Kicking off with research into Taree Municipal Council, volunteers have worked tirelessly to transcribe 46 years of rate books dating back to 1885, and will continue to add to this as they finish each book. This hard work will allow locals to trace the history of their house and enable people to search by name or location to find out how our town developed.

Penny Teerman is one of the six volunteers who worked on the project and found the information very interesting. “We found the regular family names associated with early Taree settlement with Whitbread, Fotheringham, Saxby, Wynter and Flett being landowners, but there were so many other interesting facts in these books,” said Penny. 

“We saw how businesses changed with the times from servicing horse drawn carts, then onto rail and cars. The layout of the town also grew as more lots were added and creeks were piped.  Even road names changed, making it hard to know where the property was and of course the value of the land increased over time,” added Penny.

Making this information readily available to locals has been made possible thanks to six volunteers clocking up over 1000 hours over the last two years. They say their greatest challenge has been interpreting the handwriting, with time spent mulling over the spelling of a name. This is why they’ve developed a feedback form, so people can let them know if they recognise a name and the spelling is incorrect.

Once the Taree Municipal Council is complete, the team will then move onto Wingham Municipal Council. The latest information can be found by visiting the Manning Valley section of MidCoast Council’s website at www.midcoast.nsw.gov.au and searching ‘Historic rate books’.

This dedicated team of volunteers are always on the lookout for people to assist, so if you are interested in volunteering to transcribe these books, please send an email to council@midcoast.nsw.gov.au.