Community
28 June, 2024
Derri’s Indigenous history to be covered
RESIDENTS interested in the history of the Derrinallum and Darlington district are invited to attend the launch of a new edition of a historical book this Sunday.
‘Mt Elephant – Tjerrinallum’, the second edition of the 1985 book ‘Mount Elephant - A History of Derrinallum and Darlington District’ by Pamela McGregor and Lynton Oaten, will be launched on Sunday, June 30 between 1pm and 4pm.
Mr Oaten said he became interested in the Derrinallum district after being appointed at Derrinallum High School as a teacher,
“I was appointed to the school in 1966, and I got very involved in the town and the district through sport and all those things, and I made some good friends,” he said.
“I felt that the district had a uniqueness about it, but it wasn’t recorded anywhere.
“There were stories and other bits and pieces – the only book of any substance was Margaret Kiddie’s ‘Men of Yesterday’, but it barely mentioned Derrinallum and the plains and Mount Elephant.
“When I eventually came back to Melbourne, I became interested in it, so I did a bit of reading in the State Library. I spoke to some people, and I drove back to Derrinallum every weekend, and I put a little story together of just Derrinallum.”
Mr Oaten then discovered Ms McGregor’s compilation of the history of Darlington in the late 1970s and put together the first edition by combining their research.
He said while the Terang-printed book was a bestseller, they felt there was something missing.
“We decided it was a bit ridiculous that, our history of town was covering 150 years when there were people living there for 60,000 years,” Mr Oaten said.
“We though let’s expand on the book – let’s add a substantial section on First Nations, which we now have.
“We did a lot of research using Trove, which is a marvelous history search engine – and also the Camperdown Chronicle; going back to the 1840s and 50s, had lots of good snippets about Derrinallum and also stories, particularly about John Curry and his treatment of the First Nations people.
“We were able to extract information from the Camperdown Chronicle, Trove, and the State Library. We then searched about getting artwork and we found some lovely portraits of First Nations people from Mount Elephant.”
The book will be unveiled at the History Rooms on 45 Main Street in Derrinallum, with copies going on sale after the event at various local stores in Derrinallum and Lismore at $50.
Mr Oaten said Ms McGregor and himself were “very excited” about the book launch.
“There’s a bit of nervousness about it because it’s a big thing to publish a book on a district,” he said.
“The issue is that you always feel that you can say more. You get to stories, and you’ve got to make decisions to stop at that point.
“We know people in the district are looking forward to getting it -we’ve had some phone calls and people have placed orders already.
“There’s that sense of excitement and some nervousness that it’s fulfilled its expectations when people read it.”
Mr Oaten extended his gratitude to the Derrinallum and Lismore Historical Group for their assistance in putting the book together.
“We’re very grateful to the Derrinallum and Lismore Historical Group – they’ve been of great assistance to us,” he said.
“If we had any questions, we could always contact Avon Buchholz, who’s the secretary, and Avon would assist in finding some bits and pieces if we got to a dead end on a particular matter.
“We are hoping that it will inspire people to find out even more about Derrinallum and Darlington and do their own research if something is of interest to them.”