Wirrabara Institute was well established when Heather Whitford’s father arrived as the policeman in the town. Heather was very young and her contact with the Institute brief – but memorable. Colonel Light Gardens Institute was relatively new in the 1950s when Peter Brinkworth, his brothers and his father were regulars there.
One of Peter’s and one of Joelie Hancock’s great-grandfathers had strong associations with country Institutes during the 1800s. Peter’s Ernst Siekmann was one of the Trustees at the Caltowie Institute, while Joelie’s Walter Paterson was in demand around the state to entertain his audiences with a lecture on Phrenology, the measurement and interpretation of bumps on the skull.