Celebrating heritage
Australian Stockman’s Hall of Fame marks 30th anniversary
A STOCKMAN crouches low, tending his campfire, a strong outline against a rolling brown plain and a faded denim sky where his daydream vision of a station homestead is etched like a blueprint.
That’s outback artist Hugh Sawrey’s famed artwork A Vision Splendid, synonymous with the vision for a heritage centre that pays tribute to the workers of the outback.
This month, the Australian Stockman’s Hall of Fame celebrates 30 years of operation.
The idea was conceived in 1974 by the artist and a handful of outback identities in Boonah, including his wife Gill, Bruce Yates, and Maryannne and David Briggs.
The centre would tell not only the story of the modern opening of the outback and the tales of drovers, storekeepers and station owners, but also stretch back across time through indigenous settlement. David Briggs felt that if Australia did not honour its past, it would not have a future
The idea was carried forward by a handful of energetic people such as RM Williams, Ranald Chandler, Bruce Yates and Bob Katter Sr, through location establishment, funding, design and construction. Another who saw the project to fruition was Longreach cattleman and civic leader Sir James Walker. His daughter, Rosemary Champion, remains a life member and chairwoman of the Queensland branch of ASHF.
She said the first big achievements were to get the centre located in Longreach, which came after some competition between outback townships, and raising the funds – $6–7 million for construction and the same again to develop and maintain the collection – which were sourced through community fundraising events and the Australian Bicentenary Authority.
“The rest of Australia didn’t think a small town like Longreach could be the site of the Australian Stockman’s Hall of Fame, although to us it looked really obvious,” she Mrs Champion said.
“The rest of the world thought it should be somewhere more populated, even Canberra, where people would fall over it on the way to somewhere else.
“But that’s the point of it. People came down the track to the outback. So it was a hard-fought battle.
“The building has been open for 30 years, but the journey has been much longer.”
After a national competition was held, the radical design of Sydney architect Feiko Bouman was chosen. It was ahead of its time with elements to cope with the heat of the outback, and the structure – heavily featuring locally sourced sandstone – bedded in the landscape from which it rose.
The first sod was turned in 1985 by Sir Ninian Stephen before Woolam Constructions began works. Mrs Champion recalls the logistics of the building process as a feat, surmounting issues such as poor roads and transporting large quantities of building materials over long distances.
The anniversary represents a full-circle moment for Woollam Constructions director George Bogiatzis, who worked as a tendering cadet during the construction of the ASHF.
“As a 22-year-old tendering cadet at the time this was the largest project I had worked on, and at such a young age it was an honour to contribute to the conservation and celebration of Australia’s heritage,” Mr Bogiatzis said.
Working in very remote Queensland conditions while implementing unique design and technical skills made it a memorable experience for Mr Bogiatzis.
“The structure has stood the test of time both design and construction-wise, featuring castellated beams, corrugated iron, a curved roof as well as sandstone, and tiles from Toowoomba,” he said.
“The museum was designed to look like a large barn from a distance. It’s a very open building with a lot of timber on the ceiling, which was quite difficult to secure.”
He also recalled the unconventional experience of the official opening in 1988
It was a hardfought battle. The building has been open for 30 years, but the journey has been much longer.
— Rosemary Champion
alongside Queen Elizabeth II.
“Flying outback in a cosy six-seater plane to watch Her Majesty arrive in a jumbo jet for the big event was something I will always remember,” Mr Bogiatzis said
“The attendance of up to 20,000 people – almost twice the population of Longreach – was remarkable, with hundreds of planes filling up Longreach Airport.”
Since opening, the centre has had about 1.5 million visitors, bearing out the gut instinct of a handful of outback folk with a vision that a heritage centre about life in the outback rightly belonged in that landscape, and not in Canberra, and that moreover, the world would come to connect with that history.
Like the outback people to whom it pays tribute, the Hall stands tall and proud against the rolling plains, a monument to independent character and sense of place.