Introduction

The Shire of Harvey is in the south-west of Western Australia. The shire encompasses several towns including:
Harvey, Wokalup, Benger, Yarloop, Myalup, Brunswick, Binningup,
Roelands (Collie River Siding), Cookernup and Australind.

Many old towns are no longer there, and
included:

• Mill towns which were moved as the wood was cut from the area: Mornington Mill, Worsley, Hoffmans (2 sites), Treesdale, Lewis Reid Mill.


• Sidings: Tulunulla, Beela, Wara Warrup. Allinson became a part of Collie when boundaries changed in 50’s. There are many more and we will add them as we can.

Boundaries for Harvey Shire have changed over time with Australind ceded to Bunbury and returned unchanged in the 50’s; Collie enlarging around the town; and changes to the northern boundary.

Harvey takes its name from the Harvey River, and was originally known as Korejikup. The original local government centre was Brunswick Junction and is now Harvey town.

The Group

Harvey District Oral History Group started in 1989, with a small band of volunteers

The aim of the Harvey District Oral History Group was to gather history, mainly in the audio tape medium and make it available through the local libraries for the public to access.

This aim has remained, and we now seek to take it to a new audience, the internet. We consider that many descendants of the peoples of the area, indigenous and later comers may want to know where their families are or were.

To this end we are commencing a long journey of making our collection available via the internet.

The Collection

• Oral History – this is available
  currently in audio tapes through the library borrowing system in the town libraries, or can be purchased for a small fee from the group, copyright permitting.

Each set is a recording of the person’s life
and is set in ‘talking book’ form. It has been enjoyed by the residents
of the area since 1989 and has 120 + interviews with 1 – 24 hours in each set.

• Documents – these are donated and gathered from all sources and copied. Originals are returned to the family.

• Photographs – these we originally
  copied to negative and returned to the owner. We now copy digitally and onto cd. We have over 1000 photos in the collection.

 

• Maps – maps of the area from early
  settlement are available.

Availability to the Public

All the collection is available for the public to have a copy of as they wish, copyright permitting, with costs of copying and postage borne by the purchaser.

Short-Term Plan for the Site

• Cemetery and Burial Records for the whole shire will go on-line to be available free.

It isplanned to put the Carnarvon and other towns online as they are available also.

Oral Histories

• An index of the oral histories available. The interviews can be purchased in audio tape or CD format. DVD options are being considered.

• Synopses of interviews will be available. Synopses will be available for a small fee to cover costs. These may be downloaded by email and/or posted.

Keywords of all interviews to be made available for researchers.

• Documents are currently being typed and will be available as completed for free access.

What Documents

• Sole teacher schools history


• Eric Davis’s diary: events documented as
  a weekly feature by Mr Davis, a local journalist in the 1940’s.


• Small snippets of local history.


• Historical buildings. We hope to provide photos and a history of each old (sometimes destroyed) building of significance for the area.


• Shire heritage listing.


• A potted history of each original dwelling by a local writer.

Long term Planning to be done soon:
watch this space.

Fees

Interviews: $15/hour

Synopsis of Interviews: $10 – up to 5
pages + multiples of.

Maps: Not decided at this stage

Photographs: $7.50 each

$25 for 4

Headstone Photos: as photos

Cemetery and buriel records, and documents will be available free.

How to Purchase

Interviews:

Order by contacting via email or snail mail. Orders will be filled when payment made.

Payment can be by cheque, direct debit, or by faxing credit card details.

As site grows we will look at on-line
payment options.

How to Contact

Email:

Snail Mail: 3 Locke Place Australind Western
Australia 6233

Fax: (08)9725 8472 Overseas add STD codes

Any Helpers?? If you would like to help us with typing or in any other wasy please contact us on the above email.