By Mara Pattison-Sowden
UPPER Yarra students were in wonderment when they found out their Upper Yarra descendants used to bathe in the same tub with the same water.
More than 280 students from Yarra Junction Primary School, Gladysdale Primary School and Milwarra Primary School took part in the Upper Yarra Museum’s History Week activities.
The students ran sack races, learned how to do washing with a scrub board and mangle and guessed historic items to do with food preparation and schoolwork.
Upper Yarra Historical Society member Rhonda O’Meara said the children were eager and enthusiastic.
“They wanted to know so much,” she said.
“Every child was going home yabbering to mum and dad about what they were doing and what they learnt.
“We even had some children who came for school, then brought their parents on the weekend.”
Mrs O’Meara said what made the museum unique was that every item had been donated to the museum by people from the Upper Yarra.
“It makes it a real time capsule,” she said.
The museum’s collection has listings of items from 1974, 1981 and partly in 1990, but it has never been completely catalogued and society members have started working on the great task ahead of them.
Mrs O’Meara said they have been one of 27 groups across Victoria, along with the historical societies in Yarra Glen, Healesville and Mont De Lancey, to trial new database software from Museums Australia to enable better documenting of information that would be available to a wider audience.
The community is being encouraged to shine a light on any stories they have of the history or use of museum objects.
For more information head to www.upperyarramuseum.org.au.
UPPER YARRA STAR MAIL
