The town of Dardanup has a fascinating history which will be celebrated at the 2022 Dardanup Heritage Forum on Sunday 20 November at Thomas Little Hall in Dardanup. The Forum, a free event, will be run in conjunction with the Ferguson Valley Visitors’ Centre Christmas Market, being held just over the road at the Old State School. Both events start at 10.00 am and finish at 3.00 pm on Sunday.
Click here to download the program.
This year the Forum features displays about prominent women in the history of Dardanup, “Women of Charlotte St & Beyond”, and “The History of Four Schools” about four small rural schools (Wellington Mills, Ferguson, Waterloo and Dardanup), that merged 50 years ago to form Dardanup Primary School.
The Dardanup Heritage Collective has recently fabricated and installed signs marking a Heritage Trail so visitors can enjoy an informative and interesting walk around the town site. Signs tell the story of the broad flat plain, once covered in grass trees, marri and jarrah and travelled by the Nyoongar people in line with the seasons, through Irish, English and Italian settlement, to the community of today.
A speaker program will run in the afternoon in the undercover area at Our Lady of Lourdes School. Local historian Norm Flynn will commence at 1.00 pm, talking about a recent publication “Travencore Girls”, co-authored with Lorna Cross, and the Irish migrants from that ship who settled in Dardanup.
Richard Offen, well known West Australian historian, author and broadcaster, now President of the Royal Western Australian Historical Society will speak at 1.45 pm about the change in attitudes to the importance of heritage buildings over the last hundred years.
Members of the SW Veteran Car Club will hold a display of their vehicles at Our Lady of Lourdes school car park. Dardanup Heritage Park in Moore Road will be open as usual on Sunday.
St Aidan’s Church in Ferguson will also be open for visitors to view. There will be a “Trash and Treasure” fundraising sale at the church.
For more information email: dardanupheritagecollective@gmail.com.
Dardanup Heritage Collective 