Tidy Towns award for Milawa

Source: Wangaratta Chronicle 08.08.08 ... archived 09.08.08

Milawa centenary banquet honoring pioneers wins Tidy Towns Award

WHEN they turned back the clock at the Milawa Hall on April 24, 2007, they did it with great style.

So much so, in fact, that the event, the Pioneer Centenary Banquet, has been adjudged the regional winner in the heritage and culture section of the 2008 Keep Australia Beautiful Sustainable Communities - Tidy Towns Awards.

Wendy Jones, chief executive officer of Keep Australia Beautiful - Victoria, will be at the Milawa Hall at 3pm, Friday, August 15, to present the award and talk about the Tidy Towns program.

The highly successful banquet, which commemorated a banquet honoring the Pioneers of the Oxley Plains held at the Milawa Free Library Hall on April 24, 1907, was attended by a capacity crowd, most descended from pioneering families of the district.

A family picnic day and memorabilia display on April 25, 2008, also attracted many interested local residents and visitors who took the opportunity to tour local places of historic interest, including former school sites, and the Milawa Cemetery.

The 1907 banquet honored 55 pioneers of the district, with the Wangaratta Chronicle of Saturday, April 27, 1907, reporting that ‘a committee of young men had chosen this method of entertaining the remaining members of the honored band of settlers who came to Oxley Plains in the fifties and early sixties’.

The original banquet was chaired by John F Brown, and John G Brown was chairman for the centenary banquet, organised by a sub-committee of the Milawa Public Hall and Park Special Committee, members of which included descendants of several of the original pioneer families.

Thrilled at the success of the centenary banquet and memorabilia day, the sub-committee has decided to form a Milawa and District History Preservation Group,

After discussing a number of possible projects, it was decided the first project should be the development of an historic archive, copying and archiving old photographs, maps, diaries and other documents.

A further meeting is planned for August 27 to gauge interest in the project and consider funding options.

Enquiries can be directed to Col Reid, 5727 3251, or Jill McGillivray, 5727 3282.