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Shire of Williams history captured in book written by local resident Heather Rose

Isabel VieiraNarrogin Observer
Heather Rose and Shire of Williams CEO Geoff McKeown.
Camera IconHeather Rose and Shire of Williams CEO Geoff McKeown. Credit: Shire of Williams

To mark the Shire of Williams 150th anniversary local resident Heather Rose embarked on a journey to turn the shire’s history into a book.

The shire marked the milestone with a community celebration and book launch of Shire of Williams 1871 to 2021 at the Town Hall Park on December 12.

Ms Rose, the author of the book, is an active member of the community and was one of the original proprietors of the Williams Woolshed.

She said the shire approached her more than a year ago to see if she would be interested in compiling 150 years of history.

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“I was asked by the shire but that’s probably because I have written a few pieces for tourism in the town and about the history of our local area,” she said.

“I’ve got an interest in history . . . and I’ve accumulated quite a lot of information over the years.”

Ms Rose got to work gathering information and photographs from the library and newspapers and by interviewing local residents.

“I began with the shire and its development from basically when they were in charge of roads to the complexity of what the shire is involved in today,” she said.

“I really enjoyed that journey of getting to know the depth of the history and the people involved.

“You get to know the people, what was going on in your town and what brought upon the changes over the years.”

Ms Rose said the history of the diseases that spread through the town was something that stood out to her during her research.

“For example in the 1920s diphtheria was in the town and I imagine it would have been the same throughout the State or even Australia,” she said.

“Nearly every family in town had diphtheria and one family lost four children.

“Then you had other diseases like the whooping cough.

“There was one lady in particular who said it was the most terrible thing watching her baby die of whooping cough.”

Ms Rose said these stories of disease brought the COVID-19 pandemic to mind.

“This isn’t the first time we have gone through this,” she said.

“We will absolutely prevail through this one as well.”

Ms Rose said she was surprised to learn about the history of the name of Williams.

“The town is thought to be named after King William IV of England,” she said,

“And the King George Sound in Albany was named after his father.

“So I decided to look up William IV and his story was very colourful. I’ve added it as an entry at the end of the book.”

Ms Rose said she planned to continue writing about the history of the shire.

“I really enjoyed the journey over the 12 months of writing,” she said.

“It was a learning journey too, I learnt a lot about what I could do in the future to record even more of our history.”

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