Heritage centre for the future

The opening of the new heritage centre
It was with great fanfare that the new extension to the Inglewood Heritage Centre was opened.
President of the Inglewood and District Historical Society Mrs Wendy Slack told the large crowd gathered to mark the occasion to remember that it was their centre.
“It belongs to Inglewood and district and is designed to preserve the history of the area for future generations to see,” she said.
The extension is the culmination of years of plannng and will house the Society’s main attraction, the Golden Leaf Tobacco Museum and the “Squatter’s Legacy” the story of all Squatters’ runs in the Inglewood district. It is also hoped that travelling art exhibitions will find it a suitable venue for future displays.
Mrs Slack thanked every-one who had contributed in any way to the construction of the building. She said originally the society did have some money in hand but had been glad to receive a very generous grant from the Goondiwindi Regional Council, plus proceeds from the sale of a portion of the Society’s block of land. In addition, George and Ann Smith of Coolmunda Investments had not sent an account for their work in constructing the extension and various other tradespeople had also contributed to the construction.
She said the Society has received a grant for the painting of the old Cobb & Co section of the Heritage Centre which would be carried out in the future and a further grant is being used for the restoration of two buggies donated by the Goodrich family.
Vice-President of the historical society, Wayne Wills, said he wanted to emphasise that the Inglewood Heritage Centre was an asset to the community and was an ongoing project which would need public fund-raising support to continue upgrading the facility.
Those present were then able to inspect the new building and the upgraded displays and enjoyed morning tea served in brilliant winter sunshine on the lawn in front of the building. Noticed among the crowd were visitors from Yelarbon, Warwick, Goondiwindi, Texas, Noosa and Honolulu.