Time Capsule in Box. 1847 - 2047

Attached plaque:

1847 - 2047. Coffs Harbour City Council Time Capsule covers the whole Local Government Area. "The Way We Were".

A gift to the future populace 2047 from 2011. We hand you the baton. Take care of it, rejoice that we created this record for your knowledge, in turn, pay it forward. "Those who cannot remember their past, are doomed to repeat it". George Dantayana 1905 NOT TO BE OPENED UNTIL 2047.

Box made by local woodworker, Neil Scobie. Information collected from the community by Nan Cowling.

The Red Cedar in the box was obtained from 2 sources. The legs and frame were donated by Don Bruce who was Neil Scobie's first Head Teacher in Industrial Arts at Coffs Harbour High School in 1978. Don had collected his red cedar from the Taree area in the early 1970's. The panels were milled from a Red Cedar tree from the Boambee Valley about 2002. The box was finished with a hand rubbed non-toxic oil.

INSCRIBED with the words "a gift to the future populace 2047 from 2011", the Coffs Harbour Time Capsule project was launched yesterday at the Bunker Cartoon Gallery.

Project manager Nan Cowling said the idea to preserve the cultural heritage of Coffs Harbour began in August in talks about the city's Sesquicentennial celebrations.

The time capsule is still taking contributions for another year, before being locked and permanently placed in the Bunker Cartoon Gallery until 2047 - the bicentenary of Captain John Korff's naming of the area.

Already more than 200 people have contributed newspaper clippings, photographs, books and historic documents to the project, with local man Neil Scobie contributing the vessel.

The local woodworker designed and built a chest as the time capsule vessel, made from red cedar timber from the Wingham and Boambee Valley.

BCU have agreed to hold the key to the chest once it is locked, with both hard copies of the information and USB sticks to be included in the capsule.

14 December 2011 [available online via the State Library of New South Wales with a local library card, and Newsbank].