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Local treasures and stories in Georges River
Tri-Ang’ sports car, Minic series, c. 1950s. Image: Courtesy of Hurstville Museum & Gallery
Hurstville Museum & Gallery collects, records, researches, displays and stores items that reveal the history of the St George region. Recently, donations ranging from handmade furniture to mid20th century toys have been accepted into the collection.
The Local Studies Room at Hurstville Library is currently displaying one of these donations, a Dining table and chairs produced in Hurstville (c. 1920s-30s).
The pieces were hand made by Stanley Reid (1892-1962), who had trained as a carpenter and cabinet maker, establishing a workshop at his home in March 1922, together with a business partner, as Reid & Hewitt at 15 Wellington Road, Hurstville. At this workshop he made a dining table and chairs for his wife, Emily Hewitt, possibly as a wedding gift, part of a set comprising a table, four chairs and a matching buffet.
An additional donation recently received is from a family who lived in Vine Street, Hurstville, from the 1920s to the 1950s.
Tin toys had been a favourite since the mid-19th century, as they were lightweight, inexpensive and sturdy, as animals and sports cars. Among the tin toys donated are a wind-up Penguin and a ‘Tri-Ang’ sports car with original box, part of the Minic Series of vehicles, made in Britain from 1935. The vehicles were all numbered and encouraged the child collector. The donation also includes household items, such as the shoe polish box made by Alf Gibson in the 1950s. He was thrifty, working several different jobs to make ends meet- as a milkman, then on a horse farm, and as a bus driver.
The St George Junior Farmers Club, met at Hurstville in the 1960s and a donation of memorabilia associated with the Club includes issues of Sydney Region Junior Famers Gazette from 1960s and ‘Best Junior Farmer of the Year’ shields from 1960-65. Junior Farmers Clubs were established in NSW from 1928 in association with the Department of Agriculture, with the purpose of developing an interest in farm work.
Tin Penguin, c.1950s. Georges River Council Library Local Studies collection The Museum & Gallery encourages donations of items in good condition from the community, which have a significant connection to the St George area including artefacts, objects, local studies material, photographs and artworks. For further information georgesriver.nsw.
