Kate Kelly @ Royal Australian Historical Society's state conference, Forbes, 17-19 October, 2008
Forbes Inn
October, 2008
Writer Merrill Findlay briefed the 2008 annual conference of the Royal Australian Historical Society in Forbes on the Kate Kelly Project and, as part of her presentation, appealed to the Society to help save the historic Quong Lee's Store where Kate would almost certainly have shopped in the 1880s and 1890s.
Quong Lee's shop, also known as Mathias's or Beryl & Bert's Music Store at 161 Rankin Street, Forbes, is one of the town's last remaining links with its Chinese past. Its new owners, AusPacific Property Group, have nevertheless received Council approval to demolish it to make way for a new shopping mall and parking lot.
The block AusPacific hopes to transform into a shopping mall also includes No. 1 Browne Lane where Kate Kelly's in-laws, the Foster family, lived for more than eighty years from the mid-1860s, and where Kate Kelly herself may also have lived after her marriage to William 'Bricky' Foster in 1888.
 On learning of the threat to Quong Lee's Store the RAHS conference unanimously passed the following resolution urging Forbes Shire Council to reconsider its approval for the building's demolition.
The Conference of the Royal Australian Historical Society recognizes the high historical significance of the store built and operated by Quong Lee at 161 Rankin Street, Forbes, as the principal item of Chinese heritage in the district and the Conference urges the Mayor and Council of Forbes Shire to reconsider the decision to demolish Quong Lee’s store.
Left: President of the RAHS, Professor Ian Jack, inspects the historic Quong Lee building on 19 October 2008. Photo courtesy of the RAHS.
In a later statement President of the RAHS, Dr Ian Jack, pointed out that Quong Lee's was listed in 2006 as a site worthy of protection in Chinese Heritage Through Central West and Western NSW, a report commissioned by the NSW Heritage Office. He also offered a range of options for conserving the historic building and integrating it into the proposed new shopping mall development.
Read the full statement by Ian Jack, RAHS President, on saving the historic Quong Lee's store. More >>
Also read the ABC News report on the RAHS resolution: Council asked to save Chinese heritage building, ABC NSW, 24 October 2008.
The Royal Australian Historical Society is urging the Forbes Shire Council to stop a developer knocking down a Chinese heritage building. More >>
The RAHS, National Trust, Forbes and District Historical Society and other heritage organisations are now mobilising their networks to help save Quong Lee's store.
More on the campaign to save Quong Lee's!
Page created 23 November 2008. Last revised 19 December 2008. |
