Our People
12 May, 2026
Remembering Beaufort’s first jobs
BEAUFORT Historical Society is inviting the community to share memories of their early working lives in Beaufort as part of this year’s Australian Heritage Festival. The group will host a panel discussion of ‘My First Job’ at the Beaufort Community Resource Centre from 10.30am on Thursday, May 21st.
Society president Elizabeth Thurgood said personal stories helped make local history more meaningful.
“We have a whole library of written records. Real people make it so much more relevant and exciting, history is only yesterday.”
The event will highlight the wide variety of industries that once operated in the district.
“It’s interesting that there was so much employment here. There was a lot of local jobs, we had a huge number of people here working on the railway, on the PMG, farming,” she said.
“Everybody started with something,”
The society is also hoping the event will help preserve details of Beaufort’s employment history.
“I’m hoping that we will get a bit of a record of who worked where, so we can get some timelines going.
Ms Thurgood is encouraging anyone who’s early careers began in Beaufort to come along and tell their story.
“Like any small community we had specialities. We will have some people who worked at Wotherspoon’s, which was the store that stretched half the length of Neill Street. There are people here that will remember.”
Ms Thurgood explained that the society are eager to hear about the day to day operations of businesses like Lyco and the knitting mill, both major employers in Beaufort.
“We had a factory here, a knitting mill that mostly employed women,” she said.
“We don’t seem to at this stage have a figure of when the knitting mill closed. We know it closed, if we can get dates and how many people worked there that will help fill in the gaps.”
With records showing as many as 111 people working at the Lyco site in 1989, Ms Thurgood said it grew too big for Beaufort and went to Ballarat.
“It made wool presses and fleece tables and things for the wool industry, that was sent all over Australia.
Ms Thurgood said the event was not only about sharing memories, but also preserving an important part of Beaufort’s history, encouraging everyone to get involved to flesh out the wider picture of who, and what built Beaufort.
People interested in attending can register by calling 5349 1180.
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