There’s A War On! tour comes to an end

Image: Victory Vanities theatrical troupe image courtesy of AlburyCity Collections.

After travelling widely across regional New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland the There’s A War On! World War II at Home exhibition has finally come to an end. Concluding at Orange City Library last week, the touring exhibition was first shown in August 2009 at the Museum of the Riverina in Wagga Wagga. 

Featuring stories, images and objects held in individual and community collections from all over New South Wales, the exhibition traveled from the Albury LibraryMuseum to the Cowra Regional Art Gallery. Items of intrigue included early ephemera such as ration and identity cards as well as scrapbooks and a pocket journal offering personal accounts of daily life on the home front. Other items included specific tools used and made for the time including the ominous black out covers for vehicle headlights, a tatting shuttle used for weaving camouflage nets, helmet head wear of the National Emergency Services Wardens, and the much admired 1940s wedding dress and wedding dress book.

On March 1 2011 the tour continued its momentum with the official launch of the There’s A War On! wiki website at Chifley Home Education Centre in Bathurst, showcasing the sites and collections across regional New South Wales, which tell us stories about life during World War I and World War II.

Later in 2011, the exhibition continued its journey on a smaller scale tour from the Lady Denman Heritage Complex in Huskisson to Orange City Library. In total, the There’s a War On! tour covered a total of 16 venues across 3 states, and received over 78,000 visitors during its journey.

While no longer on the road the community involvement with the There’s A War On! project continues with the contribution of stories, images and objects on the There’s A War On! wiki website. In addition, significant pieces from the original exhibition have found their way to collections across NSW from Huskisson, Wellington and Cowra.

M&G would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the partners and contributors who made There's a War On! possible:

1. Australian Government Department of Veterans’ Affairs

2. Australian War Memorial

3. Sue Hodges Productions

4. Arts NSW

5. Planning NSW

6. Heritage Council of NSW

7. The Australia Council for the Arts

8. The contribution and participation by public and community collections including: AlburyLibrary Museum and AlburyCity Collection, Brunswick Valley Historical Society, Cowra City Council and Cowra Family History Group, Hurstville City Library Museum & Gallery, the Museum of the Riverina Wagga Wagga, and the Charles Sturt University Regional Archives, as well as the generous contributions by Meg Sheaffe, Jack Ellis, Mrs Maureen Taylor, Graham Apthorpe and Doug Hunter.

9. And the significant work, project planning and original research by Sarah Jane Rennie.