BY MEREDITH BLAIR
It was a once in a five-decade opportunity for the Coalfields Local History Association when they got the opportunity to witness the opening of the Kurri Kurri Time Capsule on Wednesday.
The aluminium box was buried at Rotary Park Kurri Kurri during Civic Week of 1974 and was funded by people paying for letters to go in the box.
“We’ve finally been able to open it this morning and all the contents are intact which we didn’t expect, so that is a miracle in itself,” Bill Holland from the Coalfields Local History Association told The Hunter River Times.
“In terms of a snapshot of the Kurri Kurri community and indeed the Coalfields, this is as good as it ever gets and I doubt very many people would open time capsules that one, have the volume of stuff inside them and two, that those items have survived.”
It has been a one-year project for the Coalfields Local History Association who were supported by Cessnock City Council and community groups including the Men’s Shed, the Community Centre and Towns With Hearts.
Bill Holland showed The Hunter River Times some of the contents including a wonderful artwork from 1974 where Ricky Haggerty painted his headmistress.
Bill also found a letter from a young girl who lived at Fan Hill, Abermain, sharing her predictions for the future of Kurri Kurri including domed houses, the disappearance of the railway station, a major highway which ran through Sawyers Gully and electric cars.
The history association will also work at tracking down people who were left letters by their grandparents in 1974.
“There are a number of letters and things left in here to be handed to people, including this wonderful thing where the person even went to the trouble of doing it all up for us to post, but the problem is eight cents worth of stamps doesn’t cut it anymore,” Bill joked.
Now, the process of preserving is underway with volunteers scanning the various photos, letters, newspapers and documents that were contained within the capsule.
If you’re itching to see the contents however you will have to wait with items going on display on Australia Day weekend at the Anglican Church Hall at Lang St, Kurri Kurri.
