It is History Week and Central West Libraries is celebrating the theme Hands on History with the success of Recollect Central West – a digital platform where collections can be shared online.

Statistics show a total of 7,558 items including 767 documents and 6,646 photographs are on the Recollect site and there have been more than half a million hits since the March launch!!!!

The Top 10 items viewed were:

1. CWD Negatives
2. Orange & District Historical Society
3. Tourist Hotel
4. Construction of Orange Olympic Pool
5. Summer Street
6. Emmco Cadet Engineer
7. Maps and Plans
8. Celebrating Orange 75 years of Orange as a city and 175 years of Orange as a village
9. [email protected]
10. Orange Small Schools Association presents 2013 OSSA Schools Spectacular Mamma Mia, Not Another Musical

The community can register with the site, become a member, and contribute photos, stories and memories about the Central West as well as update information about who is in a photo or where it was taken. Or they can just search the site. Visit Recollect at https://centralwest.recollect.net.au/ It is a free community resource.

Former local journalist Mark Filmer has documented the industrial chaos that beset the wool industry when a small group of rebel shearers sought to overturn the ban on wide-toothed shearing combs. It was one of the most violent chapters in Australian rural history. Join Mark at Orange City Library on Wednesday 6th November at 5.30pm – 7pm. Supported by Collins Booksellers, Orange. Please RSVP online via eventbrite or call the Library on 6393 8132.

Blayney Library – Monday 18^th November 11am

Cowra Library – Wednesday 27^th November 2pm

Play your part in history and unearth the footings of Templer’s Mill. An archaeological dig will be held to expose the footings of the historic Templer’s Mill site at Banjo Paterson Park, Ophir Road, Orange.

Attend the Community Day on Saturday 2 November from 9am to 5pm. There will also be community digs from Tuesday 5 November to Friday 8 November at 2.45pm to 4pm. School groups are also invited to take part during the week. Please book your place online via eventbrite.com or call 6393 8120 by Friday afternoon 5pm.

Meet award-winning historian Dr Stephen Gapps as he discusses his book The Sydney Wars: Conflict in the early colony 1788 – 1817, which reveals British soldiers and First Nation warriors both used military-style tactics in a ‘constant war’ during early settlement.

He challenges past beliefs that such clashes were sporadic and unplanned and will share new research about conflicts west of the Blue Mountains.

Meet Dr Gapps at Orange City Library on Thursday 24 October at 5.30pm. Please RSVP via Eventbrite.com or call the Library on 6393 8132. 

It’s History Week and this year’s theme is The Great War. Researchers at Orange City Library are hard at work delving into the stories of the WWI servicemen and women from the area and posting their findings on the Centenary of WWI blog http://www.centenaryww1orange.com.au/

To date they have identified 1, 827 local service men and women, 209 of whom failed to return home, having being killed in action or died of disease. There were 25 women from the area who served as nurses, and at least seven indigenous service men.

The Centenary of World War I in Orange project is being led by a community committee which includes representatives from Orange City Council, Central West Libraries, the Orange and District RSL, sub-branch and the local community.