Echoes From The Past

News Item

By Francis Larder      The opening day of our exhibition had finally arrived.  With mixed emotions of excitement and nervousness I arrived at our opening not knowing what the response would be. It was such an overwhelming surprise to see so many people there, and what a wonderful reaction and response we received. There were approximately 140 guests. Most of the volunteers were there with their families, also the Sydney Dance Group. Lisa Magri opened the exhibition by welcoming everybody and giving a brief introduction about the exhibition.
I then gave my opening speech thanking everybody for coming. People came from Melbourne, Canberra, Perth, Bowral, New-Castle, Sydney and the Blue Mountains to be part of this opening and I was most impressed.
Klaas Woldring   spoke about the financial part of the project, which was done on a shoe string budget .The touching on our back ground involvement and extensive early contacts of the VOC seafarers with the Australian Continent, starting with the mapping of the West coast of Cape York in 1606. By 1644 75% of the Australian Coast had been mapped by Abel Tasman. Before WWII several remarkable Dutch individuals migrated to Australia   like Guillaume Delprat , who was General Manager of Broken Hill Pty. Ltd. from 1899- 1921 And initiated the steel industry in New-Castle. Dr. Nonja Peters, Director of Migration, Ethnicity, Refugees and Citizenship (MERC) Research Unit of Curtin University (WA), author of several outstanding books, also spoke about the importance of preserving the history of the migration, her presence added significantly to the status of this exhibition.
An amusing contribution was made by Mike and Amanda of the Puppet people, who brought life to two of the marionettes from the Wadden Islands, while I gave a brief description on the clothes they were wearing.
This was then followed by the Sydney Dance Group, who performed several traditional clog dances, accompanied by Herman Zirkzee on the accordion and Jamie Carlin on the concertina. I followed up with a speech to thank all the volunteers for their big effort on a job well done, their dedication and support over these last four years in making this exhibition such a success.
The “Echoes from the Past “exhibition, was then    formerly opened by CH Councilor Terry Beckhouse, who well aware of the historic Dutch contributions, congratulated the organizers on a job well done. Jan Hartsuijker and his family were there also cooking up a storm with their poffertjes. I think he said that they cooked about 900 poffertjes. Not a bad effort and they were enjoyed by all.
It was unfortunate we were unable to raise funds for getting catalogues printed for the visitors. Quite a few people were asking for them, which was a great pity.
I just wanted to add ;,that  I would like to thank both Jan and Mia Joosten for all their support and  how special it , was to have them at our opening , knowing  full well what a busy schedule  they  have running their Club.! I really appreciated them being there.                    Francis  

By Email Re: Echoes From The Past.
We haven't had much of a quiet time, with a lot of visitors staying here both from Sydney and the Netherlands to see the exhibition. Since our opening the gallery has had a steady stream of visitors .Not only from all over Australia, but also overseas, including the Netherlands. The response has been amazing and very gratifying.
So the gallery has extended the time for another
month and the exhibition will now be dismantled
on the 20th February.
                            Regards Frances.

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