Back in 2019, the Wollongbar Institute celebrated 125 years of service to primary industry. That service included the training of Dreadnought Boys from 1913 to 1929. In the blog post of 8 September 2019, we highlighted the registers which had details of Dreadnought Boys who were trained at Wollongbar, as farm apprentices. Those books and the information in them, were accessible there at Wollongbar.
However, things have changed at Wollongbar!
Due to New South Wales State Government cut backs, the laboratory and library were closed earlier this year. The documents, including the Dreadnought material were catalogued and sent to the archives of State Records. The registers are not now accessible locally.
The building involved, ''F Block'', has been renovated, and one of its rooms is now named the ''Dreadnought Room''.
Negotiations are underway to have a digital copy of the Dreadnought material, especially the registers, available at the Alstonville Plateau Historical Society (as well as at the Institute). We will let you know when this has been resolved.
