General News
26 August, 2024
Times Gone By
From Rainbow Archives and Historical Society's Peter Ralph.
It’s not long now before the Show season is upon us, and so it is timely to remind ourselves that the viability of our own version has always depended on the hard work, commitment and dedication of a stalwart band of locals absolutely dedicated to the betterment of our community.
Certainly the ultimate success of the Show also depends on sponsorship, memberships, support from regional and state Show bodies, and grant sources, but it is the year-in, year-out toil of the local A&P Committee members and their helpers who attend to all those innumerable details that have made it our October highlight for nigh on 112 years.
As a mark of the many and varied contributions made by these folk, almost 50 have been honoured with Life Membership over those years.
The Archive has several photographs of the 47 individuals awarded Life Membership, but only one of the whole group of then-living awardees.
This was taken of those eight folk in 1961 outside the Mechanics Hall, and came to us from Kath Robinson’s files.
Interestingly, several family names are particularly well-represented in that long list from the first Show in 1906: Bretag, Drendel, Eckermann, McCallum, Martion, Nuske, Perkins, Petschel, Roll and Sleep, and currently both Shirley and Raymond Cross.
Our other current Life Members are Col Drendel, Ruth Eckermann, Denis Huff, Trevor Keller, Wayne Nitschke, Maureen Petschel, Nola Smith and Max Tregenza.
Hats off to all of them, and to the 2024 Committee and Stewards led by Fred Saul (President), Norelle Eckermann (Secretary) and Wayne Nitschke (Treasurer), all gearing up for another great Show on October 15th.
And isn’t it great to see the initiative and spirit of the Jeparit community stepping up to ensure the reality of their own 2024 Show?