WHO WE ARE

The Kurrajong-Comleroy Historical Society is dedicated to researching, recording, preserving and promoting the heritage of the Kurrajong district, the area west of the Hawkesbury River bounded generally by Bilpin, Grose Vale, Wilberforce and Colo Heights in the Hawkesbury local government area, New South Wales, Australia.

FORMATION OF THE KURRAJONG-COMLEROY HISTORICAL SOCIETY

The Society was formed on Sunday 28 January 2001 at a meeting of approximately 50 people with a common view to raise awareness of the historical heritage of the Kurrajong region near Sydney, Australia , and to ensure that this history is preserved for future generations. During the early 1800s the Kurrajong region was referred to as “the currijon”, “the Kurryjung Brush”, the “Kurrajong Brush”, or simply as “the Kurrajong”, and comprised the district on the northern side of the Hawkesbury River which today includes the townships and villages of Kurrajong, Kurrajong Heights, Kurrajong Hills, East Kurrajong, Blaxlands Ridge, Colo Heights, Bowen Mountain, Grose Vale, Grose Wold, North Richmond, The Slopes, Tennyson, Glossodia, and Wilberforce. An early map of this district can be seen by clicking here, and a modern map by clicking here.

The Society formally incorporated 8 months after forming, and its membership has steadily increased, reaching 140 members by its 5^th birthday.

AIMS OF THE SOCIETY

The mission of the Society is:

(i)                  To gather, record and preserve items of a historical nature relating to “the Kurrajong”;

(ii)                To present public exhibitions of any such materials as may be held by the Society;

(iii)               To promote respect for the preservation of “the Kurrajong’s”  heritage; and

(iv)              To document and/or publish members’ research projects.

The vision of the Society is to be recognised as a highly competent historical society that seeks continuous improvement with respect to the quality of its research, documentation and displays.

A major ambition of the Society is to establish a permanent home for the display of the historical collection within close proximity to the Kurrajong village shopping precinct.

ACTIVITIES OF THE SOCIETY

The Society is a very friendly group who enjoy a variety of social events intermixed throughout the year with organised historical field trips and other presentations on local history topics with guest presenters. In addition to these activities the Society meets regularly at its scheduled bi-monthly meetings, and these too often have an invited guest speaker to talk on topics relating to the Kurrajong District’s heritage.

The Society produces a bi-monthly newsletter called The Millstone which serves as the Society’s journal. The newsletter, and the Society’s official logo, are based on Ben Singleton’s millstones which date from at least 1816 and are one of the oldest items of European heritage in the Kurrajong district. The mill is believed to have operated on Little Wheeny Creek near the present Old Bells Line of Road bridge (see May/June 2002 issue of The Millstone). The very first issue of The Millstone notes that the millstones were selected as the logo as they symbolise how Kurrajong’s history has been treated: “..dumped in the creek (1860), retrieved and used as a war memorial (1920), discarded during road widening (1945), rescued (1958), forgotten, rescued again (1988)..” The millstones can be seen today on display in Kurrajong village’s Memorial Park.

New members are always welcome.

MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE OF THE SOCIETY

The Society’s committee consists of an executive of 4 positions (President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer) and an additional 5 committee members. Other office-bearers are the Project Officer, Acquisitions Officer, Millstone Editor and Webmaster. All current office-bearers in the Society are listed in the table below.