The Kenmore and District Historical Society meetings are held on the third Thursday of the month from 7 to 9 pm at the Kenmore Library Meeting Room, unless otherwise advised.

Our next meeting will be held on Thursday 18 April from 7 to 9 pm.  This month we will have two guest speakers, Des Draydon and Margaret Watts.

Des Draydon is a retired Barrister now living at Karana Downs. Born in Clermont and schooled in Toowoomba, Des pursued a high-level legal career in Queensland, starting as an Associate to Mr Justice Gibbs and then at the Bar through the legal challenges associated with the Bjelke-Petersen days in government. But Des kept coming back to his early days in Clermont, where he met people who still talked about events leading to the Shearers’ Strike in the 1890s. His research led him to investigate the way those events involved Banjo Paterson, and how the words of ‘Waltzing Matilda’ can be linked to events during the Shearers’ Strike. This link will be the focus of Des’ talk, which he has entitled “Boiling the Billy with Banjo”.’ 

 Margaret Watts our second speaker, is from the Brookfield District Museum and Historical Society, and a member of KDHS. She grew up in Sydney and has a background in architecture and art history. Moving to Brookfield in 1985, she became interested in the local history and joined the Brookfield Historical Society in 2003. This interest has been sustained through research and through meeting people from local families who are pleased to record their stories. The Museum is an ongoing challenge. 

Upcoming dates for 2019:

May 16th, June 20th, July 18th, August 15th, September 19th, October 17th and November 21st.

For further information contact the committee at kenmorehistory@gmail.com

Everyone is welcome to join the Kenmore & District Historical Society Inc.  The benefits of becoming a member are detailed below.

• Knowledge that you are supporting volunteer work within the Society
• Receipt of a monthly newsletter
• Events and activities
• Free access to research material
• Monthly meeting with a guest speaker
• Opportunity to meet others from our local community who have an interest in history
• Be involved in the process of recording and preserving our local history for future generations

A membership application form can be downloaded here.

The Kenmore and District Historical Society (KDHS) has a collection of resources covering a broad range of themes on Kenmore and district.  The RSL have generously allowed KDHS to store these valuable resources, as well as a printer and computer, at the RSL rooms at the Fairview Aged Care Facility, Pinjarra Hills.  The room is a place where members of KDHS can view the society’s resources and research material.

For more information about the KDHS resource location and arrangements please follow this link.

Please note that the KDHS collection can be viewed by appointment only.  If any members wish to view our records please contact the Committee at kenmorehistory@gmail.com

Members Jim and Barbara Shepherd are researching Kenmore and district postal and mailing services. The first postal service in the overall district appears to have been at Moggill in 1861. In those early years the mail was run from a store and this was the case with Moggill. Sometimes the service was run from a school as happened at Fig Tree Pocket from 1871. The next district postal services opened in Brookfield in 1876, then Pullenvale in 1878 and Indooroopilly in the early 1880s. Right up into the 20th century, farming families at Kenmore had ‘C/- Post Office, Indooroopilly’ as their postal address.

To contribute to this research please contact Jim Shepherd, jshepherd34@bigpond.com