The Tweed River Regional Museum will celebrate the contemporary history of the region with the upcoming launch of their new publication Caravans and Communes: stories of settling in the Tweed 1970s & 1980s.
The publication is the result of over 40 oral history interviews with community members who moved to the Tweed in the 1970s and 1980s, conducted by staff and volunteers of the Tweed River Regional Museum, and project historian Dr Jo Kijas.
With 140 pages and more than 160 images, Caravans and Communes is the largest Tweed River Regional Museum publication to date.
Senior Museum Curator Josh Tarrant said the book documents the massive growth the Tweed has seen over the last four decades.
“The Tweed River Regional Museum recognises the need to also collect and document the contemporary history of the region, as well as the more traditional aspects of the past. Caravans and Communes captures the recollections of both new arrivals and residents alike,” Mr Tarrant said.
Local readers will no doubt see some familiar faces in the publication. Participants came from a diverse background including retirees, new business owners, artists, and those seeking alternate ways of living. The project has revealed a diverse range of unique personal perspectives on the lifestyles of the period, and the issues that impacted on them.
Project participant Alex Reynolds recalls that, during the period, there was sometimes “a little bit of a clash of cultures”.
“But it has actually? it has melded really well together, the new and the old. I think that the new respects the old and that the old realises that the new has brought up the value of the Tweed,” Mrs Reynolds said.
The launch will be held at the Tumbulgum Hall on Saturday, June 18, 2011 at 2pm. Midway between the coast and the mountains, the venue will provide a picturesque setting for new and old locals to meet and share their stories from the period over refreshments and finger foods.
Caravans and Communes: stories of settling in the Tweed 1970s & 1980s can be purchased at the launch, or from the Tweed Heads, Murwillumbah and Uki branches of the Tweed River Regional Museum. For further information, or to RSVP for the launch, contact Senior Museum Curator Josh Tarrant on
(02) 6670 2276 or jtarrant@tweed.nsw.gov.au
