Busy season for Garden Club
Baw Baw Budgerigar Society
The last meeting of the Baw Baw Budgerigar Club was transferred to the Yarragon Hall for the selection of young birds (those bred during 2017) to represent the club at the State Young Bird Championship that were held on Sunday in Noble Park.
More than 120 birds were presented on the night for the judging of 27 classes of birds.
The club presents three of each class for the championship and receives points towards an overall club ranking. Last year Baw Baw came sixth from among all the clubs across Victoria represented at the show.
Birds that win at the state championship are then selected to represent Victoria at the National Show, which this year is being held in Penrith New South Wales on May 26 and 27.
This year Baw Baw is hopefully of progressing further up the ladder given the quality of the birds presented for selection.
Further to the selection process the club also selects the champion bird on the night, which this year was won by David Rowe’s any other standard variety (AOSV) spangle.
David also achieved reserve champion with a normal grey as well as a fourth place; while John Rowe achieved third place with a double factor spangle white. The Society congratulated David, who has been breeding budgies with his brothers for many years, as this is his first ever win.
The Society congratulates and wishes good luck to its club members who have had birds selected for the state championship.
The next meeting will be back at the poultry pavilion at the Warragul Show Grounds on Monday June 4 commencing at 7pm, where the Society will be drawing the winners of its raffle of a $150 Flight Centre voucher, $50 Harvey Norman voucher and a $25 voucher from The Press Cellars.
There will also be a discussion on pairing, breeding and management of birds for the upcoming breeding season.
If you are interested in joining the club you can contact it via the club’s website https://bawbawbudgerigarsociety.weebly.com or find it via its Facebook page.
Membership is open to anyone interested in these beautiful little birds.
Warragul District Historical Society
The watercolours of early Warragul by renowned artist Neville Henry Cayley will be the subject of next Monday’s meeting of the Warragul and District Historical Society.
It will be held in the Old Shire Hall, 72 Queen Street, Warragul at 7.30pm. Visitors are welcome.
The society’s Colin Silcock will do a powerpoint presentation that will highlight Cayley’s earliest known watercolour paintings.
These were executed in Warragul in 1879 and are believed to be the earliest of Cayley’s works in Australia.
“These wonderful paintings are stored in the historical society’s museum and show very exactly very early scenes of Warragul,” said society member in charge of collections, Jo Dickson.
“Unfortunately these paintings are in need of preservation and are currently in storage, but will be on show for the meeting.”
After leaving Warragul, Cayley became better known as the premier bird painter of the colony. His son also became a bird artist, and they are both well-known through the book, ‘What Bird Is That?’
The Lillico district was the subject of last month’s society meeting. Through a powerpoint presentation, members heard about the early times in the Lillico district and the community involvement that helped shape the district.
The Warragul and District Historical Society holds its meetings on the last Monday of each month in the Old Shire Hall at 7.30pm.
West Gippsland Genealogical Society
The annual general meeting of the Society will be held Thursday, May24.
The guest speaker will be president of the Genealogical Society of Victoria David Downs, presenting 'Unusual resources in Devon'.
Geoff Leunig presented 'The Life and Times of George Hamilton, 1873 - 1925' at last month's meeting. George Hamilton was born in Ireland, was a carpenter, a Cooneyite and lay preacher for this group and worked in Mesopotamia.
George married a cantankerous Margaret Campbell without family approval and the couple had two children before he kidnapped his daughters and took them to India. The girls went to school in Nainital. His "second wife" died in India of black smallpox. He became sick and died in Liverpool.
The girls were hurried out of India so they didn't become Indian citizens. They lived in an orphanage in Liverpool. Etta had a chance meeting in Londonderry which put the girls back in contact with their mother, who then came back to Liverpool to live with Etta until she died.
The society is still seeking information on WW1 soldiers buried or remembered in the local cemeteries. See contact details below.
The Warragul Family History Writers' Circle meet on the second and fourth Fridays of the month at the Warragul Library, Victoria Street from 10am to noon. All welcome.
WGGS library opening hours are Wednesday to Friday, 10am to 2pm, the second Saturday of the month 10am to 3pm and the fourth Sunday of the month 2pm to 4pm. Visitors welcome.
The Society meet on the upper floor of the Old Shire Hall, Queen Street, Warragul at 7.30pm. Everyone is welcome to attend.
Further details about the Society can be obtained from president, Barbara, phone 5611 3871 or visit the website www.westgippslandgenealogy.com.
Crazy Cow Kids Club
A great new club for children to join and build positive social skills and team interaction has been formed.
Have fun and make friends with active games, activities and competitions. The first week is free.
Cost is $12 per week which includes afternoon tea, materials, use of facilities and an experienced program leader. Limited spaces are available.
The Crazy Cow Activity Centre is located at 126 North Road, Warragul with entry via the second gate on June Crt.
Grade Prep – Grade 2 Tuesday - straight after school to 5pm.
Grade 3 – Grade 6 Thursday – straight after school to 5pm.
Bookings preferred to guarantee a place, phone 5608 0524.
The Warragul and District Garden Club had a busy end to the Summer/Autumn season.
An enjoyable bus trip to visit the Geelong botanic gardens and onwards to Winchelsea to visit Country Dahlias was one of the longest members have encountered, not just in terms of distance but also in time taken to get home through the accident affected traffic on the Monash Freeway.
The Geelong Botanic Gardens are very impressive having been established as far back as 1851, and therefore have many large established trees plus beautiful walkways through both dry and rainforest.
The next stop was in Winchelsea for lunch and then Jenny and Arthur Parish welcomed members to their property, Country Dahlias. Arthur made a grand entrance, riding in his own design two-seater weeding machine made from a ride on mower.
Although at the end of their season, the paddocks and garden beds were a blaze of colour with many types of Dahlias – 2350 different varieties with more than 20,000 plants. A lot of work awaits them with labelling and lifting clumps of tubers, which they sell all over the country.
Having moved the meeting forward one week because of the trip, there were concerns that numbers would be lower at the meeting held just a week later.
However, an audience of almost 50 members attended at the Senior Citizens’ Centre to hear Peter Ware from Friends of Drouin Trees deliver an excellent slide presentation on Flora and Fauna in Baw Baw Shire.
Peter is an avid photographer and bird watcher and showed many slides taken in various habitats throughout this area. He also gave us an overview of the Drouin Trees group and the suggested walks through the area. The talk and slide show were enjoyed by all.
The President reminded members that the $15 annual subscriptions are now due.
Another large benching for the monthly competition was judged by Margaret Monk, with Robin Hill winning best exhibit with a late but perfect hydrangea bloom.
The next meeting is on Monday May 28 at the Senior Citizens’ Centre at 9.45 am.
The speaker will be Paul Kirkpatrick on the “Weird & Wonderful World of Plant Collectors”. Visitors and potential new members are always welcome.
For additional details visit the website www.warragulgardenclub.com.