The Wilcannia Athenaeum is a heritage listed, rusticated sandstone building in the town of Wilcannia, New South Wales. Built in 1883 and located at 37 Reid St, the Athenaeum was established to be an institution for community education, a school of arts [lower-alpha 1] and included a public library. It has served a number of functions including as a social centre, a library, a newspaper office, a municipal council meeting place, the Wilcannia Telecentre and is now a museum.
A sandstone single-storey building in Victorian Free Classical style with a parapet and central semi-circular entablature with urns, [1] the style of the building reflects the aspirations of the residents of Wilcannia in an era when it was an administrative centre and the third largest inland river port in Australia. [2] [3]
The building is heritage listed. [1]
The original committee for the Athenaeum included Edward Bulwer Lytton ("Plorn") Dickens, the youngest son of Charles Dickens and Frederic Trollope, son of Anthony Trollope, who was responsible for ordering books for the town library. [4] Walterus Brown, the editor of the short lived Wilcannia Times newspaper, published from 1874-1888, was a great supporter of the Athenaeum. [1] [5]
In more recent times, the Athenaeum was the location for the Wilcannia Telecentre and currently operates as the Wilcannia Athenaeum Pioneer Museum.
Mechanics' institutes, also known as mechanics' institutions, sometimes simply known as institutes, and also called schools of arts, were educational establishments originally formed to provide adult education, particularly in technical subjects, to working men in Victorian-era Britain and its colonies. They were often funded by local industrialists on the grounds that they would ultimately benefit from having more knowledgeable and skilled employees. The mechanics' institutes often included libraries for the adult working class, and were said to provide them with an alternative pastime to gambling and drinking in pubs.
Wilcannia is a small town located within the Central Darling Shire in north western New South Wales, Australia. Located on the Darling River, the town was the third largest inland port in the country during the river boat era of the mid-19th century. At the 2016 census, Wilcannia had a population of 745.
The Bank of New South Wales (BNSW), also known commonly as The Wales, was the first bank in Australia, being established in Sydney in 1817 and situated on Broadway. During the 19th century, the bank opened branches throughout Australia and New Zealand, expanding into Oceania in the 20th century. It merged with many other financial institutions, finally merging with the Commercial Bank of Australia in 1982 and being renamed to the Westpac Banking Corporation on 4 May that year under the Bank of New South Wales Act 1982.
Athenaeum may refer to:
Waverley Council is a Local government area in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. First incorporated on 16 June 1859 as the Municipality of Waverley, it is one of the oldest-surviving local government areas in New South Wales. Waverley is bounded by the Tasman Sea to the east, the Municipality of Woollahra to the north, and the City of Randwick in the south and west. The administrative centre of Waverley Council is located on Bondi Road in Bondi Junction in the Council Chambers on the corner of Waverley Park.
The Athenaeum or Melbourne Athenaeum at 188 Collins Street is an art and cultural hub in the central business district of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1839, it is the city's oldest cultural institution.
Henry "Harry" Ebenezer Budden was a Sulman Award winning Australian architect active in the first 40 years of the 20th century. His work encompassed the styles of the Federation Arts and Crafts and Bungalow through to the Inter-War Stripped Classical and Art Deco. He was a leader of his profession and in the wider community, serving as the first Australian War Chest Commissioner during World War I.
Griffith High School was a government-funded co-educational comprehensive secondary day school, located in Griffith, in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia.
The Barrier Daily Truth was a local newspaper for the mining town of Broken Hill in Australia.
The Western Grazier was a newspaper published from 1880 until 1951, covering the central Darling River region of New South Wales. It was published in Wilcannia until 1940, when it moved to Broken Hill.
Edward Quin was a noted pastoralist in the north-west of New South Wales, Australia, who represented Wentworth in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly
The Hay Standard was an English language newspaper published in Hay, New South Wales, from 1871 to 1900. It was the first newspaper published at Hay.
St Joseph's Convent is a heritage-listed former convent and chapel at 232 Lane Street, Broken Hill, City of Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia. It is also known as Mount St Joseph's Convent of Mercy. It was designed by E. J. Woods and built from 1891. The property is owned by Broken Hill Church of Christ Inc. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
The North Sydney Council Chambers is a landmark civic complex on a block bounded by Miller Street and McLaren Street in North Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Originally conceived as a Federation Arts and Crafts residence by Edward Jeaffreson Jackson in 1903, the main building served as a private hospital before being purchased by the Municipality of North Sydney for its new chambers in 1925, with sympathetic extensions being completed in 1926, 1938 and 1968 to accommodate for this new usage. While it has remained the seat of North Sydney Council since 1926, the Council Chambers have been further extended with the completion of the modernist Wyllie Wing by Harry Seidler in 1977 and the Carole Baker Building in 2000 by Feiko Bouman.
The MLC Building is a landmark modernist skyscraper in the central business district of North Sydney, on a block bounded by Miller Street, Denison Street and Mount Street. Planned in 1954 and completed in 1957, the complex was designed in the modernist Post-war International style by architects, Bates, Smart & McCutcheon. Its completion marked the appearance of the first high-rise office block in North Sydney and the first use of curtain wall design. Built to provide much-needed office space for the Mutual Life & Citizens Assurance Company Limited, the building continues to be primarily-occupied by its original tenants.
Mechanics' institutes were a Victorian-era institution set up primarily to provide adult education, particularly in technical subjects, to working-class men, which spread to the corners of the English-speaking world, including the Australian colonies, where they were set up in virtually every colony. In some places, notably throughout the colonies of Queensland and New South Wales, they were often known as schools of arts.
Valdemar Atkinson, invariably referred to as "Val", was an Australian theatrical producer. The youngest son of a prosperous farmer, he did much to foster amateur theatricals in Sydney and regional New South Wales. He was closely associated with J. C. Williamson's and toured amateur or semi-professional companies through regional Victoria and New South Wales, also to New Zealand. He became a producer of stage shows for the Mudgee Musical Society in the early 1920s, and developed a reputation for nurturing talent and producing successful shows, both financially and artistically. He also had some successes as a comic actor and recitalist.
Hay War Memorial High School is a public co-educational secondary day school, located on Pine Street in central Hay, a town located in the western Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. The school is operated by the NSW Department of Education with students from Year 7 to Year 12. The school was originally established on 1 January 1918 at the Hay Public School campus, but moved to a separate purpose-built site on Anzac Day, 25 April 1923, half paid for by public subscription from the citizens of Hay, as the town's war memorial to the service of Hay and district citizens in the First World War.
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