The Centenary Suburbs Historical Society Inc was formed in 1996 to collect and preserve the history of our local community for the benefit of current and future generations. New members and visitors are welcome to attend our meetings and are encouraged to participate in our activities.  The society is a non-profit community organization whose members are interested in the area’s local history. Our historical interests cover a wide time period, including early exploration, pioneering days, urban development and recent events.

Committee

The committee is led by President, Caroline Hamilton.  Other committee positions are Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer.

Meetings

Anyone is welcome to attend the Society’s meetings, which are held at Mount Ommaney Library on the second Wednesday of the month from February to November (excluding August) from 1.00pm to 2.45pm.  Our program for 2022:

9 February – Plans & Goals
9 March – Meeting
13 April – Meeting
11 May – Meeting
8 June – Meeting
13 July – Meeting
10 August – Annual excursion
7 September – AGM
12 October – Meeting
9 November – Meeting
14 December – Christmas lunch

Our Goals:

• Collect and preserve information on the local history of the area including land usage and community activities.
•  Research people and families associated with the area.
•  Share what we find with the community.

What We Do:

• Record, collect and preserve information by sorting, collating and categorizing information and materials from local newspapers and other sources.
•  Purchase relevant books and maps for our library.
•  Record oral history interviews to compile stories of local identities and their experiences of living in Centenary.
• Research and publish information in pamphlets, books and local newspapers.
• Prepare visual displays and give presentations on historical subjects, sharing knowledge and encouraging interest in our local community.
• We share our knowledge with like-minded groups such as nearby historical societies.
• We welcome donations of photographs and relevant historic artefacts.

History

The Society was formed in 1996 by then Councillor Christine Watson to collect and preserve the district’s history.

The Society’s historical interests focus on nine south-western suburbs of Brisbane between Fort Road (or the western boundary of Oxley) and Wolston Creek.  Suburbs within the CSHSoc geographic area are:  Seventeen Mile Rocks, Sinnamon Park, Jindalee, Mt Ommaney, Middle Park, Jamboree Heights, Sumner, Riverhills and Westlake.  Windermere Estate, part of Sinnamon Park, is included as is Edenbrooke that is now partly in Seventeen Mile Rocks and partly in Sinnamon Park.  However in exploring the pre-development history of these nine suburbs, some overlap with the history of neighbouring suburbs is inevitable.  This means that selective aspects of the history of neighbouring suburbs are sometimes included in the Society’s work.

Following Councillor Watson’s retirement in 2000, Caroline Hamilton became President and she continues to work tirelessly with Society members to increase the knowledge of the area. The Centenary Suburbs were born in 1959 when Queensland marked the centenary of statehood, and the area has a rich pioneering history.

Regarding photographs on this web site, every effort has been made to identify the date taken and the photographer. To the best of our knowledge the “old” photographs are outside of copyright but anyone who has any concern about this should contact the Society. Note – photos marked e.g. CDH/CSHSoc show firstly initials of a member then abbreviation for Society.

All pages on this website remain the property of the Centenary Suburbs Historical Society. Please contact us (centenaryhistory2@hotmail.com) if you would like to use our images or articles in a printed or electronic (including online) publication.   A fee will apply to usage by commercial (i.e. for-profit) organizations.

If you wish to make a link to a page on this website, the Centenary Suburbs Historical Society would appreciate it if the link could be introduced with the full name of the Society, e.g.  For more information, see the following page on the Centenary Suburbs Historical Society website.

Centenary Suburbs Historical Society Photo Gallery and Articles by Centenary Suburbs Historical Society are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License.
Based on a work at www.cshsoc.org.au.

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