Report to Hahndorf Branch NTSA 16 April 2010

By Anni Luur Fox, Chairperson

1.  Hahndorf Pioneer Women’s Trail 30 Anniversary during History Week, May 30 in collaboration with SA Roadrunners and Beaumont House.

In case you and the rest of Hahndorf are wondering what a Police squad car and large police van and three uniformed police officers were doing at my Sate Heritage Site on 15 April, the following provides some enlightenment, all in the cause of serious heritage matters involving Gelignite.

22 Jan:   Our AGM.  The 30 anniversary of our first public walk was discussed.  Anni will do a short booklet but can’t help organize the walk due to being a builder’s labourer at her conservation site,  Fringe performance and art commissions that will help pay for it, and ongoing family legal dramas requiring a lot of attention.  Annette Oien and Lyndell Davidge agree to be organizers before Annette leaves for overseas and Lyndell takes over.

6 Feb.   Meeting re Trail at Anni’s re procedures and who does what with Anni, Annette, Lyndell, Margaret, Eric.

14 Feb:   Annette phones re organization.

15 Feb:   Thelma Anderson, Walking SA, phones re Ann Ferguson helping her to get a ford built at Sandow Road.

26 Feb:   Meeting at Annette’s with Terry Cleary, SA Roadrunners .

6 March:   Lyndell OK with taking over from Annette re organization.  Anni still labouring but getting the book together.

17 March.   Anni meets Director Melinda Rankine who asks if we will put on a display re the Trail.  I say it will have to be Lyndell since I have to work on the book in spare time and cannot add another thing to my schedule before winter.  Lyndell is our capable rep on the Academy Board.

4 April:   I suggest Lyndell and I go through my redgum barn and make a list of possible exhibits to pad-out the Academy’s artifacts.  Lyndell finds a small package of gelignite wrapped in paper with the caption Nobel Explosive.  R. Deer Factory, Glasgow.  She checks the Net.  The company was started in 1778 (I think) and merged with ICI in 1926.  I agree to ring the police.

6 April:   I ring Mt Barker Police, tell them I am chair of the branch, the proposed display at Academy and Lyndell’s find while looking for suitable artifacts in the barn.  The duty officer says she’ll check.  She rings back saying I should bring it in and they will dispose of it.  I ask if it is likely to blow up.  No.

12 April:   Lyndell and Melinda go through the barn and make a list of exhibits.  They look at the package of gelignite.

15 April:   Went to work at Mt Barker and delivered the gelignite in a plastic bag to the Mt Barker Police station.  When I ask if I could remove the paper with the name of the company on it because it is an historic artifact that we may exhibit amongst other items in the barn which have provenance, the officer agreed.  She photocopied it for their records.  I left with the paper and went to work, the bank and Woolworths.  When I drove in to my driveway a squad-car followed me.  The officer asked me to remove the paper from my car and place it on the adjacent garden bed.  She said we needed to keep away from it and asked me to stand with her by the squad-car blocking the footpath.  We had to wait for the police van coming to pick up the paper which was considered dangerous.  The van arrived with two officers, one of whom explained that I could have headaches due to handling the paper which had nitroglycerine on it.  So did the Police Station photocopier.  I told him that it was a pre1926 product.  He said it was still very dangerous.  I asked why the farmers on this site would have had gelignite in the barn.  To blast holes for fence posts or wells.  There is a lot of this type of explosive on old farms.  He said that we should look for the fuse and detonator and drew diagrams of what to look for, in my notebook where I had recorded the find and phone conversation of 6 April.

The officer also told me about Picric Acid used to dress wounds during WW1 which was actually a military high explosive which explodes violently if struck or heated quickly.  The police have had trouble with the National Trust putting bottles of it in their museums.  He said that if we find any unidentified bottles of liquid in the barn we have to ring the police at Mt Barker and if they tell us to ‘BRING IT IN, DON’T!  Tell them to send an officer to collect the items. ’ OK then.  I agreed and asked their names - Wayne and Darren.

I think it was Darren who donned gloves to pick up the paper and put it in the van.  I asked if I could have a photocopy of the elegant typefaces on it for our records since it is an historical artifact with provenance and I want to put a story to it as part of Hahndorf’s farming history.  Perhaps the Widow Schmidt’s children used gelignite to ‘dig’ the well and make holes for the stringy-bark fence posts only recently removed from the boundary with St Paul’s new development with a bulldozer?  Wayne was non-committal but I wait in hope.  I didn’t have camera here at the time.

2. National Trust HQ inability to fill retiring representatives of Regions of the Trust to serve on its Council.

This body meets monthly and comprises half Regional Branches members and half elected at the AGM from the wider membership.  In recent years some local members have sat on the Council as representatives of a region and kept in touch with those branches by telephone, email and annual visits.  For eg, Sue Schiffers represents Eyre Peninsula.  Even with this arrangement the Trust has still been unable to fill some Regional positions – not ideal for overall governance of the Trust for effective decision-making.  Council needs a full compliment of members.

President Anita Aspinall wants us give our views re

1. Should Council membership remain the same: how can it attract more regional representatives?

2. Should Council endeavour to continue to fill the empty positions with local representatives who would keep in touch with country branches?

3. Should the Council restructure itself to reduce the number of both country and local representatives to make it a more manageable body?

4. Any other suggestions?

Anita cannot overestimate the importance of a well functioning Council to the overall direction of the Trust, especially with the many staff changes that have taken place in recent years.

Anita looks forward to our views.