Community & Business
19 July, 2023
50th anniversary coming up at the Woolshed
The Friends of Jondaryan Woolshed Inc. are holding a reunion for all who have been involved in the “Jondaryan Woolshed Project” since its inception in 1973, including volunteers, staff, committee members, directors, stall holders, event organisers and other supporters on Saturday 2 September 2023.
The event will be held, from 10am, in the now 164-years-old Heritage-listed Woolshed at Jondaryan.
They are putting the word out to openly invite anyone and everyone involved in any aspect of the Jondaryan Woolshed over the past five decades to come along for a day of remembering and reconnecting.
It will be an informal opportunity to catch up with old friends over morning tea and a luncheon, with a few speeches at 2pm before the cutting of a 50th Birthday cake.
The origins of the idea to preserve the then 113-years-old shearing shed are very clear and well documented in newspaper reports at the time, and various publications since.
In May 1972 the Jondaryan State School was celebrating its Centenary, and decided the old shearing shed on the Oakey Creek just outside of town was a suitably interesting place to hold a Ball, albeit with much repair and preparation work to be done by the school mums and dads, and many other local farmer and residents.
The dance was a huge success, the result being that those attending, most of whom would never have set foot in the shed prior to this celebration, began to realise its historical significance.
Events unfolded at a slow but inevitable pace, with the then President of the School P&C, Mr Roy Grundy, after a necessary period of recovery from the Centenary celebrations, calling a public meeting to consider the preservation of the Jondaryan Woolshed for posterity, in December 1973, when a Jondaryan Woolshed Preservation Committee was formed, with Roy as President.
The then owner of the land upon which the building sat, Lawry Rutledge, sensing the feeling of the district, subsequently offered the Woolshed and 12 acres of land to the Jondaryan district community, which was overwhelmingly accepted at a public meeting in March 1975.
This was similar to projects in other locations.
Hugh Sawrey’s vision in 1974 led to the opening of Longreach’s Stockmans Hall of Fame in 1988, Sovereign Hill in Ballarat opened in 1970 to tell the story of the southern goldrush, Barcaldine’s Australian Workers Heritage Museum, Miles Historical Village Museum which began in 1971,
The first AGM of a newly formed Jondaryan Woolshed Historical Museum and Park Association was held in August 1976, with Mr Grundy elected President.
An Australian Heritage Festival was held in August 1977 in conjunction with Brookvale Park.
It was to become an annual event for the next 35 years, with the last one held in 2012, superseded by a Jackie Howe Festival of the Golden Shears which continued for several years.
A rolling 50th anniversary of these significant events for the Jondaryan Woolshed and community has already begun!
The Jondaryan State School’s 150th anniversary celebrations were successfully held in September 2022, with parallel events happening at the Woolshed on the day.
This Reunion event marked the 50th anniversary of that first public meeting that cemented the beginnings of the preservation of the Jondaryan Woolshed as a treasured part of Australia’s heritage.
To acknowledge the 50th anniversary of the acceptance of the gift of the Woolshed to the community for posterity, in 1975, Steaming on the Downs, Toowoomba & District Old Machinery Society (TADOMS) and Queensland Steam and Vintage Machinery Society are hosting the National Historic Machinery Association (NHMA) National Rally at the Jondaryan Woolshed in August 2025, featuring “Steaming under the Southern Cross”, an theme that has been successfully held in conjunction with Australian Heritage Festivals at the Woolshed in the past.
Proposals for the reinstatement of an annual festival in 2026 and/or 2027, to mark the 50th anniversary of the formation of the Association, and the first Australian Heritage Festival, are being considered.
The Jondaryan Woolshed is currently owned and managed by Toowoomba Regional Council, having eventually proved too much for a volunteer non-profit association to continue and subsequently passing to Jondaryan Shire Council in 2002 to maintain the enterprise.
Bookings to attend the reunion, including the luncheon, are available on Try booking, or by emailing jws50th@gmail.com or phoning 0437 834 639.
Contributed, with information supplied by Joanne Evans
