Family Ties
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Overview
Family ties is a collaborative project between Inverell Cultural and Arts Council (now Inverell Cultural Group), Inverell District Family History Group, the Heritage Futures Research Centre at the University of New England, and the Historic Houses Trust of NSW (now Sydney Living Museums).
The project brings together expertise and experience from a range of disciplines and organisations to develop and test a strategy for documenting, reinterpreting and presenting the history of a particular site and district in regional New South Wales. The material and interpretations are being applied to a variety of purposes including cultural tourism, heritage conservation, and family and local history.
The main focus is the Newstead, Elsmore, Paradise district near Inverell in northern New South Wales, and the Newstead homestead site within that district. The area is geographically distinct and separate from the New England Tablelands which adjoin it to the east and its European settlement was earlier than the lands further west. The community, especially in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, had a distinct character and is described by local historian Elizabeth Wiedemann as 'a world of its own'.
There is much primary source material known to be in private and public collections. The records held by the Anderson family descendants, for example, are significant in that they date from the 1830s, before the family came to Australia, and they contain many documents that outline the personal experiences of the family and workers as they took over the management of the land at Newstead in the early 1840s. The collections also hold a variety of objects relating to the history of the families, the Newstead property and the surrounding district.
An added level of significance is the well documented connection between the Anderson family and the nationally significant artist Tom Roberts and his life and work in the Inverell area in the late 1800s.
Objectives
The Family ties project has:
- developed and trialled a pilot project for the identification, management and community
access to documentary and movable heritage collections linked to a specific
site and district in rural New South Wales. The trial incorporates methodologies
and concepts from a variety of disciplines and areas of research (conservation
of buildings and sites, archaeology, cultural tourism, heritage studies, history,
museum studies),
- utilised the identified and linked movable heritage and documentary collections to
re-interpret the site within the district in a variety of mediums (publications,
exhibitions, on-line, driving tours) and for a variety of purposes (academic
research, cultural tourism, heritage conservation, adaptive re-use strategies),
- established and consolidated ongoing partnerships between local, regional, state and national community, cultural, conservation and educational groups, organisations and institutions.
Content
The information, sources and stories presented in Family Ties represent only a small taste of the wealth of material being collected by family and local historians. It is a growing project. As time and resources permit, more information and examples will be added, and corrections and additions will be made to existing material.
If you notice mistakes, have new information or want to follow up leads suggested by Family Ties, please email inverellfamilyhistorygroup@gmail.com.
The material in Family Ties is based on extensive research done by the late Mrs Muriel Bryan, and subsequent and ongoing work by many researchers who have built on Muriel Bryan's sound foundations. The project acknowledges the assistance, commitment and expertise of all who have contributed. It also acknowledges the assistance of the Glen Innes District Historical Society (http://www.beardieshistoryhouse.info/).
Partners
The partners in the project are:
Inverell Cultural Group (formerly Inverell Cultural and Arts Council)
Inverell District Family History Group
UNE Heritage Futures Research Centre
Sydney Living Museums (formerly Historic Houses Trust of NSW)
Contact
For further details about Family ties contact: inverellfamilyhistorygroup@gmail.com