Official Opening

The Mareeba Heritage Centre Incorporated is pleased to announce that the Mareeba & Dimbulah Bendigo Community Bank Tobacco Display will be opened to the general public as from mid-day on Australia Day, Thursday, 26 January, 2012.

The Mareeba & Dimbulah Bendigo Community Bank Tobacco Display will be opened on the morning of 26 January by Mick Borzi, with other guest speakers, Chair of Mareeba & Dimbulah Financial Services, Gilbert Teitzel, and Mareeba Heritage Centre Volunteers Mary Thompson and Patrick Mason.

The Tobacco Display at the Mareeba Heritage Museum has been five years in the making by the Mareeba Heritage Centre volunteers with cash gift donations, time and materials contributed by many outside national and local businesses, organisations, community groups and individuals. Major sponsors of the Tobacco Display are Tablelands Regional Council, Mareeba & Dimbulah Bendigo Community Bank and British American Tobacco.

The Museum's Tobacco Display interprets the history of the tobacco growing era from 1930 to 2004 with audio visuals, talking mannequins, story boards, a model of Tinaroo Dam and an interactive display with other display areas depicting the lifestyles of the times.

“This display is very significant to our region as it tells the social and economic story of our community in those times," Chairman of Mareeba Heritage Centre Incorporated, Thomas Braes, said.

"Tinaroo Dam would never have been built without the tobacco growing industry and the need to irrigate the tobacco crops and now the dam provides power and water that has allowed expansion of the north to a greater degree than would have ever been possible without water," he added.

Pictured top: the chop chop machine display and above: the sales floor display.