ALMOST 150 people gathered on Barmera Primary School’s oval last weekend for the opening of a time capsule buried in the ’80s.
The school community welcomed past staff, students, locals and Governor Hieu Van Le to the opening of the time capsule, which was buried in 1982, last Saturday morning.
Barmera Primary School centenary and events co-ordinator Glenys Matthews said the event was a success.
“Quite a few former staff and students joined us at 11am before opening the time capsule at midday,” she said.
“People viewed the display of photographs and memorabilia in the hall and caught up with each other.
“The governor arrived at 12 noon for the official opening of the time capsule and Marie Thornhill, a former Aboriginal education worker at the school and elder, did the welcome to country.
“The school choir sang the national anthem and our principal Jayne Foulds welcomed everyone.
“The student leaders spoke about the history of the school over the past 100 years and the governor then spoke of his love for the region as it was where he began his life in Australia after arriving as a refugee.”
Mrs Matthews said the time capsule contained a range of items.
“Inside the time capsule were plans of the school, a program of the school’s opening, financial records, exercise books, stationary, readers, report cards, blackboard duster and chalk, electricity trust regional summary, the Advertiser and Murray Pioneer dated in 1982,” she said.
“Front page of the newspaper at the time was the well-known Australian mystery of Azaria Chamberlain’s death.
“Students had placed things in the time capsule also such as letters they’d written to their future self, parents, grandparents and children, and stories and artwork made by students.
“Unfortunately, there was some water inside the time capsule and some items were damaged but what we could salvage we repackaged and put them back in the time capsule.
“Because of the condition of the personal material it was hard for people to recognise anything, however one lady was able to recognise the envelope she had placed a letter to her husband in and some people recognised an address and knew who had lived there at the time.
“All contents will be stored and some of it will be put into a new time capsule, which will be organised later in the year.”