Timeline: Formation of the Jondaryan Woolshed Historical Museum and Park Association

To most people of the Jondaryan district, the huge woolshed that belonged to old Jondaryan station, was just part of the landscape, something that they saw every time they passed that way, but took little notice of. It was not until 1972, when a celebration was held to mark the centenary of the Jondaryan state school that the Woolshed was drawn to the attention of the people, when the organizers of the celebration were looking for a suitable place to hold a large ball.

These celebrations caused an awakening of their sense of heritage in the people of the district. On the night of the ball, which was held in the woolroom of the Woolshed, over 1100 of the districts residents and guests turned up. Such was the sense of atmosphere in the old shed that everyone was affected by it. A spontaneous feeling grew among the people that something should be done to preserve this magnificent relic from the early European settlement of the district. Long after the ball and the school celebrations were over, the people continued to talk about the event and the need to do something about preserving the old Woolshed.

The owners of the Woolshed, the Rutledge family, were moved by the enthusiasm of the people and offered the Woolshed and 12 acres of land on which it stood, as a gift to the people of the district, if they were prepared to restore and preserve the Woolshed for the future.

Public meetings were called to gauge the feelings and potential support of the community for the project and to look at ways of bringing the project into being. Other similar historical projects were looked at, particularly Sovereign Hill -- the Woolshed Association's constitution is based on the Sovereign Hill constitution. A great deal of research was carried out to ascertain the practicality of undertaking such a project. At the public meeting called in 1974, which unanimously accepted the gift of the Woolshed and the 12 acres of land, 117 people attended the meeting out of the local population that comprises just over 500 citizens, which indicated the district's enthusiasm for the project.

An incorporated public association was formed. The members of the new Woolshed Association, however, had little to assist them other than their enthusiasm and a great deal of commonsense. They had no money -- the Association's original capital was $850, a loan contributed by the first board of directors, so the Association could begin operations. There was an almost total lack of practical experience among members in operating such an enterprise and they had to learn from mistakes that were inevitably made.

Right from the beginning, it was realised that if the project was going to be able to survive, it had to be able to stand on its own feet. For that to happen, the project had to attract large numbers of visitors, which meant that the attraction had to be broadened. The concept had to be expanded to take in more than the Woolshed, sheep and shearing, it had to include the whole gamut of pioneering station life and the whole complex had to be made to live, so people could relate to it.

Unlike similar visionary historical projects begun in the southern states, the Jondaryan Woolshed project attracted almost no help from government at any level. The members and friends of the Association had to provide most of the labour for restoration work, all development of the project and for every facet of running it. On top of that they had to raise all the finance necessary to carry out that work.

Although the members of the Association might not have appreciated it in the early days, it was this struggle for survival which engendered a tremendous spirit of cooperation and self-help amongst all those who were involved. That same dogged determination to succeed and attitude of self-help was instrumental in attracting the support of the public and the business community.

Wherever possible, the buildings obtained to reconstruct the station village complex were original buildings and were associated in some way with Jondaryan station. As part of the living history concept, all types of old machinery used in the development of Jondaryan station and the Darling Downs were collected, restored and put to use. Although the dreams were never fully realised, the project created a rural pastoral complex with a unique atmosphere which was felt and remarked on by most visitors to the Woolshed project.

The spirit of cooperation and self-help and the determination to succeed against all odds, awakened in those involved the spirit of the early pioneers, contributing to the atmosphere that pervades the whole complex. While ever this remains, the project will survive and will go on to prosper.