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"Moments Frozen in Time"
a photo walk around the streets of Portland, Victoria
from 1859 to 19009th November to 5th December, Monday to Friday 9 am to 5 pm
in the Portland Art Centre
corner of Bentick and Glenelg Streets, Portland, Victoria
Admission is free.Some 50 large format (700 mm wide), mounted photographs from the Collection provide an outstanding tour of Portland in its early days. The emphasis is on the street scenes, the hotels and pubs of what was then a thriving sea port.
The captions and descriptions draw on Gwen Bennett's 1997 book "Watering Holes of the West", a study of hotels, inns and breweries in the City of Portland and former Shire of Heywood, Victoria. Gwen's book will be on sale in the Art Centre during the exhibition.
in association with
the Glenelg Shire Arts Programme
The Vern McCallum Photo Collection shows the places, people and events of the Western District of Victoria and nearby South Australia from the 1860s to the 1970s. The collection started with photos from Vern's own family (which arrived in the District in the 1850s) and has expanded through the goodwill of many people who either donated photos, or allowed Vern to copy their photos. The collection now contains over 7,000 images and is still growing. A very small sample is available on-line.
The Collection's major events is the yearly Exhibition. Over 600 photos from the collection were shown in the 1998 exhibition, close to 1,000 in the the 1999 exhibition and over 1,000 in the 2000 exhibition, the 2001 exhibition, the 2002 Exhibition, the 2004 Exhibition, the 2005 Exhibition, the 2006 Exhibition and the 2007 Exhibition. Each year the exhibition has included a very popular family history section.
Over the last few years Vern has actively co-operated with other organisations in presenting smaller exhibitions that focuss on particular places or themes or events. The Past Events - 2004 and Past Events - 2005 pages illustrate the diversity of the smaller events, and the high regard that various communities and groups have for the McCallum Collection. Although the small events take up a lot of Vern's time (and money!), they tend to turn up many interesting photos that would remain inaccessible without a strong local involvement.
In 2001 sponsors assisted in production of a CD ROM with 1,000 images. During the presentation ceremony in April 2001, Vern and Michael Greenham raised the question of who benefits from and who should support an enterprise like the Vern McCallum Collection - please read the speech.
Vern was born and grew up in Digby, mid-way between Hamilton and Dartmoor in Victoria, Australia. He now lives near Portland. To contact him you can either email or write to him.
We are interested in cooperating with all web sites connected with the history, family history, or photography in the Western District. If you run or use such a site, contact the WebMaster, Geoff Corner.
site updated: 9th November 2008
