In Wagga’s Past – 25 and 50 Years ago.

14th October 2023

Compiled from The Daily Advertiser by the Wagga Wagga & District Historical Society.

25 Years Ago

• The future of Wagga’s Royal Australian Air Force Base is secure until at least 2002 with the Riverina Institute of TAFE winning a $15 million contract to continue providing technical training at the base.

• Willans Hill School celebrated its 25^th anniversary with its first principal Kevin Farrelly unveiling a commemorative plaque and with the help of current principal Graeme Dutton buried a time capsule.

• Dean Godfrey Fryar of Saint Saviour’s Cathedral, Goulburn has been appointed as an assistant bishop and will take up residence in Wagga as the rector of Saint John’s Parish and will be the first Anglican bishop to be based in Wagga.

• Johnson Clifton and Mark Mooney shared Turvey Park’s best and fairest award this season.

• Member for Wagga, Joe Schipp presented a posthumous Ministerial Sports Appreciation Award for Bob Lawrence to his wife Patricia Lawrence at Wagga’s Riding for the Disabled.

• Kooringal teenager Bernard Dobson has been awarded the prestigious Green Cord, the highest honour in scouting.

• Riverina primary school chess champions, Ronnie Gorden, Thomas Conyers, Pat Rositano and Christopher Hughes will play Bathurst at Young in the NSW Junior Chess League.

• President of the CWA Riverina Group, Julie Morrison completed her term and has been replaced by Ann Adams at the association’s 72nd annual group conference held at Coolamon.

• Cliff and Doreen Miller celebrated their 60^th wedding anniversary.

• Mitchell Clark was named 1999 Male Model of the Year and Josephine Wilson 1999 Model of the Year at the Today’s Woman Model of the Year Quest Finals held at the RSL Club.

• Wagga Blaze player, Lisa Bush was awarded the women’s division one top free throw trophy at the State League basketball grand finals in Canberra.

• A Faith of Our Forebears concert is being held as part of the Australian National Festival of the Voice to raise money for a new pipe organ at St Michael’s Cathedral.

• The third annual Australian Shearing Equipment Quickshear Competition was held at the Bridge Tavern on Saturday.

• Pro-Vice Chancellor of Charles Sturt University, Peter Hodgson, said the total number of students applying for courses and the number of students putting CSU as their first preference has risen by 59 per cent since last year.

• Dozens of Australian native birds escaped after vandals burnt and tore netting in the Wagga Botanic Gardens aviary.

50 Years Ago

• Bishop of Wagga, Dr F P Carroll announced a major reorganisation of Catholic school facilities in Wagga including the closure of St Joseph’s and St Mary’s infant and primary schools, the precincts of which will be absorbed by St Michael’s Regional High School and Mt Erin High School.

• Peter Eisenhauer was named as the best and fairest player for the Turvey Park Rugby League Club in 1973.

• Twenty-year-old apprentice joiner, Ian Johnson will be one of four young men from the area to receive the Duke of Edinburgh’s Gold Award from the Duke when he visits Wagga later this month.

• Wagga’s Mayor, Ald Gissing reviewed a parade at Kapooka Army Base which was held for the presentation of Meritorious Service, Long Service and Good Conduct medals.

• Rev Keith Brooks has been transferred to the parish of Hamilton, Newcastle after seven years in Wagga.  

• Pupils at St Mary’s Catholic School were successful in winning the choral speech section for 5^th and 6^th grades at the recent Wagga Eisteddfod.

• More than 200 people attended the official opening of the Kurrajong Park Public School by Member for Wagga, Mr Wal Fife.

• Shire Clerk, Mr R A Laughton said Kyeamba Shire Council has received approval to loan $150,000 for residential development in the Forest Hill area.

• Wagga Pastures Protection Board chairman, Mr Allan Falkiner, said that sheep numbers have dropped by well over 400,000 in the year ended December 1972.

• A new $700,000 airmen’s recreation complex at Forest Hill RAAF Base was opened by Wagga Mayor, Ald M Gissing.

• The Wagga Men’s Hockey Association have conferred life membership on Mr Jim Goodwin recognising twenty-five years of outstanding service as a player, official and umpire.

• Wagga’s percentage population growth last year outstripped the Orange-Bathurst growth centre and at 2.09% was only fractionally behind that of Albury-Wodonga.

• The Wagga Daily Advertiser won the E C Somerlad Memorial Award, the top award for journalism in the NSW Country Press.

• Two men were each fined $60 in Wagga Court of Petty Sessions after they were seen deflating tyres outside the Wagga RSL Club.

• Nine Wagga charities will offer for sale 50 types of Christmas cards in a special Christmas card shop set up in Maples store.

• This year’s Wagga Police and Friends Golf Day held at the City Club raised funds for the Kurrajong School for Retarded Children.

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