Oral Histories
The idea for this project came about following a morning tea at the Centre. The morning tea was arranged by the 'Friends of the Centre' to gather together some of the descendants of the early families of the Hall district.
It was not long into the event that a wealth of family stories and anecdotes were flowing. It was decided that it was important for the heritage of Hall village to capture these stories before we lost them forever. The best way was to make recordings of these wonderful stories and so the oral history project was born.
An application for a grant was made to the Federal department of Environment to fund a number of these oral histories. The application was successful and work commenced. However, it was soon identified that we didn't have the necessary equipment nor skills to carry out the project so training and purchase of appropriate equipment as recommended by the Oral History Association were the first steps.
A number of people were initially listed and some had to be culled from the first round due to funding limitations. It is planned to interview these descendants at a later time. In the end 6 recordings were made and 7 people interviewed.
These were:
- Bessie Bardwell
- Kingsley Southwell
- Elizabeth Kilby
- Tom Pender
- Wesley Kilby
- Tony Morris
- John Thompson
Click on a name and go to a page with a photo of the person, a short personal history and a link to an mp3 audio file of the recording and a pdf of the transcription of the interview.
Daughter of Athol & Eunice (Smith) Kilby
Dutch families who came to the Hall district in the 1950's
Hall residents for many years
Grandson of Charles Thompson (First teacher at Hall School)
Son of Cedric & Beryl Southwell
The great grandson of William Morris the original Hall bootmaker.
Son of Keith & Ivy Kilby
We had hoped to interview Greg and Marjorie Rule during this project but unfortunately Greg passed away during this time. However, a recorded interview had been done in 2012 that we have been able to use and has been added to this website.
Acknowledgement must go to the Federal Department of Sustainability, Environment Water, Population & Communities and the Village of Hall and District Progress Association (VHDPA) who funded the project and those interviewed who gave up their time and were willing to share their family histories.
Further oral histories will be added as time and funds allow.
Please note that:
- the views expressed in the recordings are not necessarily those of the Hall Heritage Centre
- the recordings and transcripts are the property of the Hall Heritage Centre and are not to be reproduced without the permission of the Centre.