Bonegilla Migrant Experience 75th Anniversary Program

75 YEAR

Commemorate 75 years since the opening of the Bonegilla Migrant Reception and Training Centre

anniversary

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Event program Monday, November 21 to Monday, November 28, 2022

Event program at a glance BOOKINGS: The Cube Wodonga Ph: (02) 6022 9311 - Mon to Fri, 10am to 4pm Online: Refer to booking links in program

Bonegilla Migrant Experience Ph: (02) 6020 6912 Mon, Wed, Thu, Sat & Sun, 10am to 4pm

Monday, November 21

Wednesday, November 23

OFFICIAL OPENING BONEGILLA ID CARD EXHIBITION Bookings required

EXPLORING GENEALOGY

BONEGILLA SITE TOUR Bookings required

BUS TOUR - ORIGINAL SITE OF BONEGILLA RECEPTION AND TRAINING CENTRE Bookings required

PREMIERE SCREENING OF BONEGILLA STORIES WODONGA AND DISTRICT HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Tuesday, November 22 OFFSITE PROGRAMMING BENALLA AND BEECHWORTH BUS TOUR Bookings required

RECORD YOUR STORY Bookings required FAMILY RESEARCH WITH WODONGA FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY ALONG THE LAKE FUN RUN Bookings required MOVIE SCREENING – WEST SIDE STORY (1961) Bookings required

WODONGA LOCAL HISTORY BONEGILLA SITE TOUR Bookings required FAMILY RESEARCH WITH WODONGA FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY AUTHOR TALK - VICTORIA PURMAN Bookings required

WODONGA AND DISTRICT HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Thursday, November 23 WRITER WORKSHOP - USING FAMILY HISTORY TO INSPIRE YOUR NOVEL Bookings required

FAMILY RESEARCH WITH WODONGA FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY BONEGILLA SITE TOUR Bookings required

MENT E G D OWLE ACKN COUNTRY OF

HOW TO RECORD YOUR FAMILY HISTORY ASTRONOMY VIEWING NIGHT - A SOUTHERN SKY Bookings required

Bonegilla Migrant Experience acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of the Country. We also acknowledge them as Traditional Owners and Custodians across various lands. We pay our respect to their Ancestors, Elders, children and young people. We acknowledge the strength and resilience of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and recognise their continuous connections to lands, waters and communities across the country.

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Sunday, November 27 WODONGA AND DISTRICT HISTORICAL SOCIETY BONEGILLA HALL MARKETS

Friday, November 25 OFFSITE PROGRAMMING

MURAL ARTIST

ALBURY LIBRARY MUSEUM TOUR AND BONEGILLA COLLECTION Bookings required

BONEGILLA STORIES BY SIMON REICH

RIDE THE RAIL TRAIL Bookings required

BONEGILLA SITE TOUR Bookings required BONEGILLA CONNECTIONS LUNCH Bookings

Saturday, November 26

required

PANEL DISCUSSION Bookings required WODONGA AND DISTRICT HISTORICAL SOCIETY BONEGILLA @ PIONEER CEMETERY, ALBURY CEMETERY WALK Bookings required

Monday, November 28

CHILDREN’S ACTIVITIES

WODONGA AND DISTRICT HISTORICAL SOCIETY

MURAL ARTIST

BUS TOUR - ORIGINAL SITE OF BONEGILLA RECEPTION AND TRAINING CENTRE

WANDA SKOWRONSKA – AUTHOR OF TO BONEGILLA FROM SOMEWHERE BONEGILLA STORIES BY SIMON REICH BONEGILLA SITE TOUR Bookings required

Bookings required

RECORD YOUR STORY Bookings required BONEGILLA SITE TOUR Bookings required

Onsite at BME: Mon, Wed, Thu, Sat & Sun

BUTTER MAKING

COFFEE, LUNCH AND CATERING OPTIONS

EUROPEAN CLASSICAL FAVOURITES

HUT TO HUT - POP UP DISPLAYS

A FEAST OF LITHUANIAN FOLK MUSIC

FIND AN ID CARD OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES

DINNER Bookings required

ACTIVITIES, FILM SCREENINGS, ANIMATION AND DISPLAYS - KITCHEN AND MESS HALL, HUME CLUB, TUDOR HALL SITE ACTIVITIES FOR CHILDREN

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EVENT TICKETS - REGISTRATION Bookings required via The Cube Wodonga bit.ly/BMEregister Check in onsite at the BME Welcome Centre Event registration includes: • Access to the display buildings in Block 19 • Entry to events listed as free • Access to bookings for all paid events • 75 year anniversary Bonegilla Migrant Experience lanyard • Site guide • Event program One day pass: adult $8, concession $7, children under 16 free Two or more days pass: adult $12, concession $10, children under 16 free (Children not provided with lanyard, will be available for purchase until sold out)

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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21 OFFICIAL OPENING BONEGILLA ID CARD EXHIBITION Welcome Centre lawn and Recreation Hut 10.15am to 11am Cost: Free (included in event registration fee).

Celebrate the official opening and launch of the new Bonegilla ID card exhibition. Get a first look at this new digital exhibition featuring a research station, and a video wall of people’s lives after Bonegilla. Followed by complimentary morning tea.

Bookings required for catering via The Cube Wodonga bit.ly/BMElaunch

BONEGILLA SITE TOUR Check in at the lawn area adjacent to the Function Space 11am and 2pm Cost: adult $10, concession $8 and children 16 years and under $5. Note: special tour price for the event.

Take a guided tour of Block 19 at the Bonegilla Migrant Experience. Walk through the last remaining buildings of the former Reception and Training Centre that welcomed approximately 320,000 people between 1947 and 1971. Hear stories of the people of Bonegilla, their experiences and how the site changed over the 24 years of operation. Learn how migration changed Australia into the country we know today.

Bookings required via The Cube Wodonga bit.ly/BMEtour

PREMIERE SCREENING OF BONEGILLA STORIES Presented by Simon Reich Tudor Hall 11.30am to 12.15pm Cost: Free (included in event registration fee).

Simon will provide a short overview on the Bonegilla Stories project, followed by a screening of films featuring five people who arrived, lived or worked at the Bonegilla Reception and Training Centre between 1947 and 1971.

Simon Reich is an award-winning composer, audio engineer and podcast creator. His passion for migrants and especially those that came through Bonegilla, stems from his own father passing through the camp in 1958. Simon created the podcast Up from the Rubble, which told the story of his father’s life in Nazi Germany and his eventual emigration to Australia. The podcast has been critically acclaimed and took out a Webby Award in New York. His most recent six-part podcast, Bonegilla Stories, has been chosen as a must-listen series by Great Australian Pods podcast directory.

WODONGA AND DISTRICT HISTORICAL SOCIETY Building 97, Block 19 Bonegilla Migrant Experience Open 10am to 3pm Cost: $5 at the door Volunteers will be available for tours of the Wodonga and District Historical Society Collection.

No bookings required.

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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 22 - OFFSITE PROGRAMMING Bonegilla Migrant Experience is closed to allow time to visit our beautiful region.

BENALLA AND BEECHWORTH BUS TOUR Departs from Havelock St, rear of The Cube Wodonga at 9am 9am to 5pm $80 includes morning tea and lunch The tour will visit Benalla Migrant Camp for morning tea and a tour. The former military base at Benalla Airport housed approximately 60,000 European post-World War Two migrants between 1949 and 1967. After a stop for lunch, the tour will continue on to Beechworth, taking in links to migration in the local area, and visiting the Burke Museum.

Bookings required via The Cube Wodonga bit.ly/regionbustour

RECORD YOUR STORY Hyphen - Wodonga Library Gallery, 126 Hovell St, Wodonga Session times: 10.15am to 12.15pm, 12.45pm to 2.45pm and 3pm to 5pm Please note: Places are limited to one storytelling person and a companion.

Cost: Free (included in event registration fee).

Record your story and experiences of migration, life, Bonegilla and beyond to keep for future generations and to add to the Bonegilla Collection. Be guided through questions by one of our team members in a state-of-the-art recording studio at Hyphen. Guiding questions will be provided before the day and each session runs for two hours. Please bring along photos that might help enhance your story. As part of your submission to the Bonegilla Collection we would like to take an image of you at the time of the recording.

Bookings required via Bonegilla Migrant Experience Welcome Centre on (02) 6020 6912.

FAMILY RESEARCH WITH WODONGA FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY Hyphen - Wodonga Library Gallery, 126 Hovell St, Wodonga 1pm to 4pm Cost: $5 for non-members Pop in and make the most of the resources of the Wodonga Family History Society to do some individual family research.

ALONG THE LAKE FUN RUN Hosted by Wodonga Athletics Club Ebden Reserve, Murray Valley Hwy, Ebden Arrive from 5.30pm for on the day registrations.

5.45pm Cost: $15 for 10km, $5 for 5km Departs from Ebden Reserve at 6pm. There will be a 5km and 10km run plus a 5km walking option along the rail trail. Spot prizes on the day.

Bookings required via The Cube Wodonga bit.ly/lakefunrun

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MOVIE SCREENING – WEST SIDE STORY (1961) The Cube Wodonga, 118 Hovell St, Wodonga 6.30pm for 7.15pm start Cost: Free (included in event registration fee).

The film West Side Story was shown at Bonegilla in the original theatre in 1967. Movie screenings were regularly scheduled, sometimes multiple times per week and in 1967 would cost 20 cents per adult and 10 cents per child.

West Side Story - Two youngsters from rival New York City gangs fall in love, but tensions between their respective friends build toward tragedy.

Arrive from 6.30pm to purchase a drink at the bar. Movie starts at 7.15pm.

A Murray River Fine Music pianist will play in the foyer before the movie.

Bookings required via The Cube Wodonga bit.ly/BMEmovie

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 23 EXPLORING GENEALOGY Presented by Wodonga Family History Society Tudor Hall 10am to 11.30am Cost: Free (included in event registration fee).

A presentation on starting your family research in Australia, then working back to the country from which your family originated. Tea and coffee by donation.

BUS TOUR - ORIGINAL SITE OF BONEGILLA RECEPTION AND TRAINING CENTRE Departs from Bonegilla Migrant Experience car park 10.15am, 12pm and 2pm Duration approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes Cost: $29 Enter the Latchford Army Barracks where the original main entrance once was. Be guided through the old block locations with a chance to hop off the bus in multiple locations within the army grounds.

Have your Bonegilla ID card? By submitting yours or your family or friends’ accommodation block number with your booking, we can customise the tour and point out locations of the blocks. Please ensure you search on National Archives of Australia prior to your visit. Please see the guide on how to find Bonegilla ID cards on our website.

Please note: Stops in the army barracks are pre-arranged and we will not be able to stop at other points to depart the bus during the tour.

Bookings required via The Cube Wodonga bit.ly/originaltour

WODONGA LOCAL HISTORY Presented by Wodonga and District Historical Society Tudor Hall 11.45am to 12.45pm Cost: Free (included in event registration fee).

Covering the history of Wodonga including the importance of the railways and key developments in Wodonga and district history.

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BONEGILLA SITE TOUR Check in at the lawn area adjacent to the Function Space.

11am and 12.30pm.

Cost: adult $10, concession $8 and children 16 years and under $5 Note: special tour price for the event.

Take a guided tour of Block 19, Bonegilla Migrant Experience. Walk through the last remaining buildings of the former Reception and Training Centre that welcomed approximately 320,000 people between 1947 and 1971. Hear stories of the people of Bonegilla, their experiences and how the site changed over the 24 years of operation. Learn how migration changed Australia into how we know it today.

Bookings required via The Cube Wodonga bit.ly/BMEtour

FAMILY RESEARCH WITH WODONGA FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY Hyphen – Wodonga Library Wodonga, 126 Hovell St, Wodonga 11am to 3pm Cost: $5 for non-members Pop in and make the most of the resources of the Wodonga Family History Society to do some individual family research.

AUTHOR TALK - VICTORIA PURMAN Tudor Hall 2pm Cost: $7. Includes afternoon tea.

Victoria Purman will discuss her bestselling novel, The Last of the Bonegilla Girls, and how that migrant generation helped shape the country we are today. Book signing opportunity following the talk with afternoon tea.

Bookings required via The Cube Wodonga bit.ly/BMEauthor Victoria Purman is an Australian top ten and USA Today bestselling fiction author. Her 2019 book, The Women’s Pages, was an Australian bestseller, as were her novels, The Land Girls and The Last of the Bonegilla Girls. Her earlier novel, The Three Miss Allens, was a USA Today bestseller. Her most recent novel, The Nurses’ War, was released this year. She is a regular guest at writers festivals, a mentor and workshop presenter across Australia, and has judged the fiction category for the 2018 Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature and the 2022 ASA/HQ Commercial Fiction Prize for an unpublished manuscript.

WODONGA AND DISTRICT HISTORICAL SOCIETY Building 97, Block 19 Bonegilla Migrant Experience Open 10am to 3pm Cost: $5 at the door Volunteers will be available for tour of the Wodonga and District Historical Society Collection.

No bookings required.

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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24 WRITER WORKSHOP - USING FAMILY HISTORY TO INSPIRE YOUR NOVEL Tudor Hall 10am Cost: $20. Includes morning tea.

Family history can be the real life inspiration behind your novel but where do you start? And how do you create a story that is more than a series of events listed in chronological order?

In this two-hour introductory workshop, bestselling Australian author Victoria Purman will guide you through the best ways to bring your family history to life, through characters, plot and dialogue, using the processes and research she used to write her Australian bestselling novel, The Last of the Bonegilla Girls.

Bookings required via The Cube Wodonga for catering bit.ly/BMEwriter

FAMILY RESEARCH WITH WODONGA FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY Hyphen – Wodonga Library Gallery, 126 Hovell St, Wodonga 11am to 3pm Cost: $5 for non-members Pop in and make the most of the resources of the Wodonga Family History Society to do some individual family research.

BONEGILLA SITE TOUR Check in at the lawn area adjacent to the Function Space.

11am and 12.30pm.

Cost: adult $10, concession $8 and children 16 years and under $5. Note: special tour price for the event.

Take a guided tour of Block 19, Bonegilla Migrant Experience. Walk through the last remaining buildings of the former Reception and Training Centre that welcomed approximately 320,000 people between 1947 and 1971. Hear stories of the people of Bonegilla, their experiences and how the site changed over the 24 years of operation. Learn how migration changed Australia into how we know it today.

Bookings required via The Cube Wodonga bit.ly/BMEtour

HOW TO RECORD YOUR FAMILY HISTORY Presented by Simon Reich Tudor Hall 2pm Cost: Free (included in event registration fee).

Simon will provide a talk on the process taken to record these audio visual histories and provide information and tips on how to do it yourself. Followed by screening of Bonegilla Stories featuring five people who arrived, lived or worked at Bonegilla Reception and Training Centre during its 1947-1971 operation.

Take away the Bonegilla Oral Histories guide to assist you in capturing your family’s stories.

No bookings required.

ASTRONOMY VIEWING NIGHT - A SOUTHERN SKY Tudor Hall Barbecue from 6.30pm In door presentation: 7.30pm Viewing: Starts at 8.30pm Cost: adult $15, child under 10 years $7 Enjoy a barbecue, presentation and viewing of the night sky at Bonegilla Block 19. Three planets - Mars, Jupiter and

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Saturn - will be visible in the night sky and it will be a new moon. It is also possible to view Comet Panstaars which is slowly becoming brighter.

When viewing Jupiter, the great red spot and storm clouds on the planet will be visible and it is possible that the four Galilean moons Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto may also be visible.

Saturn’s rings will be in clear view and so may its largest moon, Titan. It will also be possible to see the shadow of the planet cast back onto the rings surrounding the planet.

In addition to the planet viewing there will be a laser sky tour pointing out the constellations of the southern hemisphere, many of which would not have been visible in the northern hemisphere to those who came to Bonegilla.

Bookings required via The Cube Wodonga bit.ly/BMEastronomy The Astronomical Society of Albury Wodonga was formed in February 1974 and has been active since that time. The society conducts meetings with speakers and also hold outdoor viewing nights to which the public and members are invited. Special events such as eclipses and planetary transits will also be scheduled for viewing. If anyone attending would like to become a member, please talk to one of our members on the night.

Membership entitles you to borrow our telescopes for a four-week period at no cost.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25 - OFFSITE PROGRAMMING Bonegilla Migrant Experience is closed to allow time to visit our beautiful region.

ALBURY LIBRARY MUSEUM TOUR AND BONEGILLA COLLECTION Albury LibraryMuseum -540 Kiewa St, Albury, NSW 2640 2.30pm to 3:30pm Cost: $10. Includes afternoon tea.

Albury Wodonga, developing as two cities on either side of the Murray River, has always been a crossing place. Crossing Place tells the story of Albury from early contact with the Wiradjuri people to the city of today. Join in a guided tour of the Library Museum’s permanent exhibition, including treasured items from the Bonegilla Collection. It features paintings hung at the Queen’s visit in 1954, created by two migrants of the Bonegilla Reception and Training Centre.

Bookings required via The Cube Wodonga bit.ly/Alburytour

RIDE THE RAIL TRAIL Departs from Ebden Reserve, Murray Valley Hwy, Ebden 10am to 12pm Cost: Free Pack morning tea and join Washington Cyclisme for a local bike ride around the area and experience the countryside along the rail trail. BYO bike.

Bookings required via Bonegilla Migrant Experience Welcome Centre on (02) 6020 6912.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26 WODONGA AND DISTRICT HISTORICAL SOCIETY Building 97, Block 19 Bonegilla Migrant Experience Open 10am to 3pm Cost: $5 at the door Volunteers will be available for tours of the Wodonga and District Historical Society Collection.

No bookings required.

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BONEGILLA @ PIONEER CEMETERY, ALBURY: CEMETERY WALK Presented by Albury and District Historical Society Pioneer Cemetery, David St, Albury 10am to 11am Cost: Free (included in event registration fee).

Take a guided walk through Albury Pioneer Cemetery and hear the history and contributions by migrants to the local area. Guides from Albury and District Historical Society will help participants locate memorials of people who arrived in Australia via Bonegilla. They will have selected marked and unmarked grave sites to explain the life experiences of some of Bonegilla’s temporary residents during and after World War Two. The walk begins at the lychgate. Parking spaces available near the lychgate, corner Buckingham and David streets, Albury.

Bookings required via The Cube Wodonga bit.ly/BMEcemetery

CHILDREN’S ACTIVITIES Throughout the site 10am to 4pm Cost: Free (included in event registration fee).

Drop in colouring, craft activity, lawn games and various other activities.

MURAL ARTIST 10am to 2pm Come past or sit and watch the mural come together over the weekend. The piece will represent arrivals at Bonegilla Reception and Training Centre and once completed, this piece will be displayed in Wodonga to promote visitation to the site.

WANDA SKOWRONSKA – AUTHOR OF TO BONEGILLA FROM SOMEWHERE Tudor Hall 10am to 10.45am Cost: Free (included in event registration fee).

Wanda will speak about her time as a young child at Bonegilla and her life after.

Tea and coffee by donation Wanda Skowronska, a Sydney psychologist and writer, was a ‘Bonegilla kid’ of East European background who has spent much of her life spelling the word Bonegilla to those who have never heard of it. From the time she lived here as part of the first wave of refugees – Latvians, Lithuanians, Estonians, Poles, Hungarians and Ukrainians among them – this place has resonated deeply in her life in her memory and heart for all her life. This was a town like no other under southern skies there were echoes of Warsaw, Budapest, Riga and Prague dotted with gum trees –as well as talk of vanished worlds and Soviet post-war realities – of immense loss and the will to try again. This book traces the tumultuous journeys of two displaced persons, Wanda’s parents Bogdan and Valerie, to this strange bush town which came to occupy such a unique, mysterious and iconic place in Australian migration history.

BONEGILLA STORIES BY SIMON REICH Hume Club Talks at 10.30am and 11.30am Videos will screen at all other times throughout the week of the event.

Cost: Free (included in event registration fee).

Simon will provide a short overview on the Bonegilla Stories project, followed by screening of ‘Bonegilla Stories’ featuring five people who arrived, lived or worked at Bonegilla Reception and Training Centre during its 1947-71 operation.

Outside these times, Simon will be available to take short recordings of memories of Bonegilla.

No bookings required.

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BONEGILLA SITE TOUR Check in at the lawn area adjacent to the Function Space 11am Cost: Adult $10, Concession $8 and Children 16 years and under $5 Note: Special tour price for the event.

Take a guided tour of Block 19, Bonegilla Migrant Experience. Walk through the last remaining buildings of the former Reception and Training Centre that welcomed approximately 320,000 people between 1947 and 1971. Hear stories of the people of Bonegilla, their experiences and how the site changed over the 24 years of operation. Learn how migration changed Australia into what it is today.

Bookings required via The Cube Wodonga bit.ly/BMEtour

BUTTER MAKING Main outdoor event area 11am Cost: Free (included in event registration fee).

Take a mini workshop to make your own butter in a simple way you can do from home as well. Taste your hard work on freshly-baked bread.

EUROPEAN CLASSICAL FAVOURITES Presented by Murray River Fine Music Tudor Hall 11am to 12.30pm Cost: Free (included in event registration fee).

Hosted in the original Tudor Hall, the music will carry throughout the hall and across the site. Featured performers include Ukrainian-Australian violinist Markiyan Melnychenko accompanied by one of Australia’s finest pianists, Benjamin Martin, with their program of instrumental treasures entitled Postcards from Europe.

A FEAST OF LITHUANIAN FOLK MUSIC Presented by Murray River Fine Music Main stage outdoor 1.30pm to 3pm Cost: Free (included in event registration fee).

Sit and enjoy an afternoon of music on the lawns of Bonegilla featuring a range of music including The Lost Clog, a Melbourne-based Lithuanian folk ensemble singing songs of harvest, love, talking horses and more. With a selection of food and drinks on offer, make your selection and relax in the beautiful surrounds.

DINNER Edwards Tavern, 1 Moorefield Park Drive, West Wodonga 6pm onwards Cost: $30. Dinner and sweet platter.

Join the shared tables as you would have at the Bonegilla mess halls and share with others your experiences of Bonegilla or learn more about people’s time here.

Bookings and more information via The Cube Wodonga bit.ly/BMEdinner

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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 27 WODONGA AND DISTRICT HISTORICAL SOCIETY Building 97, Block 19 Bonegilla Migrant Experience Open 10am to 3pm Cost: $5 at the door Volunteers will be available for tours of the Wodonga and District Historical Society Collection.

No bookings required.

BONEGILLA HALL MARKETS Bonegilla Hall – 3394 Murray Valley Hwy, Bonegilla From 10am Cost: Free entry. Donations appreciated. Food and activities at own cost.

Wander the market stalls, listen to live music, get involved in children’s activities and sample the foods on offer. While at the markets take a walk inside the hall to see the collection of images on display. Did you know this hall was an original wing of the Bonegilla Reception Centre Hospital, the Children’s Wing? It was relocated when sold off during the 1960s.

No bookings required.

MURAL ARTIST 10am to 2pm Come past or sit and watch the mural come together over the weekend. The piece will represent arrivals at Bonegilla Reception and Training Centre and once completed, it will be displayed in Wodonga to promote visitation to the site.

BONEGILLA STORIES BY SIMON REICH Hume Club Talks at 10.30am and 11.30am.

Videos will screen at all other times throughout the week of the event.

Cost: Free (included in event registration fee).

Simon will provide a short overview on the Bonegilla Stories project, followed by a screening of Bonegilla Stories, featuring five people who arrived, lived or worked at Bonegilla Reception and Training Centre during its 1947-1971 operation.

Outside these times, Simon will be available to take short recordings of memories of Bonegilla.

No bookings required.

BONEGILLA SITE TOUR Check in at the lawn area adjacent to the Function Space 11am Cost: Adult $10, Concession $8 and Children 16 years and under $5 Note: Special tour price for the event.

Take a guided tour of Block 19, Bonegilla Migrant Experience. Walk through the last remaining buildings of the former Reception and Training Centre that welcomed approximately 320,000 people between 1947 and 1971. Hear stories of the people of Bonegilla, their experiences and how the site changed over the 24 years of operation. Learn how migration changed Australia into what we know today.

Bookings required via The Cube Wodonga bit.ly/BMEtour

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BONEGILLA CONNECTIONS LUNCH Tudor Hall 12pm to 2pm Cost: $16. Includes lunch and drinks.

Connect with people who stayed at Bonegilla during the site’s operation, chat with descendants of those who stayed here or for those without a connection to this site and take the chance to learn more experiences first hand from exresidents.

Bookings required via The Cube Wodonga bit.ly/BMElunch

PANEL DISCUSSION Presented by Benalla Migrant Camp Tudor Hall 2.15pm to 4pm Cost: Free (included in event registration fee).

A panel discussion of camp links focused on the theme of cultural identity through place, emotional connection and intergenerational trauma recognition. Featuring Bruce Pennay, Associate Professor Charles Sturt University, and Sabine Smyth from the Benalla Migrant Camp.

Tea and coffee by donation.

Bookings required via The Cube Wodonga bit.ly/BMEpanel

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 28 WODONGA AND DISTRICT HISTORICAL SOCIETY Building 97, Block 19 Bonegilla Migrant Experience Open 10am to 3pm Cost: $5 at the door Volunteers will be available for tours of the Wodonga and District Historical Society Collection.

No bookings required.

BUS TOUR - ORIGINAL SITE OF BONEGILLA RECEPTION AND TRAINING CENTRE Departs from Bonegilla Migrant Experience car park 10.15am, 12pm and 2pm Duration approximately one hour and 15 minutes Cost: $29 all ages Enter the Latchford Army Barracks through where the original main entrance once was. Be guided through the old block locations with a chance to hop off the bus in multiple locations within the army grounds.

Have your Bonegilla ID card? By submitting yours or your family or friends’ accommodation block number with your booking, we can customise the tour and point out locations of the blocks. Please ensure you search on National Archives of Australia prior to your visit. Please see guide on how to find Bonegilla ID cards on our website.

Please note: Stops in the Army barracks are pre-arranged and we will not be able to stop at other points to depart the bus during the tour.

Bookings required via The Cube Wodonga bit.ly/originaltour

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RECORD YOUR STORY Hyphen - Wodonga Library Gallery, 126 Hovell St, Wodonga Times for sessions 10.15am to 12.15pm, 12.45pm to 2.45pm and 3pm to 5pm Please note: Places are limited to one storytelling person and a companion.

Cost: Free Record your story and experiences of migration, life, Bonegilla and beyond to keep for future generations and add to the Bonegilla Collection. Be guided through questions by one of our team members in a state–of-the-art recording studio at Hyphen. Questions will be provided before the day and session runs for two hours. Please bring along photos that might help share your story. As part of submission to the Bonegilla Collection we request to take an image of you at the time of the recording.

Bookings required via Bonegilla Migrant Experience Welcome Centre on (02) 6020 6912

BONEGILLA SITE TOUR Check in at the lawn area adjacent to the Function Space 11am Cost: Adult $10, Concession $8 and Children 16 years and under $5 Note: Special tour price for the event.

Take a guided tour of Block 19, Bonegilla Migrant Experience. Walk through the last remaining buildings of the former Reception and Training Centre that welcomed approximately 320,000 people between 1947 and 1971. Hear stories of the people of Bonegilla, their experiences and how the site changed over the 24 years of operation. Learn how migration changed Australia into what we know today.

Bookings required via The Cube Wodonga bit.ly/BMEtour

THROUGHOUT THE EVENT COFFEE, LUNCH AND CATERING OPTIONS

FIND AN ID CARD

Block 19 various locations Various prices Enjoy a range of catering options, including picnic hampers.

Recreation Hut

No bookings required.

HUT TO HUT - POP UP DISPLAYS Block 19 various locations

OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES Add your part to the paint by-numbers canvas, write a message to your younger self or try one of the outdoor games.

OTHER SITE ACTIVITIES FOR CHILDREN INCLUDE Find the Objects Suitcase Trail Pick up a copy from the Welcome Centre and keep the children busy while you explore.

Find a friend, family member or your own Bonegilla ID card. Bonegilla ID cards range in the information recorded during arrivals stay at Bonegilla. Often they document arrival, length of stay, block number lived in and possibly destination after Bonegilla. Find out information about adding photos, documents and videos to build your own or your family’s story via the Bonegilla ID cards. Create your own ID card, put yourself into the shoes of a migrant during the 1947-1971 arrival and see what life may have been like arriving in a new land.

Children’s activities available in this space: Colouring, typewriters and create your own ID card.

Please note: Scanning of documents will not be available on the day, so please have documents digitised in high resolution.

KITCHEN AND MESS HALL Featuring colouring area, film A Childhood at Bonegilla.

Complete the colouring activity and collect the special code from the kitchen to enter the Bonegilla colouring competition. Watch the film, A Childhood at Bonegilla, which includes files from collection of home movies from the Sullivan family, dancing in school plays and playing school sports.

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HUME CLUB Features new displays from the Albury LibraryMuseum with items from the Bonegilla Collection. Screenings of Simon Reich’s Bonegilla Stories will be available to view throughout the day. Note presentation times in program above.

TUDOR HALL *when no presentations on* Featuring stop-motion production, Remembering Bonegilla, and discovery cupboards as well as items from the items from the Albury LibraryMuseum Bonegilla Collection.

Remembering Bonegilla is a short stop-motion animation created to look at life in the Bonegilla Migrant Reception and Training Centre though the eyes of three different fictional characters ‘The Colonel’, ‘Mara’ and ‘Joe’.

PLAN AHEAD Plan your visit at visitalburywodonga.com

auditory, and poetic reimagining of Lithuanian traditions and Baltic folklore. Through a diverse range of mediums, this exhibition offers an auto-ethnographic exploration of Jazmina’s Australian-Lithuanian cultural identity with a focus on environmentally sustainable art practices.

As a member of Melbourne-Lithuanian folk ensemble The Lost Clog, Jazmina creates striking percussive instruments from recycled materials. These intricate lagerphones, in the shapes of Lithuanian animals, are brought to life through performances which draw on universal themes of harvest, war, love, and loss.

Also included in the exhibition are Jazmina’s hand-bound books from print ephemera that explore Baltic mythology, migration and the natural world, alongside a suite of photographs that explore Lithuanian-Australian otherness through the figure of the female werewolf.

The Sparrow and the Iron Wolf offers a celebration of a minority culture that spearheaded the first wave of post-war immigration and showcases the contribution of immigrant and refugee populations to Australia’s cultural fabric.

HUON HILL LOOKOUT (travelling to Wodonga from Bonegilla on the Murray Valley Hwy, turn right on to Whytes Rd at Bandiana, then turn right into Kenneth Watson Drive and this will take you to Huon Hill Parklands).

THINGS TO SEE AND DO

Rising 263 metres above the Murray and Kiewa floodplains, Huon Hill offers spectacular views of Lake Hume, the Kiewa Valley, the Alpine region, the Murray and Kiewa Rivers, and Albury and Wodonga cities. Huon Hill is ideal for bushwalking, sightseeing, picnicking and photography.

BONEGILLA RAIL SIDING ALBURY LIBRARYMUSEUM Corner Kiewa and Swift streets, Albury. Mon, Wed & Thu 10am to 5pm, Tue & Fri 10am to 4pm, Sat 10am to 4pm, Sun 12pm to 4pm. Enquiries: (02) 6023 8333 For more than 25 years Albury City has been collecting objects owned by former residents of the Bonegilla Migrant Reception Centre; things that people brought from their homeland that gave them comfort, photographs, domestic appliances, children’s toys, books and clothing

JAZMINIA CININAS: THE SPARROW AND THE IRON WOLF November 19 to February 19, 2023 Albury LibraryMuseum Lane Gallery. Corner Kiewa and Swift streets, Albury. Mon, Wed & Thu 10am to 5pm, Tue & Fri 10am to 4pm, Sat 10am to 4pm, Sun 12pm to 4pm.

Enquiries: (02) 6023 8333 Artist Jazmina Cininas takes audiences on a visual,

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Access via rail trail is preferred (travelling to Wodonga from Bonegilla on the Murray Valley Hwy, turn left just past the entrance to Hillandale Ct, Bonegilla) The railway line was built in 1887 and was used to transport material for the Snowy Mountains Scheme. The last train headed out along this track in 1978. The Bonegilla Rail Siding also served as an arrival point for new residents to the Bonegilla Migrant Reception and Training Centre.

When the centre first opened, each week saw hundreds of people arriving from Melbourne docks. The trains, known as “red rattlers”, offloaded passengers at the Bonegilla siding.

View the Seven Cases by sculpture artist Yvonne George.

WELCOME BY KEN RAFF Adjacent to the High Country Rail Trail at the Mahers Rd crossing, Bonegilla The sculpture, constructed from corten steel and corrugated iron sheeting, serves as a memorial to the

integral role that Army personnel played in settling and caring for families and individuals who arrived in Australia seeking a new start in peacetime. Its location on the rail trail signals the movement of thousands of people along Victoria’s rail system and to the Bonegilla siding.

The Welcome sculpture was supported by the Victorian Government.

LAKE HUME WALL Murray St, Lake Hume Village, NSW Built following World War One, the Hume Dam was the biggest in the southern hemisphere and one of the largest in the world when it was completed in 1936. While it plays an important role in irrigation, flood mitigation, hydroelectricity and water needs, it also offers spectacular vistas from the wall or viewing platforms, and is an eyecatching structural form.

ARMY MUSEUM BANDIANA Anderson Rd, South Bandiana The largest military collection in Australia. The Army Museum Bandiana provides a leading edge focus for the interpretation and display of Australia’s rich military heritage.

HYPHEN 126 Hovell St, Wodonga Hyphen – Wodonga Library Gallery is our city’s cultural hub, a regionally based, state-of-the-art facility located in Wodonga’s CBD. The venue is dedicated to the presentation of experiences that nurture creativity, connection and curiosity in an accessible and inspiring environment. It is a place where the community of Wodonga, together with visitors to the city, can encounter, discover and connect with ideas, skills and knowledge.

SUGGESTIONS FOR LOCAL WALKS Why not take the chance each morning to walk a different area around our local region? Walk a section of the High Country Rail Trail, visit ridehighcountry.com.au/rail-trails/ high-country-rail-trail for more information.

Or enjoy the tracks and trail across Albury-Wodonga, visit visitalburywodonga.com.au for the Albury Wodonga Tracks & Trails map.

TRANSPORT OPTIONS Visit bonegilla.org.au ‘Visit us’ menu for the various transport options.

For cyclists, you can travel 16kms on the High Country Rail Trail from Wodonga to Mahers Rd, Bonegilla. At Mahers Rd, travel on Bonegilla Rd 1.8km to the Bonegilla Migrant Experience.

NEARBY ACCOMMODATION Blazing Stump Motel & Suites (10.2 kms/9 minutes from Bonegilla Migrant Experience) 4327 Anzac Parade, Wodonga, VIC 3690 blazingstump.com.au Phone: (02) 6056 3433 | Email: bookings@blazingstump. com.au Discovery Parks Lake Hume (2 kms/2 minutes from Bonegilla Migrant Experience) 33 Boathaven Road, Ebden, VIC 3691 discoveryparks.com.au Phone: (02) 6020 6130 | Email: lakehume@discoveryparks. com.au Quest Wodonga (13 kms/12 minutes from Bonegilla Migrant Experience) 46 Reid St, Wodonga, VIC 3690 questwodonga.com.au Phone: (02) 6043 8300 | Email: questwodonga@ questapartments.com.au

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Bonegilla Migrant Experience would like to thank the following individuals and organisations for supporting our event.

Albury LibraryMuseum Albury Pioneer Cemetery and Albury and District Historical Society Astronomical Society Albury Wodonga Benalla Migrant Camp Bonegilla Hall Committee Bruce Pennay Burke Museum Hyphen - Wodonga Library Gallery Simon Reich Victoria Purman Wanda Skowronska Washington Cyclisme Wodonga & District Historical Society Inc. Wodonga Family History Society

DONATIONS Donations to Bonegilla Migrant Experience are appreciated and can be made at the Welcome Centre.

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The Bonegilla Identity Cards Exhibition Project - linking people with history was funded by the Victorian Government.

Bonegilla Migrant Experience would like to thank our project partner the National Archives of Australia who digitised the archival records to enable the delivery of the Bonegilla Identity Cards Exhibition Project.

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Bonegilla Migrant Experience location

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132 Bonegilla Rd, Bonegilla VIC 3691 Phone: (02) 6020 6912

Register to receive the regular e-newsletter for what’s happening at Bonegilla Migrant Experience

Site open 10am to 4pm Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and weekends.

Closed Anzac Day, Good Friday, Christmas Day and days declared Catastrophic fire danger days.

Admission fee outside event times: Adults $5, Concession $4, Children under 16 free Please note: Disabled access available in selected buildings only. Buildings are not air-conditioned.

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Visit bonegilla.org.au and follow us on BonegillaMigrantExperience bonegillame

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