Public Forum

Evening everyone. I'd start off by saying Hawkesbury City Council acknowledges the Darug and Darkinjung people as traditional custodians of the land of the Hawkesbury. We pay respect to Elders past, present and emerging, and acknowledge all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as First People of the country. General Manager.

Thank you, Mr Mayor. Members of the public attending the public forum are advised that in the event of an emergency you will be asked to proceed in an orderly manner to the nearest exit, following the guidance of our warden. I would also like to advise that in accordance with clauses 4.2 and 5.3.4 of the Code of Meeting Practice, public forums are recorded. In the terms of the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act, this may involve the recording of personal information provided at the time of the public forum. The provision of any information that is recorded is voluntary. If any person does not wish to be recorded, they should not address or request to address the public forum. The gallery can be seen in the live stream video.

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Thank you, Mr Mayor

Thank you. This evening with the... Speakers from the gallery, we only have one this evening. It's Mrs Carol Edds. If you can come to the speaker. There's five minutes that you have. The item discussed is 7.1.2, recognition of work in our city. Yeah . Just before you start, Councillor, is there any declaration of interest in relation to this matter? Thank you.

Thank you for the invitation, the opportunity to support this Mayoral Minute in relation to Dr Jan Barclay-Jack. My name's Carol Edwards, and Jan has been a colleague and a friend for well over a quarter of a century. I best describe Jan as a quiet achiever, and I think, hopefully, this talk gives you a bit more background about Jan. Jan's given generously of her personal time, and she has thousands of hours of research. She's undertaken over many years of our rich Hawkesbury heritage, offering tours, giving talks, and as a community volunteer. Family weekends, trips to cemeteries and historic towns on the outskirts of Sydney developed into a passion and later a career. Moving to the Hawkesbury in 1971 provided a local focus for her interest.

This talk can only cover a snippet of her contributions. Jan's been actively involved in preserving and promoting Hawkesbury's heritage. She has, and she continues to contribute when her health permits to Council's Heritage Committee, the Hawkesbury Branch of the National Trust, the University of the Third Age, among just, I guess, more well-known ones. She was a former curator of the Hawkesbury Museum, and she's contributed to Council's working parties, including the— Council's working party in the 1994 Centenary Celebration Committee. She was part of that, and she also was part of the celebrations of the Governor of Quarries centenary. More recently, she was a member of the Bridge Curatorium Committee.

As a primary school teacher with the Department of School of Education at Dawson Public School, in 1993 she wrote an innovative history as a teaching aid. One such example of that is Dawson, Durack and Us. Durack is the suburban name where the school was located, or is located, and the us was herself and the children. An example of the time of sharing her love and interest in the heritage of the suburb where she was teaching, bringing history to life via history-focused excursions and talks. They're part of her teaching style, and that still continues. In 2003, Jan was awarded a Commonwealth Centenary Medal, established to recognise people whose community volunteers who made a significant contribution in 2001 to the celebrating the centenary of the Federation of Australia.

She, in conjunction with Michelle Nichols, published Hawkesbury 1794 to 1994, the first 200 years of the second colonisation. Jan has shared her master's thesis with her research publication, Hawkesbury Settlement Revealed, a new look at Australia's third mainland settlement, 1793 to 1802. And as you can see, mine is well used because it's got a wealth of information, and I must say, Jan, when I got it, I couldn't put it down. I just read it from cover to cover to learn what it was revealing. Jan's just recently done a doctorate at Western Sydney University, and it was awarded in 2004. Her thesis is titled Community, Change and Leadership in Early Colonial Australia: A Case Study of Dharugan, Molgrove Place, New South Wales, 1793 to 1845.

Later this year, Jan's sharing what she's learnt from that research in what will be her latest publication, and the title of that, and you should look out for it, is Hawkesbury Pioneer Era: How the Humble Led Change Despite the Odds from 1793 to 1943. Jan has—she's rewriting history, or not rewriting, but okay. Jan's moved nearer to be with her family and her grandchildren, but she committed to come back to continue to share her love of Hawkesbury history. From my personal perspective, it's terrific to have Jan here in person to be recognised tonight, and this recognition by Hawkesbury City Council is well deserved. Thank you for the opportunity.

Thank you, Carol.

That's the end of this session. There'll be a couple of minutes break while the staff fix up the recording for the next meeting. Thank you.