The Mareeba Historical Society

The Mareeba Historical Society
Member Profile

~~ Mr Gerry Collins~~

By Mr John Hay

On Wednesday 21st of December 2005

Gerry Collins is currently Vice President. He moved to Mareeba from Kuranda in 1988 having worked in the trucking industry since 1957. Gerry retired in 1996, and with no prior interest in the concept of preserving history, joined the Mareeba Historical Society in 1999.

Q: How did you come to join up?

A: It's funny the way it happened. Because I became interested in finding out about my family, I had joined the Family History Society here in Mareeba. We would have one monthly meeting at the Heritage Centre in Mareeba and the next at the Mormon Church in Atherton. I was talking to a member one day and she told me there was no use going to Atherton as they were having a meeting on the coming Thursday at the QCWA Rooms in Byrnes Street.
So down I went and I didn't know anyone there. This bloke Bunny says to me, 'Can we help you? Are you lost?' When he explained what it was, that it wasn't a Family History meeting at all, I thought okay and I stayed.

Q: What made you come to the next meeting?

A: Even though I had nothing to do with the history of the Mareeba Shire, I liked hearing the old stories from everybody else. I started looking forward to the meetings.

Q: What did you think of the early meetings, say at Lyons Street?

A: They became more interesting and I started to get involved. Sometimes I'd offside for Helen.

Q: Tell me how you became Vice President.

A: The true story? We were halfway down the Kuranda Range on our way to Cairns for a meeting when Helen suddenly suggested I should be Vice President of the society. 'Yes, that's a good idea,' she said, and from that day on I was!
I ended up involving myself with most of the activities: field trips, writing book reviews for Memories, attending the Writers' Forum meetings, or cleaning up various cemeteries. I always say I'm doing someone else out of a job.

Q: What's the best thing about meetings?

A: Just being there for a start. That whip around at the end of meetings is great. Everyone gets to have a say. As long as you can contribute you become involved. I still do the recordings for deaths, births and marriages. I get the newspaper every day and go through all the notices.

Q: What about the new building?

A: Improvement in leaps and bounds. If someone went to a meeting at the old place, crammed little room with a few books and things tucked away in some draws somewhere, and then come here … you couldn't compare. And then there's the little things like working together and seeing familiar faces. That's what makes it worthwhile!