A state premier, footballer, jockey, boxer, Logie award winner and mathematician are some of the people celebrated in the Icons of Port Fairy exhibition.
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Memorabilia and local family heirlooms will be showcased as part of the exhibition, which opens to the public on Saturday and runs for two weeks.
Port Fairy Historical Society president Judith Kershaw said there were photos and memorabilia from former Essendon footballer and coach John Coleman and Melbourne Cup winning jockey and trainer Pat Hyland.
There is also items of a highly-decorated Brigadier and a world authority on orchids.
“There’s well known Australians who have been born in Port Fairy or spent a substantial amount of their life here in Port Fairy,” Mrs Kershaw said. “It grew and grew. It steam rolled and developed a life of its own.”
She said items from the former Glaxo factory which opened in 1919 and was an important employer and had its own sports club, are also on display. A Hall of Fame award from the internationally-renowned Port Fairy Folk Festival is another piece.
Other items include running shoes, boxing gloves, a silver Rutley dinner set and a matching candelabra which was borrowed from the Warnambool Art Gallery.
“It's spread across a fairly broad wide range of things. It’s amazing what some people do have.”
Member and researcher Richard Patterson said a small book, also titled Icons of Port Fairy, which would feature details of many of the exhibits, would also be launched. "It became clear that many residents, in particular, believe that there is little about the town's history that they do not already know,” he said.
"And yet we have unearthed some really eminent Australians who were born in the town but of whom most residents have never heard. We have also been able to borrow a number of artefacts that are normally held in private collections or museums and which also hold considerable local interest.”
It’s on at the Historical Society in Gipps St from 10am to 12pm and 2pm to 4pm every day of the school holidays.