This building was purchased in 1985 by the fledgling 2BOB Radio. The purchase price was $2,000 with a small annual lease payment to NSW Department of Lands. In 2018 2BOB still occupies the site.1 However, the building has had other, unrelated, uses.
In 1949 Miss Gertrude Richardson was Mayor of Taree Municipal Council and a staunch supporter of community aspirations for the erection of a Day Nursery in Taree.2 The idea was to provide both permanent and casual places for children in the three and four year age group.3 Taree Park was the chosen location.
At this time, the Manning River District Hospital was being remodelled and a timber building, originally constructed as a ward for Aboriginal patients,4 needed to be removed from the grounds.5 In memory of his daughter, Dorothy, who had been accidentally killed in July 1949, Mr Albert Hayter, the contractor for the hospital, offered to donate the building to house the Nursery.6
The kind offer was accepted and on 25 November 1950, at the official opening, a plaque was unveiled to this effect.7
Thus a modest timber building, constructed by day labour in 1933 as an initiative to aid the unemployed, survives to this day in Taree Park.8
Author: Penny Teerman
References:
1 http://www.2bobradio.org.au/2bob-history.html
2 Manning River Times Saturday 28 May 1949 Pg 6
3 Manning River Times Wednesday 16 November 1949 Pg 1
4 Manning River Times Wednesday 15 February 1933 Pg 2
5 Manning River Times Saturday 26 November 1949 Pg 8
6 Northern Champion Wednesday 29 November 1950 Pg 1
7 Ibid
8 Construction and Real Estate Journal Wednesday 25 January 1933 Pg 4
