Compiled from the Daily Advertiser
by the Wagga Wagga & District Historical Society
25 Years Ago
- Wagga City Council’s monopoly on gas sales in Wagga, which returned a profit of $3.1 million in 1994 is under threat following a report from the NSW Gas Council recommending a competitive natural gas market.
- Wagga’s rising country music star Darren Coggan won the prestigious Star Maker Quest at the Tamworth Country Music Festival.
- Wagga Leagues Club president Brian Lawrence, general manager, Bruce Piercy, Leagues Cricket Club captain, Steve Butt and president Andrew Lindner sliced a ribbon to open the new cricket practice nets at Eric Weissel Oval.
- Senior Sergeant Peter “PJ” Lowrey was named as Wagga’s Citizen of the Year with clarinet virtuoso Vincent King named as Young Citizen of the Year.
- Notwithstanding recent State Government changes recognising brothels as “legitimate land uses”, Wagga City Council has refused to approve development applications for brothels in the city.
- Vocalists Cathy Wall and Shannon Carswell along with Riverina Jazz Band member, Graeme Callender performed in “Cool Jazz on a Hot Night”, a free concert in the Victory Memorial Gardens.
- An eighteen-year-old caught shoplifting a cassette tape worth $4.95 from a Wagga department store was fined $250.
- Six recorded snake bites in the Wagga area this summer have prompted a timely warning from snake handler, Gordon Murray.
- Michael Clisby has been appointed as principal of the Wagga Christian College.
- Wagga Mayor, Peter Dale opened the 1996 Country Diving Championships at the Bolton Park swimming pool.
- Heavy machinery has moved in to clear the way for a new residential subdivision on the site which formerly housed Tatton Public School.
- Cedric Thomas and Jack Mullins were presented with achievement awards at Wagga’s Australia Day activities recognising their efforts during the Australia Remembers program.
- Wagga Triants’ president, Simon Andreou said that a record field of more than 260 competitors competed in the “Bug on a Bike” triathlon held in and around Lake Albert.
50 Years Ago
- A portion of Shaw Street has been made one way to allow a satisfactory flow of traffic when traffic lights on the corner of Docker and Edward Streets begin operating soon.
- Flames came within feet of paint and paint thinners during a fire attended by two units of the Wagga Fire Brigade and 14 Firemen, at the body repair business of B G Hartwig housed in a section of the old Wonderland Theatre in Wonderland Lane.
- Senior Constable Ian Mortimer has been appointed Secretary-Superintendent of the Wagga Police Citizens Boys Club following the retirement of Sergeant Pat Kain.
- Labor Party candidate for Wagga, Mr Jack Skeers addressed an election campaign meeting at the Astor Hotel along with Mr W F Sheahan, the Member for Burrinjuck.
- Ald R L Brunskill was re-elected as chairman of the Southern Riverina County Council.
- Assistant manager of Wagga Motors, Mr Gordon Braid has been elected a country vice-president of the Motor Traders Association of NSW.
- More than eighty guests attended the annual Burns’ Day supper organised by the Wagga Caledonian Society at the Wagga Commercial Club.
- A new sub-branch of the Acrow Australia group of companies, managed by Wagga man, Noel French, was officially opened by the Mayor, Ald. M H Gissing.
- A large road safety sign featuring a coffin has been erected by the South Wagga Lions Club on the Sturt Highway, fourteen miles from Wagga.
- Discount Meats in the Australian Arcade are selling full topsides for 59 cents a lb, blade steak ten lb for $6 and crumbed cutlets eight for 59 cents.
- Mrs L Dalla of Burwood Street found a rare four-leaf clover in her garden.
- Mr N White of Chaston Street has grown a tomato weighing one and a half pound.
- The third annual All breeds Summer Ram Sale was well supported at the Wagga Saleyards with 250 rams yarded and 200 sold by auction and private treaty.
- Edmondson’s Food Market has Scotch Finger biscuits, 8 oz for 17 cents, Tom Piper Camp Pie, 12 oz for 18 cents and Sorbent toilet rolls for 11 cents each.
Membership of the Wagga Wagga and District Historical Society is open to anyone with an interest in the local and regional history of Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia. For more information about us and information on how to join our Society visit our website at https://www.wwdhs.org.au/about-us/members
