HISTORY means a lot to people anywhere you go, but for small Mallee communities like Woorinen South there is a strong connection to the past.
Pulling up to the former Woorinen Buffalo Lodge hall on Smith Street, Woorinen South, one immediately gets a feeling of the historical significance of the place.
A red gum hall, the building was constructed in 1880 and used as a school along the banks of the Murray River at Castle Donnington, before being relocated by two teams of bullocks to its current site in 1919.
Syd Brown knows all too well the history of the hall, having lived next to it for more than four decades.
It was for this reason he initially joined the Buffalo Lodge, which took over the hall in 1945.
Mr Brown and his wife, Gaye, bought the property from the lodge in 2010 — when it folded to join the Swan Hill Masonic Lodge — and now uses the building to host a collection of memorabilia and museum of the district’s history.
“I know the history of the whole district, I learned it and kept it in my mind,” Mr Brown told The Guardian during a tour of the museum.
For more on this story, grab a copy of Wednesday’s Guardian (April 19).
