Childers residents look forward to opening a time capsule from 1970 which marks the 200th anniversary of Captain Cook’s journey to Australia.
The capsule will be retrieved and opened in August this year, 50 years after it was originally buried.
Interred in Clock Tower Park beneath a concrete cairn with a sundial on top, the cairn and capsule were relocated in 2001 when the park was upgraded by Isis Shire Council and renamed Millennium Park.
Deputy Mayor Bill Trevor said the redevelopment of the park was essential to cater to more modern community facilities.
“The old toilets had more than reached their ‘use by’ date and the Council of the day saw the new millennium as an opportunity to undertake the upgrade and place a lasting legacy commemorating the year 2000,” he said.
“We were very mindful of the need to relocate the Bicentenary Time Capsule. It was moved to a garden adjacent to the National Australia Bank building.”
Time capsules popular at schools
Time capsules are quite common in the Childers area with the Isis High School and Childers and Cordalba State Schools all having time capsules.
In fact, Cordalba State School has two. One was buried in 1994 and will be opened in 2044 on the school’s 150th anniversary.
A second capsule, also to be opened in 2044 was buried at the school’s 125th anniversary last year.
Among time capsules with a more international flavour is the one buried in Italy at the site of the Bert Hinkler memorial on Mount Pratomagno.
It is placed at the base of a basalt boulder shipped from Mon Repos beach as a centrepiece to the memorial.
A letter from former Bundaberg Mayor Mal Forman plus original nails and roofing slate from Hinkler’s English home are among the items enclosed in the capsule.
It would seem material locked in time capsules can survive intact if the items recovered from an East State School capsule in 2011 is any indication. The capsule had survived floods during it 25 years underground.
Recovered in October 2011 at the school’s 125th anniversary, the contents were intact and bone dry.
Some capsules buried for 100 years
Other time capsule locations and time lines include:
- Cordalba State School has two capsules scheduled to be opened at the school’s 150th anniversary in 2044.
- Childers State School has a centenary time capsule placed on March 18, 1989 and scheduled to be opened 100 years later in 2089.
- Jaycees Park in Maynard Street is the location of a time capsule buried by the then Bundaberg Jaycees in October 1967. It is scheduled to be opened in 2067, 100 years after placement.
- St Joseph’s School Childers placed a 50-year time capsule in 1998 and it is scheduled to be opened in 2048.
Anyone with any additional information in relation to time capsules buried across the Bundaberg Region is invited to share the information with Bundaberg Now.
