Memories shared at history event
“Fantastic — our old house is here,” was one of the many comments at the opening of the history days of Waihi Beach, Bowentown and Athenree at the Waihi Beach Community Centre on Saturday.
Visitors viewed display boards with old photographs, with local oral history presentations and went on bus and walking tours to historic sites around the area.
Errol Moore had lived most of his life at Waihi Beach said the history displays were very interesting. He said there were some gaps like the old Scout hall, but he remembered the day it was built, “it was when the Waikato rugby team beat the Springboks.”
The family went to school at Waihi Beach when Mac Gowan was the principal. “I remember at school we’d go for a walk and pick up things from the beach, but we all had to know our times tables. He was a visionary.”
There were photos of the donkeys on the beach, Milly, Molly and Mandy, which belonged to Snow and Pearl Major in the 1950s, a history board of the Waihi Beach Surf Lifesaving Club from the 1920s with rescues and statistics, the Athenree Volunteer Fire Brigade and original store,
commercial fisherman, Harry Harley, Waihi Beach Community Centre, Waihi Beach RSA, Lions Club of Waihi Beach and many more. Precious photo collections were shared by Mike Fowler, Sara Ellery (during holidays 1951-57), Kevin Walsh, Gloria Kingsford, Wendy Sellers and Andy Kennedy and others.
After months of planning, Waihi Beach Community Board member Marilyn Roberts said she was glad everything was up on display.
“We put our tentacles out to the community and people have made a massive community contribution. Social media had been invaluable and the sevenweek series of articles in the Waihi Leader.
“We wanted a comprehensive understanding rather than snap shots but we’ve only scratched the surface.”
Marilyn also launched her book, Discover the History of Waihi Beach, Bowentown and Athenree — A community collection of historical treasures.
The Local History Days were the brainchild of Kathy Webb — the first one was held at Barke’s Corner in 2011 at the Western Bay of Plenty District Council chambers. It was so successful that Kathy made a yearly event taking it out to each of the communities in turn. In 2012 it was at Te Puke in the Hall, in 2013 in Katikati at the old Katikati Heritage Museum, then in 2014 at the Settler’s Hall in Omokoroa. When Kathy left the history events stopped happening until 2018.
Council’s Western Bay Community Archives decided to re-instate the history event, this time at Waihi Beach in celebration of the Waihi Beach, Bowentown and Athenree communities. Council would act as a sponsor — contributing financially and also giving time and resources (printing, laminating etc) to a community group who would be the main driver of the event.
An initial meeting to gauge interest in the community was held at the Waihi Beach Community Centre in November last year. The level of interest was so great that the event took on a life of its own and became a five-day celebration covering that end of the district.
“We were lucky enough to have Marilyn Roberts on board, who worked tirelessly to co-ordinate, cajole and corral members of the community into letting the event committee copy, laminate and display their wonderful photographs and documents and talk about their lives, share their memories and educate the visitors to the event, said Sandra Haigh, head of Western Bay Community Archives.
The five-day event featured the Old Boys Network, Alan Goodyear and Rosalie Smith sharing memories of Athenree and archaeologist, Brigid Gallagher spoke on early Maori and findings at Athenree, Bowentown and Waihi Beach.
The 2019 Local History Day will be in Maketu at the landing place of the Arawa canoe and boasts one of the richest histories in the district.