Strathalbyn National Trust Museum preserving the region’s history
While researching for their current display on Bell’s Store, the Strathalbyn National Trust Museum found an interesting story in a historical edition of The Argus
The Southern Argus looked much different back in the 1800s; typically printed on four pages, as a broadsheet.
A reader would pay just fourpence to buy a copy, and would typically read public and general notices, and stories surrounding farming, sport, court cases, and ships.
The history of the region has been catalogued in The Argus for 155 years, and most of those copies are stored by volunteers at the Strathalbyn National Trust Museum.
The team comprises about 20 volunteers, and 12 who attend Thursday mornings for a working bee, which includes archiving copies of the newspaper.
Strathalbyn branch of the National Trust chairman, Warren Doman, said the museum adopted the collection around the late 1970s when The Southern Argus donated its historical newspapers to be preserved and available for researchers.
Since then, volunteers have collected a bundle of newspapers monthly from The Southern Argus to add to the collection.
Mr Doman said the group’s role is to preserve town history, and The Argus is one aspect of that.
“It’s one of the only original documents that we’ve got,” Mr Doman said.
“We’ve got individual documents in our collection from other people.
“But, in its format, it’s dated you can get a good idea of what life was like in that time by the paper.”
In history, he said much of the town’s population lived on farms who may not get day-to-day updates on what’s going on, so would rely on the paper for news.
“Back in those days, the only way you passed information was by newspapers or public meetings, so The Southern Argus would have played an enormous part in allowing other people information on what’s happening in the area,” he said.
While researching for their current display on Bell’s Store, the Strathalbyn National Trust Museum found an interesting story in a historical edition of The Argus.
“(The Southern Argus) is a way of getting different glimpses of history,” he said.
“For example, there was a train which pulled into the railway station, and there were some heifers on the train.
“One of them escaped and ran up High Street and right through the middle of Bell’s Store.”
When museum visitors press a button on the display, they can listen to that story.
