Over the past 20 years the CCT has been closely involved with a number of community projects – each one with the purpose of uniting our community, preserving our past and building new pathways for future generations.
2019 – 2021
In 2019 Collinsville celebrated 100 years of mining. Alongside several community initiatives to capture the past, the CCT released a coffee-table style book called “Our Stories Unearthed”. The book details each decade of Collinsville’s history with features covering major events such as the Stay Down Strike, 1954 Mine Disaster and Brisbane Convoy. The books accompanied by a website: ourstoriesunearthed.com.au
The success of the first book allowed the creation of a second volume “A Miner’s Best Friend”. This book focused on the history and stories of the Collinsville Pit Ponies and the creation of the Pit Pony Experience in the town. The book was released on the 30 year anniversary of the retirement of Australia’s last two working pit ponies, Wharrier & Mr Ed.
In 2021 a third volume was released to celebrate 100 Years of the Collinsville State School. “Nolite Dedere – Never Give In” detailed every decade of the school’s history from the days of a bag humpy classroom and through numerous class photos that every local adored.
2015
Pit Pony Experience
In February 2015 the CCT launched a crowdfunding project to raise funds to construct a memorial for our beloved pit ponies. Over 60 days the community rallied and raised a staggering $190,000! Famous artists Gillie & Marc assisted the project by sculpting the pit pony for the cost of materials alone. The result was a lifesize majestic bronze statue modelled from our very own Wharrier & Mr Ed, Collinsville’s last two working Pit Ponies.
The project was unveiled in November 2015, and included a memorial wall with the names of all of our donators, an app for visitors to learn more and three Pit Pony murals / selfie walls throughout the town.
Memoirs Online
When the CCT first opened we were swamped by locals wanting to preserve their photos by digitising them. These images formed the very first version of Memoirs – a CD-ROM and small booklet capturing Collinsville’s photos, past and present.
As Internet speeds improved and our collection grew we shifted Memoirs online. Today the digital archive has over 12,000 images of Collinsville annotated by our team of volunteers and locals. You can search the database here.
While Memoirs Online will continue, we are currently shifting the best images over to our new site Our Stories Unearthed. Stay tuned for more!
Collinsville Online
In the early days of the CCT we quickly realised many of our small businesses didn’t have an online presence. In order for Collinsville businesses to be found online the CCT added an entire business directory to our website. Over the years the CCT website has grown and we have added businesses, experiences and all we love about Collinsville. Discover Collinsville is the latest version and we hope you find it useful!
