National Trust Heritage Festival 2015 Red Flowering Gums

The Sarah of Enderslea Farm Oral History Performance was really successful in September 2013 so was repeated on 27th April during the 2014 National Trust festival. Jenny Davis did a great job with the scriptwriting and direction. And as usual the Local Country Womens Association did a successful afternoon tea. Ive discovered I can do great meringues and scones  so I took care of that. In the 2015 Heritage Festival a different play, Red Flowering Gums, was written and presented. Another former owner was the second headmistress of Presbyterian Ladies College, Elsie Finlayson Ogden. Her sister in law was Helen Ogden who was a well regarded Photographer in Perth. She together with an artist Ida Richardson and Edith Cowan all discuss the events of the Centennial year of West Australia’s founding. So this performance takes place in 1929, the Centennial year. One item they mentioned was the design of a medallion that was given to all school children. The complaints about the design were all reported in the West Australian newspaper. The design was created in London and the complaint was that the bird on it looked more like a goose than a swan. Happily 3 medallions from Smits in London Court were bought so the audience were able to decide for themselves if they agreed.
The West Australian University Archaeology department through Professor Thomas Whitley also had a dig through the 2014 festival. I just love to watch Time Team on T.V. with Tony Robinson so I was really happy when I was approached to have a dig at Enderslea. I was a bit anxious though that they would not find it very interesting. Professor Whitley used a drone …the latest modern techniques …Enderslea is 160 years old so no Samian wear was discovered!