Gwen Barnes was honoured with a life membership to the Benalla Historical Society at its recent annual general meeting.
In 2022, the Benalla Historical Society was offered a huge collection of costumes and related items by Ann Dixon, from Melbourne.
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The offer was immediately accepted by the collections and conservation committee, particularly as some items had been borrowed for display at various times in the past.
At the time of acceptance, the museum and its associated storage rooms were closed because of the building works to extend the Visitor Information Centre and construct the cinema.
The costume room at the Benalla Costume and Kelly Museum.
Photo by
Simon Ruppert
Fortunately, a Benalla house was offered as a temporary storage facility, and it was decided to bring the collection to Benalla and carry out as much sorting as possible while in the temporary premises.
A Historical Society spokesperson said it was extremely grateful to the owners of the house for their generous offer.
“The unfortunate death of the society’s two most experienced workers, Robin Sadler and Norma Grubb, within months of the time that the Dixon collection was brought to Benalla, meant that the sorting and labelling was left to three remaining members of the committee – Gwen Barnes, Truus Gribben and Trish Roe,” the spokesperson said.
“To their credit, these three marvellous women soldiered on with the huge job.”
Once the building work was completed, the entire collection had to be moved into the museum storage rooms, each individual item frozen to get rid of any animal life that might be there, and then carefully boxed and labelled.
“It was Gwen who took the major responsibility of collating and curating the Dixon collection and, with the sterling assistance of husband Colin, she spent endless hours both at home and in the museum, working away quietly on the hundreds of gowns, garments, shoes, fans and other items,” the spokesperson said.
“The time that Gwen and Colin put into this work has been outstanding.
“At the annual general meeting of the society in May, it was with great pleasure that president Ellen Crocker presented Gwen with life membership of the society, a well-deserved accolade indeed.”
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