TROVE Tuesday

Smithfield Bazaar

The Smithfield Bazaar, organised by the school and held in the Smithfield Institute, was highly successful, and realised £40 19/.  Mrs. Wm. Rice, Mayoress of Gawler, performed the opening ceremony. A baby and pet show were great attractions. The winners in the former were Betty Argent, Shirley Bain, Barrington Byrne, and Leslie Worden.  The cakes competitions went to Mrs. W. Smith, Miss Ball, Misses Gwen and Noreen Harris, B. Reed, M. Smith, M. Fogarty, Y. Taylor, E. McDonald, M. Adams. Fancy work — Eileen Bain, E. McDonald, Y. Taylor, N. Harris and M. Smith. Elocution— Neta Andrews, Thalia Chivell. Singing — Fay Saxon and Eileen Bain. Flute duets and solos, Neta Andrews, Noreen Harris, Madge and Ruth Smith. Dancing — Dorothy Neaves. Piano and xylophone, Colin and Fay Saxon. Other performers were E. McDonald, Joyce Frith, Gwen Bain, Peggy Collis, Y. Taylor, C. and K. Burford, and C. Taylor. The head teacher is Mr. Nitschke.

 

The Bunyip 19 October 1934

TROVE Tuesday

One Tree Hill

A dance in aid of the Fighting Forces Comforts Fund, arranged by the ladies' committee of the local unit, was held in the Institute Hall on Saturday, evening. There was an ex cellent attendance. The stage was tastfully decorated with 'red hot pokers' and foliage. Among the nov elty items was a penny drive, arrang ed by Mrs. H. H Blackham and which resulted in £2 4/- being added to the proceeds. Freeman's orchestra supplied the music for dancing, and Mr.J. Lucas was M.C. Mrs. F. L. Ifould is President of the unit and Miss L. N Tamblyn secretary.

The Bunyip 13 September 1940

50 years since Elizabeth II visited

Next week we celebrate Her Majesty Queen ELizabeth II visit to Elizabeth. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and His Royal Highness Prince Phillip first visited Elizabeth on the 21st February 1963.    I have written of this in an earlier post.  http://playfordspast.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/queen-visits-elizabeth-1963.html  Here are some snippets from oral history interviews conducted by the Playford Library.

In an interview with Don Paginton about the Queens visit he says;

The Queen came out here and we didn’t have much notice, it was just a bare paddock out here at that stage.  They worked night and day to produce a place called Windsor Green. Named Windsor green because she is a Windsor, although everybody seems to throw up Tudor roses around the place.

Ted Bowden worked for the Housing Trust at the time of the Queens visit, he recalls;

About three in the morning, I got a radio call to say there was a strange vehicle doing funny things around the area.  I went out and looked, it was a big spray set up, and it was spraying around to force the flies to go down from where this Queen and Duke would be.

They were driving the flies away to the reserve where the school children were going to be.

More images have been loaded onto Flickr.

TROVE Tuesday

SMITHFIELD SPEEDWAY

 

The Motor Cycle Club of South Australia had a record crowd at the Smithfield speedway on Easter Saturday.  Ideal weather prevailed, and the dust nuisance was at a minimum.  Although some brilliant and dare-devil riding was done, there was not even a fall during the day's progress. Harry Mangham was the hero of the day, for he established a new track record in the final of the Castrol Cup, covering the five miles in 4.2 2/5ths, thus aver aging 74.38 miles per hour.  A new record was also put up for the light car, Moyle, in a Salmson, covering the five miles in 4.52 4/5ths, from a standing start, and by encircling another lap, secured also a flying start record, the time being 4.42 4/5ths. By the time the side-car events were listed the oil track had been broken through, and dust rose in clouds, making it practically an impossibility for scratch men to get through the gloom. The result was that Butler, the record holder, was badly beaten.

The Bunyip 13 April 1928

TROVE Tuesday

GAWLER PLAINS.

From our Correspondent

Gawler Plains.July 11.

The usual monthly paper of the Smithfield Farmers' Club was read by the Secretary on Friday evening last. The attendance was not so numerous as on some former occasions, which may be attributed to insufficient publicity resulting from a mistake. The paper was well received, and at its conclusion a vote of thanks was presented to the lecturer. Some routine business was afterwards gone through and the meeting adjourned, Mr. Scoulor having promised to read the next paper.

 

The polling for District Councillors took place on Monday, which resulted in the election of Messrs. B. Heaslip (22 votes), Riggs (24), and S. Smitham (17). Very much inconvenience is experienced by the ratepayers in being needlessly called upon to attend— one day for nomination and another for the ballot. The fact is, not one-third so many attend on the voting-day as on the first day, and so the Councillors are practically the representatives of the minority. Now on the present occasion the show of hands on the first day indicated clearly enough who were to be the coming men, and the ballot proved that the first was right.  It appears, and has been expressed by many here, that the sooner we retrace our steps to the old system of nominating and polling the same day, the better it will be for all concerned. The division of the district into wards was also another subject of discussion with many, and from what I can gather from the ratepayers, I should say we are rapidly drifting into that very desirable condition.  Mr. Evans, of Gawler, (gave his lecture on ' Four Years in America' last evening at the Institute. It was listened to with great attention, and met with the hearty approval of the audience, judging from the unanimous vote of thanks accorded to the lecturer. I am happy to say that Mr. Rowland is so far recovered from his late accident as to be able in some measure to attend to his regular business, he having acted as a scrutineer on Monday last.

SA Register 17 July 1865

Smithfield Institute snippets

Institute hunour

At one time before the building was destroyed by fire, the Hall was used by a religious group for their services each Sunday.  Anyhow this particular group was not well liked by quite a few of the locals; one fellow however joined the group, he lived very close to the Institute in fact where Mr George Pix now lives.  One Sunday morning after he church services had begun, some of the lads of the town went to the home of the local who had joined the religious group, and got his milk cow an led it across to the hall, and up the steps to the door.  He then climbed some pine trees by the hall and then knocked on the door by means of cotton tied to the door knocker.  They say it had to be seen to be believed.  The expression on that man’s face when he opened the door to be stared at by his own cow.

After the Hall was rebuilt in 1936, a Mr George McGee was a caretaker of the premises, although he did not dance himself he used to get much pleasure in watching the dancing.  He was fanatical about keeping the hall floor in tiptop condition for the dancing.  It is understood there used to be quite a lot of strawberry fetes held in the hall around that period. And as soon as the ice cream and strawberries were about to be served, George would rush in with an armful of bags and spread them around, and instruct the patrons to stand on these bags and eat and drink, so that there would be no spill on the floor.

Taken from notes from the Local history room.