Elaine Balla, an accomplished embroidery artist, created 'The Camden Show' for the 2011 Camden Show's 125th anniversary, winning a Champion Exhibit Ribbon. Her work, now displayed at the Camden Museum, vividly represents community stories. Balla's contributions span sixty years, illustrating women's expression through the art of embroidery, their agency and telling community stories.
Category: Traditional Trades
Exploring the Penrith Museum of Printing
The Penrith Museum of Printing, part of History Week 2018 in New South Wales, showcases operational printing presses from 1860 to 1970. Visitors learn about traditional printing techniques through live demonstrations. Established in 2001, the museum highlights the evolution of local newspapers and the significant role of printers and compositors.
Addressing Australia’s Heritage Skills Crisis
The Australian Garden History article by Yolanda Cool discusses a crisis in heritage skills training in Australia, highlighting a lack of formal education and accreditation for tradespeople. The Heritage Skills Association emphasizes the urgent need for skilled workers to preserve heritage properties, advocating for solutions and initiatives to address this ongoing shortage. The article explores how the shortage of traditional trades skills in not new in Australia.
Back to Belgenny 2024, a festival of living history
The 2024 Back to Belgenny festival at Belgenny Farm in South Camden showcased living history with reenactments, traditional trades, and stalls selling arts and crafts of the past. Activities included sheepdog trials, live music, vintage cars, and guided history tours of the site. The farm represents the settler society through the generations of the Macarthur family and their workers.
Traditional trades, the legacy of Camden’s carpenters
Carpentry, vital in Camden for centuries, began with Aboriginal bush carpentry using local materials for survival. European settlers adopted this craft, creating simple structures and relying on ingenuity. Formal carpentry evolved with guilds and apprenticeships, maintaining traditional techniques and tools, shaping Camden's architectural landscape with lasting quality.
Living history in southern Queensland
Living history in southern Queensland in the regional centre of Toowoomba
Living History at Belgenny
An informative talk was given on Howell Living History Farm USA recently at Belgenny Farm Camden NSW
The Bennett wagon, a piece of transport history
The historic Bennett (Percival) Wagon is a cultural icon of a different time when horse and bullock teams were kings of the road.
