News & Events

With Christmas fast approaching, it is timely to remind our members and friends that the History Centre in the Coventry Library will be closed from Tuesday 16th December 2025 to give our volunteers a well-earned break, and will reopen on Tuesday 13th January 2026.

You are still able to view the latest content on our website, see and comment on the stories on our facebook page or make contact with our President, Ann Herraman, via email at mldhs@mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au or on 0419 816 490

As 2025 draws to a close, it’s time to plan to attend our final event for the year which along with our traditional Christmas music and fare, will focus on some of the things which make Christmas in the Hills special.

All the details are on the flyer and please RSVP if you are coming.

Too Aboriginal for the AIF? Aboriginal South Australian Soldiers and the First World War.

Melanie Clark is a recent Flinders University PhD graduate and Study Advisor at Yungkurrinthi, Flinders University’s First Nations Centre. Holding a Bachelor of Education (Secondary) and a Bachelor or Arts (Honours), majoring in Australian Studies, she has always been passionate about learning and curious about Australian historical contradictions.

An extension of her Honours research, Melanie’s PhD thesis was titled, Too Aboriginal for the AIF? Aboriginal South Australian Soldiers and the First World War. Prioritising Indigenous methodologies, her doctorate explored Aboriginal inclusion/exclusion from Anzac remembrance and Australian national memory.

Her presentation draws on the research of this PhD thesis, which utilised previously unexamined and underutilised archival documents as well as military and newspaper archives, government legislation, Aboriginal testimony, family anecdotes, and mission and government correspondence to inform a collective Aboriginal South Australian biography that explored the unique experience of 90 Aboriginal First World War  volunteers.

Reviewing Anzac from the bottom-up, this research unsettles celebratory renderings allowing for broader conclusions to be made about the inclusion/exclusion of Aboriginal volunteers in the AIF, ultimately aiding truth telling and (re)conciliation. 

All details of this presentation are on the flyer below. Please RSVP as requested.

Our next event (all details on the flyer below) visits the story of the restoration of a local historical cottage and its simultaneous translation into a national TV programme which many of you may have seen. The owners of the cottage and members of our Society who contributed to the presentation share their experiences.

Please RSVP as requested.

You are invited to this year’s Hurren Memorial Presentation about the life of Kate Cocks, presented by Lainie Anderson.

All details are in the flyer below.

Please RSVP as requested.

We invite you to preview Robert Martin’s new book about the History of the Mount Lofty Districts as he gives us some glimpses of what to expect in the printed version later this year.

Please RSVP as detailed in the flyer below

Our History Month event coming up this Friday 2nd May. Come and share in the stories and images of caravanning over the years.

Currently on loan from the State Library of SA and on display in the Local and Garden History Centre of the Mount Lofty Districts Historical Society, in the Coventry Memorial Library at Stirling, is this interesting collection of WW1 fund-raising badges compiled during the First World War by Lady Symon, wife of Sir Josiah Symon of Manoah, Upper Sturt. Our research reveals that she was herself vigourously involved in fund-raising causes.

Previously displayed in the Upper Sturt Soldier’s Memorial Hall and then donated to the Society for safe keeping, it normally resides within the State Library, so this is a rare opportunity to see it up close.

Visit the Local and Garden History Centre at any time that the Coventry Memorial Library is open.