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Whim Festival Mount Helena

Mount Helena held it's bi-annual Whim Festival yesterday at Pioneer Park and what a great day it was.

Even though there were several life-size Whims at the Festival, interest in our miniature Whim and the supporting photos was boundless.

We also were able to add more names to many Mt. Helena School photographs that we have in our Collection. Kids that went to Mt Helena School in the 40s and 50s were thrilled to see their school photographs with mates from those fun days.

We learnt about the internment of European immigrant men who were living in Mount Helena during the war years. The effect that it had on the community as a whole, when fathers and husbands were taken in the middle of the night by the local policemen, and sent to what we now know as internment camps. The town rallied together to cook for families that had lost their breadwinner and only source of income.

We were told of the fundraising for local families who were suffering hardship, illness or death. Dances were organised, food was donated and it seemed nothing was too much trouble for members of this small community. Local businessman Frank Kennedy who filled the one and only petrol pump in town, was classed as a saint. He owned a tray-top truck and it was never any trouble for him to take sick children and adults down the hill to hospital. His generosity saved lives. Without his transport, catching the train or walking, did not leave enough time for the very sick to be treated in time.

We also had a video taken by Frank Mulumby showing woodchopping in the 1940s and 50s which very surprisingly showed men in their socks or bare feet chopping through huge logs!

Health and Safety Officers of today would not be impressed.