A COURSE in digitising the region’s history has attracted plenty of interest – and prompted questions about local landmarks.
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Bega Adult Education has been running a free course targeted at seniors wanting to learn new computer skills and be involved in recording the Bega Valley’s history.
Lyn Ryan is one of the participants in the course, which wraps up on Tuesday.
She got in contact with the Bega District News hoping readers could help with a question arising from her research project.
“I live out on Black Range and am interested in how it got its name,” Ms Ryan said.
“I have an old piece of machinery and was told the area was an old sawmill, but I’d love to find out more information and track down where the name has come from.”
Ms Ryan said she has three possibilities she has been trying to verify through the Adult Ed course, and now hopefully through the BDN.
“Many years ago when I contacted the Bega Pioneers Museum with this question, Jack Burgess said it was named after John Marshall Black, who had many acres of land along the range as well as his Ayrdale property.
“Or maybe it was named after the colour black as it looked blacker than the surrounding hills.”
Ms Ryan said a third, less-politically correct option she had heard about was that it was named after the “blacks” who camped there and had trails and sacred sites along the ridge.
“I’ve done a lot of research using Trove and the Bega library catalogues.
“I’ve hassled Sandra [Florance at the Pioneers Museum], but there are still no definitive answers.
I would be very interested in having contact with people who have family stories, photos or memories of this area south of Bega.”
Anyone with information that could help Lyn Ryan’s research can email her at upsondowns88@gmail.com.