Vol 1 No 1 1965 Editorial
Our very first edition of the Investigator
In September of 1965, after 21 years of existence, the first copy of the Investigator rolled off the press and was distributed to members. Now, nearly 59 years later it is interesting to read the first Editorial, which explains the magazine’s purpose and proposes ways to keep the research and content flowing.
As you will no doubt detect upon reading these words of Ian Wynd, the editor in 1965, so much stays the same! Yet it gives clues to the huge transformations that have occured since that time. The editor speaks, almost breathlessly, of how the development of tape recorders will enhance the society’s communications. What would he have made of TROVE? He also speaks of one of the society’s functions as “to investigate the past and record the truth of an earlier age”. This is a worthy aim today, when so many past “truths” are hotly contested. Are we up for the challenge?
Over the coming months we will continue to dip into the archives to give members an appreciation of the breadth and depth of the research and writings about Geelong that the society has produced.
Editorial Vol 1 No 1 Sept 1965
For sometime now it has been felt that the Geelong Historical Society should have a magazine in which it would be recorded the many fine talks given at the society’s Monthly meetings – talks in which valuable and sometimes elusive information about Geelong‘s past has been presented. Sometimes the speakers spoke without prepared notes and that there was no record of what they had to say. One of the purposes of this magazine is to provide a permanent record of such talks; thanks to the tape recorder even those given without notes will be able to be preserved.
Function of the magazine will be to provide further items of historical interest about Geelong and district. It is hoped to have a regular feature in which will increase the readers’ knowledge of Geelong history, e.g. houses of historic, Voices from the Past (taken from earlier issues of the “Geelong Advertiser”), and a series of articles which will trace the history of Geelong.
Finding a title for the magazine is always a task; everyone expects it to be pithy, apposite and catchy. Let us hope that this is the truth of the title “Investigator”. It was chosen for two reasons: one, because of its connections with Matthew Flinders who was the first European to view, if from some distance, the area where Geelong stands; two, because it indicates the function of the magazine and the Geelong Historical Society namely to investigate the past and record the truth of an earlier age.
Any magazine will only be as good as its contributors make it, and here I would like to point out that the editor’s task is to edit not to write the articles for the magazine.
I would like to see every member of the society contribute an article at least once a year; in this way there’ll be no difficulty in bringing out four issues per year (present only planned).
Some of you may be diffident either about your ability to write or about your historical knowledge. With regard to the former I reiterate that the editor’s job is to edit so that any blemishes of style, arrangement or grammar you may make will be removed before publication.
In the latter case I would refer you to the article by Mr Jacobs in this issue; this was the result of a few hours reading of old numbers of the “Geelong Advertiser” in which the facts of history they ready to be gleaned. What Mr. Jacobs has done for the year 1900 any member could do for other years. Or specific topic could be followed through several years, e.g. entertainment or transport or industry or education. There are plenty of subjects to be developed and a ready source of information. So let us have a steady flow of contributions.
And so we present this magazine in the hope that it will meet your approval and will serve a useful purpose not only for the Geelong Historical Society in particular but also the community of Geelong as a whole.
Ian Wynd – September 1965
