City’s past not just bricks and mortar
SHARING the city’s colourful past in a way that’s engaging and entertaining is the aim of two upcoming walking tours of Dubbo. Titled Heritage Encounters, the first walk will centre on Society and Culture on September 7 while Crime and Justice will be the focus on November 11.
Macquarie Regional Library local studies officer Simone Taylor will conduct the first tour, explaining that the walk will follow the heritage trail signage installed in the CBD late last year.
“The walk I’m doing is a way to let people know about the Heritage Trail,” she said.
“We didn’t do a lot of promotion when the Heritage Trail was installed so I’m hoping that this walk will bring it to life.”
Simone was new to Dubbo when she undertook the project’s research and she found it to be a fascinating way to learn about her adopted abode.
“I really enjoyed working on the project and doing the research and discovering all the unique elements of Dubbo’s history,” she said.
“This tour really shows that it’s not just a built heritage, we found some really quirky stories as well.”
Some of the interesting facts include the establishment of Dubbo’s first hospital being the result of a wealthy businessman and his complicated love life. Another titbit reveals that local hotels were the community centres of town, and there were once so many cinemas that Dubbo’s entire “What endless trouble, heart burnings, expense and worry a man may start who once allows a bad woman to sway his will…” – from the Dubbo CBD Society and Culture Heritage Trail population could go to the movies at once. Dubbo’s infamous flood in 1955 also left 4000 people homeless, with the air force flying in supplies by parachute.
“Another interesting story is that the first building was the gaol,” Simone says. “In 1936, the balcony collapsed at the Macquarie View Hotel while there was an auction being conducted. And then there’s the dip in the LH Ford Bridge, which opened on September 26, 1969. Engineers could not determine why there was a dip, which remains there to this day.”
“Some of the stories are not on display because they were quite unpleasant and the topics such as abortion and murder were too confronting.
“Dubbo has some great stories to tell, and all of these things happened a long time ago. It would be a very dull place if nothing ever happened.”
Not knowing any of the history previously made Simone’s job all the more eye-opening when she took on the task.
Now she hopes that visitors and locals alike will join her on the Heritage Trail to discover all the information for themselves.
“We’ve seen people doing the self-guided walk and they seem really interested. Hopefully, this will help people who haven’t seen the panels, as a way of getting more people aware of the project.” The second tour will be conducted by Western Plains Cultural Centre manager Andrew Glassop, who manages the Heritage Trail project.
The pair will talk about some of the panels as well as sharing other stories.