A drive back from Port Fairy this October was a chance to visit some former Institutes and alert them to the website. We stopped at buildings in nine towns: Mount Gambier, Millicent, Rendelsham, Beachport, Robe, Kingston, Meningie, Tailem Bend and Monteith.
The Art Gallery at Mount Gambier, originally the Institute, is always worth a visit and the receptionist there was keen to inform the History Group of our site.
The South East Family History Centre at Millicent was not open. The Millicent Institute had burnt down in 1964 and volunteers at the centre had been very helpful a few years ago locating useful information and sent us a photo of the building that was destroyed. We left our card.
Rendelsham Community Hall looked as well-cared for and well-used as ever; I wrote a note on the back of our calling card and slid it under the door.
We explained the website to receptionists at the Information Centre in Beachport. The Institute building there is still operating as a cinema.
The Robe Library and Information Centre is attached to the former Robe Institute. We chatted with the receptionist/librarian who was happy to pass on the information to the history group.
The Kingston Town Hall was set up for a large concert when we dropped in before lunch. The hall was built for the Lacepede Bay Institute in 1937 but was often called the Kingston Hall. I need to be clearer on the website about the building’s and the Institute’s various names. And when did the district council take the building over?
I was shown the Institute’s sealed-off book chute at The Chambers at Meningie, and couldn’t resist buying some original cards and a garden ornament from the profusion of handcrafted offerings.
A missing plaque and marble foundation stone required some detective work at Tailem Bend’s Town Hall. Clearly shown on the front brick wall in my website photo, they just weren’t there in 2022. With the help of two puzzled receptionists and a councillor, we located them behind a photo-copy machine on a white plastered wall. New rooms had been added to the front of the Town Hall. The date of my plaque and stone photos needs more research!
Driving to our last Institute we were confronted with a sign advertising Monteith Hall’s 100 year celebration, to be held the next Sunday, October 23rd. We left our calling card under a door at the Hall, which still has ‘Monteith Institute’ on the gable.