Brewarrina photos take us back in time
Tricia Duffield
A passion for Brewarrina, some amateur detective skills and a background in computing have been the magic combination for Trevor Gunter, who has revived memories of some of the events and gatherings in Brewarrina in the early part of last century.
Trevor has been posting on the ‘Memories of Brewarrina’ Facebook page, beautiful images of shearers, families, stockmen, social events, people living on the mission and the everyday life of Brewarrina from as early as the 1880s, through the world wars and into the 1960s and 1970s.
In the process, he has re-kindled friendships and connections with family members, and inspired others to post their photos of Brewarrina from days gone by.
Trevor’s love of Brewarrina has been lifelong, first visiting the town with his family when he was just six years old.
He also recalls travelling from his family’s home in the Blue Mountains to Lightning Ridge and Grawin and going down mineshafts as a youngster, mining opals.
His father was a devout member of the Christian Brethren church and when he heard there was an associated parish in Brewarrina, his Dad volunteered as a missionary.
So began the family’s long association with the town. Trevor eventually became a high school teacher, specialising in computer technology, and when he retired, he used those skills and some painstaking detective work, to track down photographs of Brewarrina and take us through the looking glass to an era long gone.
“Because of my background in computing I can find things on the Trove archive, in museums and libraries and online, hidden in folders and under quirky names, and so as I keep doing random searches, I start finding thing,” Trevor said.
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