About Us

News Update

Check out our latest updates from Toganmain.

Season’s Greetings

As the year draws to a close, I want to wish all our Toganmain supporters and volunteers a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year.

A Remarkable Year

It has been an extraordinary year for Toganmain. We held several successful working bees, two open days, and, of course, our 150th celebration. The publicity for these events was outstanding, helping to raise awareness and support our work financially.

Thank You

A heartfelt thank you to everyone for your continued support. I am deeply grateful for all you do – it makes my role easier and our work together inspiring and enjoyable. Laughter, thankfully, is never in short supply.

I wish you a wonderful festive season and hope to see many of you next year. Otherwise, I look forward to hearing from you in one way or another.

Warm regards,

Chris

Volunteers and Heritage Work

Our final working bee, held over the October long weekend, was necessarily small due to the short lead-time for organising. However, we were very fortunate to welcome two new volunteers to the Toganmain team – Greg and Lyndee Owen. Greg and Lyndee run their own building business and have extensive experience working on heritage sites. Greg brought a small crew with him and undertook the restumping of the western side of the shearers’ quarters. As is often the case with anything Toganmain, the work raised more questions than answers, and it took some time to work through the building levels, but they achieved an excellent result.

Toganmain Online Shop

Land and Future Planning

We have also been working on a plan to present to Macquarie and Paraway with the aim of obtaining the land encompassing the wharf, village, and cemetery sites. Our sincere thanks go to Murray, Graham, and Peter for their skill in drafting what is a very compelling and thoughtful proposal. With the Macquarie properties currently operated by Paraway now on the market, we felt it was important to have this plan in place to clearly signal our future goals – to provide a broader visitor experience and to safeguard the extraordinary history of Toganmain.

Looking Ahead to 2026

Our first open days will be held on 28th & 29th March, and we already have a large number of bookings. We are planning working bees on either side of the open days. We have received a quote to restump the north-western side of the woolshed, which is now in a very dilapidated condition. While we had originally hoped to tackle this work ourselves, a recent major storm resulted in the loss of a significant amount of iron and timber from the roof. If the restumping can be completed professionally, it will allow us to focus our volunteer efforts on roof repairs.

At present, we have secured enough funding to cover just over half of the restumping quote and will be seeking grants to fund the remainder. During the working bee, we will also attempt to remove the existing grating, which is in poor condition, to provide easier access for the restumping crew.

Volunteers Needed for Open Days

For the open days, we will need between 25 and 30 volunteers to assist as tour guides. No specialist knowledge is required – we provide handouts and background material – but it is important to have people available to answer questions and to be visibly present on site. Volunteers wear our orange Toganmain hi-vis vests while on duty. The more volunteers we have, the easier it is to create rosters that allow everyone to have a proper break. Attendance at our last open day exceeded expectations, and we were certainly kept busy.

We also need volunteers from Monday 23rd March to help tidy up and prepare the precinct for the Open Days weekend. Additionally, we need helpers for the week following, up until Monday 6th April, including the Easter weekend. During this week, we’ll need lots of hands to remove the grating, shown in the photos above.

All volunteers must have filled in our Volunteer Application form, if you haven’t already done so. Click here to go to this form.

We need all volunteers planning to camp onsite to arrive by Friday, 27th March as it gets very busy on the Saturday and Sunday. To let us know you’re coming to the working bee, click here.