vision, hard work and a great will to ensure the people of the Orange district received the best possible medical care.

Liz Edwards will talk about the early history of the hospital and some of the people who worked there, following the recent publication of her book 'In sickness and in health: how medicine helped shape Orange's history'. Copies of the book will be available for purchase on the night.

Dr Hunt will speak about her time working as the Base Hospital's popular medical superintendent from 1979 to 1993. Images from the hospital's history will be shown during the evening.

The meeting is open to everyone and people who worked there in any capacity are particularly welcome to attend The audience will be encouraged to ask questions and recall their own stories.

The meeting will take place at the Senior Citizens Centre, 77 Kite Street (entry from Woolworth's car park) at 7 for 7.30pm. There is a small charge of $3 for members of Orange and District Historical Society and $5 for non-members, to cover costs. Light refreshments will be served.

If you have any inquiries or would like to attend the meeting, please RSVP to Phil Stevenson on 6362-3257, mobile 0402 412 188 or email ibiswines@bigpond.com

The Venue for Wednesday's meeting on the History of Orange Newspapers has been changed to the Senior Citizens Centre 77 Kite street with best entrance from the Woolworths Car Park southern side. 7 for 7.30

The title for the Orange and District Historical Society's meeting this Wednesday 16th March will be: One hundred and fifty years of newspapers in Orange - Printers ,pressmen and proof readers There will be three speakers with a great depth of experience in the industry and are sure to have many others in the audience who will contribute from he floor. Our speakers are:- Liz Edwards Liz will talk about her interest in the early history of Orange newspapers in relation to her plans to republish journalist Joe Glasson's 'Through the Looking Glass' articles about Orange people and places in the first 50 years of the 20th century. Liz worked at the CWD from 1986 as journalist and sub editor and since retirement has written a number of books on Orange history. Her latest ,"In Sickness and in Health - a medical history of Orange" will be launched on 31th of March. Brian Kelly Brian began work at the "Western stock and Station Journal" in Kite Street in 1960 as a printer machinist before going to join the "Australian" in Canberra and Sydney in 1965. In 1970 he joined the CWD in Orange until printing in Orange ceased in 1988 and he went to G K Craig Printers and Westlink Print in Orange until retirement in 2008. Kevin Daniel Kevin followed his legendary father,Fred, as a printer machinist in the commercial printing section of the CWD in 1959 before leaving in 1986 to go to Email and G K Craig printers until he retired in 2009 after 50 years in the trade. The meeting will commence at the Gladstone Hotel 7 for 7.30 with charges of $3 for members and $5 for non members to cover expenses and supper.

For further information contact:

Phil Stevenson Events Committee Orange and District Historical Society 0402 412 188 ibiswines@bigpond.com

The first of the Historical Society's Gladstone meetings for 2011 will take place on Wednesday 16th of February at 7 for 7.30 pm and will be on the subject "Changes blowing in the wind ? ; the Australian flag and constitution". Our guest speaker will be Peter McFarland. Peter will be familiar to many, having been a long time headmaster at Orange Public School .He is a keen student of the constitution and also a popular lecturer on Australian history at our local U3A.(University of the third age).

Originally the topic for this meeting was to have been "150 years of newspapers in Orange" but a clash of commitments has meant that this topic will be dealt with at the Society's March meeting on Wednesday 16th. The Society apologies if anyone has been inconvenienced by the change, For further information contact Phil Stevenson, Events Committee, Orange and District Historical Society. Mobile 0402 412 188

The first of the Orange and District Historical Society's meetings for 2011 will be held at the Gladstone Hotel on Wednesday 16th of February with a theme of 'One hundred and fifty years of newspapers in Orange'. This year the Society's Gladstone meetings will be held on the third Wednesday of the month commencing at 7pm for a 7.30pm start with charges of $3 for members and $5 for non members to cover expenses and supper.

The program will follow the general themes of, 'Orange Institutions' in even months (February, April etc), and, 'Made in Orange' in odd months (March, May etc). The Executive is developing the program for the remainder of the year and welcomes suggestions of topics and speakers. For Further information contact: Phil Stevenson Events Committee Orange and District Historical Society (Treasurer ORMAA) 0402 412 188 *ORMAA - Orange and District Museum Advancement Association. Public meetings last Saturday of the month at 10.30 am West Room Orange Regional Gallery

As the second largest employer in Orange the woollen mills played a very big role in the economic and social life in Orange. Email/Electrolux was the largest employer though established at a later date.

On Wednesday night (22nd September) at the Gladstone Hotel past employees will give an account of their experiences many of them over a long period of years. The main speakers will be Kate Malloy Armitt who was a textile examiner in the final inspection section and David Huck who was foreman in the weaving room. Jack Brown (born 1921) can remember the mill being built in 1925 and has a recording of the final blast of the Mill steam whistle when it closed in 1987. The meeting is the fourth in the Made in Orange series being run by the Orange and District Historical Society.

The meeting takes place at the Gladstone Hotel function room on Wednesday, September 22nd at 7 for 7.30pm. Everyone is welcome. There is a small charge of $3 for members of Orange and District Historical Society and $5 for non-members, to cover costs. Light refreshments will be served. If you have any inquiries or would like to attend the meeting, please RSVP to Phil Stevenson on 6362-3257, mobile 0402 412 188 or email ibiswines@bigpond.com

Everyone has a story to tell about local breweries and hotels, it seems, so Orange and District Historical Society's next 'Made in Orange' meeting, on Wednesday, July 28, will be sure to evoke some lively discussion.

In the days before railway lines, when the transportation of heavy items such as beer meant long and arduous journeys over difficult terrain, it was not surprising that towns of any size had several breweries to serve the local population. A number of breweries sprung up in Orange so that locals could slake their thirst, such as Henry Boxall's Brewery at Narrambla (1852), John Chynoweth's Brewery, the Standard Brewery (also known as Elwin's Brewery), and the Red Lion Brewery, which went under a number of names over the years including Burton Brewery, Lindsay's Brewery, Lords Place Brewery and Orange Brewery. The hotels they served were many and varied, some changing their names over the years.

The Club Hotel, with its distinctive long, wide verandahs, occupied the corner of Summer Street and Lords Place for many years. The site is now taken up by the Hotel Canobolas. Diagonally opposite, the Royal Hotel was once called the Wellington Inn and was a booking office for Cobb & Co carriages. Hotels occupied the corners of many streets in Orange, such as the Exchange Hotel, which was situated where the Westpac Bank is now, on the corner of Summer and Anson streets. Some betrayed the Irish origins of their owners, such as the Daniel O'Connell Hotel, which was situated between Kite and Moulder streets and owned by Pat Fahy.

Guest speakers will be Toney Fitzgerald and Ross Maroney. Orange born Toney Fitzgerald is writing a book on local breweries, while historian Ross Maroney is well known in the city for his knowledge of local historical buildings and his fine drawings of places of interest.

The meeting will take place at the Gladstone Hotel function room at 7 for 7.30pm. There is a small charge of $3 for members of Orange and District Historical Society and $5 for non-members, to cover costs. Light refreshments will be served. If you have any inquiries or would like to attend the meeting, please RSVP to Phil Stevenson on 6362-3257, mobile 0402 412 188 or email ibiswines@bigpond.com