By Jesse Graham
STORIES from Coldstream’s past and present are being broadcast around the world, with a new YouTube channel launched to put the town on the map.
Coldstream Stories, a channel featuring videos of Coldstream residents young and old, was officially launched at the Coldstream Community Centre, on Friday 25 November.
The channel is an off-shoot of the Melba Group project, a part of the township group, Coldstream Voice, working to establish a pathway between the Melba Estate and Coldstream proper.
The pathway will be complete with resting places – called “pearls” – that feature artworks or special attractions, and storyteller Simon Oats said that’s where the channel comes in.
Mr Oats, a professional storyteller, was approached by the Melba Group to run story-telling workshops with Coldstream Primary School students as part of the project.
He said the channel features videos of the town’s residents, telling stories of their experiences in Coldstream, whether it be growing up decades ago, or experiencing childhood there now.
“The basic idea behind it was there are certain kind of stories in the Coldstream community that are a bit negative – particularly, you find, among the younger folk,” Mr Oats said.
“There’s this idea that Coldstream is somewhere that people pass through, it’s not someplace that others value.
“So the impulse was to gather a body of stories about the fabulous local stories about Coldstream, all the beautiful things that are there and the wonderful community that exists.”
Mr Oats said the interviews have varied from visiting the homes of iconic residents, such as Les Skate and Ken Peel, and interviewing them about their lives, to “videobooths” set up in areas, such as the football club, where people can come and tell their own story.
Local filmmaker, Chris Howell, used his camera equipment to film the interviews.
One of Mr Peel’s stories is about when the town’s hall burnt down decades ago – he said because the fire brigade involved people having water tanks on their car, the hall was gone by the time they arrived.
Though the remains were hosed down, Mr Peel said the leftover wood needed to be burnt anyway, so the townsfolk gathered on the weekend to pull the charred wood together in a pile.
Mr Oats said one new story would be released every week over coming months, and that residents and watchers could subscribe and be notified of the next story going online.
“Essentially, what I’ve been pulling out of those interviews are little one-to-three minute stories, little anecdotes that capture something quirky or something interesting about the experience of living in Coldstream,” he said.
“It wasn’t a project to try and gather history, or to try and release and extensive interview – the idea is to take some interviews from local personalities, and tell their stories.
“My hope is that the YouTube channel will inspire other members of the community to start to interact and engage with it, and start to upload their own material, which can be curated – ultimately, my hope is that … it takes a life of its own.”
The end goal, according to Melba Group president Louissa Tickner, is to use the stories of locals to inspire the artworks or pieces for the pearls along the path to the Melba Estate, to ensure they fit the area and its people.
For more information, visit YouTube.com and search Coldstream Stories.
