Reference Groups

A number of people have asked “how much work is involved with a reference group?”

If you put your hand up for one of our reference groups we do not expect you to attend meetings - lets face it we are all busy and the shire covers a large area.  What we want is your time with input to the particular area of interest -  not travelling to and attending meetings.

We have to be clever how we use our time and we can do this through the internet.

As with the Cultural Heritage Working Group,  the reference groups members will be people who are already engaged with the regions heritage, that is its History, Geology, Marine, Indigenous and the Arts. It is your existing level engagement with this heritage that we would like to tap into for information, insight and ideas

We expect that you will respond to emails and those responses can be as extensive, thoughtful or as simple and brief as you want to make them.

We are not starting from scratch. You will see that the Cultural Heritage Working Group through last years Heritage Strategy has already identified that there is rich tapestry of stories in the region. The next phase is to shape these into information packages for the experience seeker, the informed traveller  - our guests who are coming to the region.

Success for Merimbula-Imlay Historical Society

After completing a challenging year long program assessing their practice against The National Standards for Australian Museums and Galleries, the hard working volunteer group of the MERIMBULA OLD SCHOOL MUSEUM have been rewarded a certificate that will see the Museum published in the state-wide publication of all the Museums.

The Old School Museum is an outstanding heritage asset and based on the advice and feedback of the Standards Program, the volunteer run museum is now developing a plan to work with school groups to raise awareness and bring history to the community.

Olwen Morris, a member of the Merimbula Old School management committee explained that the whole project has been well worth the effort and has provided strong impetus for volunteers to work towards the image of the Old School Museum making it a showpiece for our local community.

The Merimbula Old School Museum is located in a beautifully restored heritage listed stone building dating from 1873. The collection on display tell the stories of Merimbula and it's development.

December Update

In the mad rush before Christmas our working group members have begun seeking expressions of interest from like minded people in the community to engage with us on this project and to contribute to the foundation reference groups for each of our identified stories - History, Geology, Marine, Indigenous and Cultural Arts. Early in the new year a community awareness campaign will be launched encouraging people of the Sapphire Coast to stay in touch, submit information and generally become involved in this exciting project. Until then, Seasons Greetings and a Happy New Year to you all!