Launch of ‘Gilgandra’s Coo-ees’ new museum display in the Coo-ee March Gallery at Coo-ee Heritage & Visitor Information Centre
At 2 pm on Tuesday 25th August 2015 a new museum display and book about the 35 men from Gilgandra who enlisted in the Gilgandra to Sydney Coo-ee March, to volunteer for service in the First World War, was launched at the Coo-ee Heritage & Visitor Information Centre at Coo-ee Memorial Park, Gilgandra.
The new display was officially opened by Mark Coulton MP, Federal Member for Parkes.
Gilgandra Shire Council Cultural Officer Kylie Moppett, Acting Mayor Cr. Ashley Walker, Gilgandra Museum & Historical Society curator Shirley Marks, Gilgandra Museum & Historical Society member Margo Piggott, Member for Parkes Mark Coulton, and Graeme Hosken and Mrs Imelda Silva.
Pictured from left to right in front of the new display panels, which feature information on each of the 35 Gilgandra Coo-ees, is Gilgandra Shire Council Cultural Officer Kylie Moppett, Acting Mayor Cr. Ashley Walker, Gilgandra Museum & Historical Society curator Shirley Marks, Gilgandra Museum & Historical Society member Margo Piggott, Member for Parkes Mark Coulton, and Graeme Hosken and Mrs Imelda Silva.
Margo Piggott is holding a copy of the new ‘Gilgandra’s Coo-ees’ booklet that she researched and compiled to support the new display, which provides information about each of the 35 Gilgandra Coo-ees, including a photograph of many of them.
Family autograph book belonging to Mrs I. Silva, showing Bill Hitchen’s and officers’ signatures collected at Eastern Creek on 10/11/1915, and a purple Coo-ee ribbon. Photograph courtesy of Graeme Hosken
Also during the launch, Mrs Imelda Silva, with her nephew Graeme Hosken, donated an original purple “Coo-ee badge” ribbon to the Coo-ee March Gallery collection, which will make a valuable addition to the collection. This ribbon had been obtained by the family at the time the Coo-ees stopped at Eastern Creek in Sydney on 10th November 1915 during the Coo-ee March. A photocopy of the signatures that were written in the autograph book on this same day, which includes Bill Hitchen’s signature, was also donated to the Coo-ee March Gallery collection.
Further information about the 1915 Coo-ee badges can be found at http://cooeemarch1915.com/2015/08/11/badges-worn-by-the-coo-ees/
The Coo-ee marchers will be wearing purple ribbons in the Coo-ee March 2015 Reenactment.
Coo-ee March 2015 Re-enactment 