On Friday afternoon (5 February 2021), Dubbo Regional Council (DRC) and members of the Dubbo community officially unveiled time capsules that were recovered in October last year, after spending 20 years buried in Elizabeth Park, Dubbo.
19 time capsules were buried in the year 2000 and hold items from a number of contributors including the Mayor of the Dubbo Region, Councillor Ben Shields.
The Mayor said he was really excited to unveil the contents, “It was really fun to open the time capsule and find items from my first Council election campaign, an old driver’s license, a Dubbo tourism guide from the time, and a letter I wrote to myself as the youngest Councillor in the NSW Local Government,” said Councillor Shields.
“ It was my very first official event as an 18 year old councillor, I was asked to stand in for Mayor at the time Gerry Peacock, and now 20 years’ on, here I am revealing mementos from the past.”
The time capsules were designed by a group of Year 11 students from South High and Delroy High School in 1999 and dubbed the Millennium Bugs. The group of students volunteered to participate in an extracurricular schools business program called ‘Young Achievement Australia”. The Young Achievement Australia program encouraged local businesses to mentor the students to develop their own business, and so the Millennium Bugs were born. Students sold the capsules to local groups such as Dubbo Rotary, Dubbo City Times and local families form the area.
Local man Peter Heywood was very pleased with what he found in the Heywood family capsule. “ The biggest surprise was finding a pristine wad of $1 notes intact and in serial number order, unfortunately a printed copy of the family tree that was also in the capsule was damp,” said Mr Heywod.
Due to the depth the capsules were buried several suffered water damage, however it was a wonderful afternoon digging through the past. The attendees enjoyed a nice afternoon under the shade of the trees while they admired the collection of items from the year 2000.
The activity was a timely reminder of how far we have come, and how much our regional community has flourished over the past two decades. Here’s to the future!
Source: DRC