THIS year Rosewood’s Country Women’s Association (CWA) turns 100, it’s a wonderful milestone but something’s missing … perhaps you can help find it.
Gaylene Stack said despite the association’s lengthy history, its collection of photographs and other memorabilia was very limited.
“Some people say ‘oh well, that would have been thrown away years ago when we cleared mum’s house out’,” she said of previous attempts to recoup memories.
“If people keep throwing these things out there’s not going to be any heritage left.”
She is hoping somewhere out there within South East Queensland, somebody has items of historical value to the Rosewood QCWA and is able to pass these on to them.
“It seems people are just not that interested, and the older ones … well many of them have left us but they worked hard to get this building and we are trying to keep it alive.”
Gaylene has been a part of Rosewood’s QCWA for the past seven years and while that’s not a long time, before that work got in the way and she doesn’t believe in doing things in half measures.
“Now I’ve semi-retired, I’ve got more time,” she explained, adding, “when I do something, I do it properly.”
What these QCWA members want most right now is to get their hands on historical literature and photographs.
They only have one booklet, it’s one that covers 1924 to 1984.
“All our [historical booklets] are gone, there’s barely anything here and what we do have, you can count them on your hand,” she said.
“Someone surely must have gone to some of the birthdays over the years.
“It doesn’t matter who we talk to, the historical societies and libraries, we can’t seem to find anything.”
What Gaylene and the ladies at Rosewood would like most is for community members to search for anything of historical significance and hand it to them for safekeeping.
She’s hoping anyone with a link to the association, no matter how far back or minor, can help them to regain some of the history that’s been lost.
