FUTURE EVENTS
Our next speaker evening is at 5 30pm on Tuesday 5 August 2025 at the Society's rooms - 3 Cathedral Street, Maitland.
TOPIC: My Mapping Project - Part 2
Speakers: Diane Blishen
Diane is returning to continue showing us her mapping project.
12 years ago, Diane began her mapping project which involved overlaying old maps and plans over Google Earth. Some maps and plans are not freely available, so she has purchased these. The overlaying is just part of the project, by creating polygons and placemarks she has incorporated research with sources, it makes the project somewhat interactive. She uses Land Title Records to confirm locations. All research in the project has documents to support it. She started researching more than 30 years ago, yes that’s right before the internet, flash drives, email. While the digital material today is a great resource, she obtained her most useful material by scrolling through unindexed, undigitized microfilm and paper documents, having collected a huge amount of material including letters written by our earliest settlers, surveyors, architects, magistrates the list goes on, containing material not widely known, if at all, from people who were there at the time! By making the overlays see-through you can see today’s landscape through the documents, bringing the past and present together. It is a work in progress covering earliest land grants, the river and its changes, churches, schools, pubs, bridges, tram, punts the list goes on. The pic shows the extent of the overlays so far
For those of you who came to Part 1 shown to us December 2024 I am sure you will want to return to see more.
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Speaker Evenings are held on the first Tuesday of the month (except January) at 5 30 pm.
(A small charge of $5 includes light refreshments provided before and after the speakers delivery.)
Future Guest Speakers:
2025
2 September 2025 Tom McLean: Benjamin Lee of the Pool’s Farm, Old Banks, Paterson River. & the Battle of Waterloo?
7 October 2025 Paula Beavan, author. Her latest book is "Among the Grey Gums", an historical novel based in the Hunter Valley
4 November 2025 Max Lantry accompanied Barry Johnson: their post Vietnam experience in Australia.
2 December 2025
2026
January No Speaker
3 February 2026 Brian Walsh: His latest book Gresford to Carrabola
3 March 2026
7 April 2026
5 May 2026
2 June 2026
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