We are all in debt to Paula for producing our fine Gazette. I certainly appreciate the space she has given me in these pages. And it is paying off as far as I am concerned. I am getting increasing feedback from local residents who actually remember much of the history that I am trying to collect. Gary Ross arranged for me to spend time with his 92 year old father Cyril who, with very few exceptions, remembers everything and every one in the district since 1917 or shortly after.
I have finally approached the Richmond River Historical Society proposing that I collaborate with them to publish a new history of Dunoon. Many people have already contributed to the work. I am relying heavily on the Dunoon Story produced in 1971 by Mr and Mrs Ian Johnston of Ballina. Before they retired, they ran the General Store in Dunoon and they are buried in Dunoon. I have never seen a copy of that original booklet, but I am grateful to Bronwyn Henderson and the committee of the Preschool who reprinted the booklet in 1982. There is some wonderful research in the booklet produced by May McKay and pupils of the school in 1984 to mark the centenary of the School. I am so pleased that 25 years later, the school has reprinted that booklet with an update, thanks again to Bronwyn. I also have a copy of the booklet produced in 1972 to mark the 50th anniversary of the opening of the school at its current site. That is very much centred on the school. Ian Murray is finding some wonderful material in the Northern Star as he continues to produce an index.
I have also relied heavily on public records. The titles office contains a tremendous amount of history but access is inconvenient. I have also discovered a goldmine in the index of Births Deaths and Marriages on the web. Births prior to 1908 are available. I have discovered that our first storekeeper Friedman was recorded as Isaac at birth in1870 and at his marriage to Jeanette Harris in 1904. When the births of their children Clive and Ellis were registered in 1905 and 1908 he was recorded as Alfred. His brother Rudolph (born 1882 and known as Rue) was also in business in Dunoon. He ran a drapery store in Dunoon and moved to the Channon when Alfred’s family moved there.
But such records require care. I had printed out the death record of Charlotte James, wife of James Edgar (Jimmy Jimmy). I had also printed out the marriage record of their daughter Charlotte. One day I confused those two pieces of paper and wrote that young Charlotte married George Beddoes in 1886. Both sisters, Jessie and Charlotte married in 1899. When I discovered this mistake I was confident that I had corrected it but obviously it got through to the pages of the Gazette. I need help to avoid such gaffs. Anyone willing to wade through some of what I have written is more than welcome. So far the draft of the text for the book is more than eighteen thousand words including end notes. I suspect I have often repeated myself and I need a critic or two to keep me on track.
There was another error in my last article. The young people shown in the James family group were not the eldest. There were three older siblings. The Historical Society now has a full set of our Dunoon Gazette.  It is has already been used to answer enquiries from overseas. I trust that these errors of mine have not been repeated.
Denis Matthews