Pyramid Hill Historical Society continued the 150th anniversary commemorations of the Burke and Wills expedition on Wednesday 1 September 2010 with an open day at Mount Hope Homestead for local schoolchildren and residents. Camp 11 was near Mt Hope. Read the news reports here or here -

There were approx 250-300 people there on the Wednesday and this included children from Pyramid Hill College, St Patrick’s School Pyramid Hill, St Mary’s School Cohuna, Cohuna Consolidated, Gunbower, Leitchville schools and some of their parents, and residents from Cohuna Village and Pyramid Hostel. We thank the Pyramid Hill pre-school for the catering.

Arthur Young welcomed everyone and asked the Mayor of Loddon Shire, Gavin Holt to open the day. The children of Pyramid College sang songs written by Ken Robertson (Swan Hill) about the Burke & Wills expedition. Three children from the college then presented their speech that won at the Lions Public Speaking contest earlier in the year of Burke and Wills. This was followed by another bracket of songs from St Patricks’ and Pyramid College schools.

Julie Smith from Cohuna told the story and then Arthur called on Jill Millsom (former owner of Mt Hope Station) and Christine Brooke (Councillor of Loddon Shire) to unveil the sign which will be erected at the picnic area below Mt Hope Station gateway.

Burke & Wills Day went well and it was a credit to Arthur and Joyce for all the effort they put into it. It was wonderful to think that we were where Burke and his party were on this day 150 years ago.Thank you to Cliff for the book he wrote - it was a good seller on Sunday at the open day provided by Dr Barker, the owner of Mt Hope Station Homestead.