Despite a rolling stone-like existence in its first 50 years, a lack of money and the best efforts of thieves, the future now looks rock solid for the Albury Lapidary Club. Its membership is a healthy blend of the experience of some of its founding members and young people with a lively interest in precious stones. So now it’s time to celebrate those its trials and triumphs with the public. That will take place next weekend at the club’s Eames Street headquarters when there will be a sparkling demonstration of the intricate skills involved in the craft.
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BILL Stirlings’s eyes lit up when he walked into the Albury Lapidary Club this week, ahead of its 50th anniversary next Saturday.
The Albury 90-year-old, a founding member of the club, was delighted there were junior members getting hands-on with semi-precious stones.
“I can see a lot has changed,” Mr Stirling said. “It’s great to have the young ones interested.”
Back when he was a member, the hobby was purely for adults.
Indeed, it was against the law for children under the age of 12 to operate the machinery.
That changed after Albury president David Barrows and his wife, Joan, the club’s publicity officer, started a push about 12 years ago to get youth involved.
“We need children to come through so we can pass on the skills,” Mrs Barrows said. “We have 12 junior members who come to the clubhouse every Monday after school.”
It wasn’t the only thing the couple fought for.
The club looked like being without a venue after its North Street premises was demolished for the freeway project.
Members formed a subcommittee and battled to get Albury Council on side.
In 2004, the council agreed to provide the land for new headquarters in Eames Street, off North Street.
The club’s beginnings go back to 1964 when the first meeting was held at Albury High School that October.
About 70 people answered an advertisement about starting a club.
The old Jindera store was the new club’s first home but the building was soon sold to the Jindera Museum and the club moved to a cellar in Wilson Street, Albury.
Resources were few and members took their own chairs to meetings and relied on donated necessities such as cups and cleaning tools.
“It’s great to think how far we have come from needing chairs to what we have now,” Mrs Barrows said.
The lease on the cellar expired four years later, in 1969, prompting another move, this time to a building in the North East Dairy Company on the Lincoln Causeway.
With members sick of a lack of security, they asked the city council for land for a permanent base.
The council granted them land the following year, but not the money for a building.
That left the members with the struggle to raise their own money for a clubhouse.
That is where Val Carrett, 80, another founding member, stepped in.
The Tweed Heads resident reckons she “gave birth to the place” after raising money to build the former North Street shed.
“Basically, we went to every show and event in the area to raise money,” Mrs Carrett said.
“It felt as if I gave birth to the place.”
It took four years to save enough money to start building.
By July 27, 1973, plans for the building were finished but the club’s money woes persisted — members still had to come up with enough cash to build it.
The answer lay in an overdraft.
Members provided the loan collateral by depositing money in the Rural Bank on fixed deposit.
Eventually they were able to retrieve the money when the building was paid off. The club now has 80 members.
They source semi-precious stones locally and on field trips away.
Mrs Carrett said she had many fond memories from her time with other lapidary enthusiasts.
“There was always some practical joke going on,” she said.
“It’s such a great hobby and it takes you to a lot of interesting places around Australia.”
In one of the club’s darkest days, thieves early last year broke in and stole gems valued at $7000 and stone-working tools before their biggest gemkhana — the Victorian Gem Show.
The event, held at the Albury Showgrounds in February, went ahead and was a great success, attracting a crowd of about 3000.
The contents of the club were insured but members had to pay for damage on the jemmied door.
To add further insult to injury, the club was then the target of thieves for the second time in two weeks.
That time they cut through eight locks and stole small, valuable gems valued at $400 and forced the club to fork out for a security system.
But despite the ups and downs, the club is going strong and now members want to celebrate their history with the community next Saturday, from 10am to 4pm, with food and demonstrations at their clubhouse.