• PHOTO: Coonamble District Archives Committee representative and Family History Society member Pauline Ditchfield with sporting legend Liz Ellis as she uncovers her Coonamble connections. PHOTO: SBS Network
COONAMBLE featured on national television last Tuesday 2 August on the SBS network’s ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ in an episode starring netball legend Liz Ellis as she traced her family’s pastoral past.
Local involvement with the program began in August 2021, when program researchers contacted Coonamble Shire Council for assistance with finding information on the Rigney family, and members of the Coonamble Family History Society and Coonamble District Archives stepped up to help.
Liz Ellis was following the trail of her mother’s grandmother, Mary Jane Rigney, who had a reputation as “the granny who was cruel to her grandchildren” to find out what had made her that way and also to explore Liz’s own “affinity with big wide open spaces”.
Despite being hamstrung by the need to keep the program’s interest quiet, local volunteers were able to supply some information and copies of documents to the team at SBS.
“We gave them as much as we had,” said Family History Society member Vicky Fulmer. “They obviously did a lot of their own research.”
“We didn’t know the storyline, so we just sent what we could find including things about the Rigney family’s connection to Herrman’s Store that didn’t appear in the show.”
Ms Fulmer also said that a family story that Mary Jane Rigney had entered the Brigidine Convent as a nun continues to remain a mystery.
“It’s not clear whether she was in the convent because we couldn’t find anything,” she said.
After tracing the Rigney family’s move from Penrith to the Liverpool Plains, the program shifted to Coonamble, with Mary Jane’s story unfolding along the way.
The Rigney’s arrived in the district in 1879 after purchasing the property Magomadine south east of Coonamble and the TV program chronicled some of the highlights and lowlights for Mary Jane, through to the birth of her daughter (Ms Ellis’ grandmother) Bridie O’Donnell in April 1914 and their departure from the area a few years later.
With COVID constraining the normal flow of filming, Liz Ellis and the film crew made it to Coonamble in early December 2021, during one of the wettest harvests on local record.
Archives Committee member Pauline Ditchfield was invited to help tell the Rigney’s story on camera.
“We’d had all that rain and everyone was trying to go on with the harvest,” she said. “They had hoped to get onto one of the properties but couldn’t do that because the Magomadine Creek was up and all the paddocks were so wet.”
“The filming was to be inside the Catholic Church but there was a funeral on that day so we started early at about 6.15 in the morning and filmed outside the church. We were still filming when the hearse pulled up.”
“We had to do two takes of the whole proceedings but we got there,” Mrs Ditchfield said.
“It was a most interesting experience, getting to see how they piece it all together.”
“I’m an avid fan of the show and I thought Coonamble looked good, it was great to have water in the river.”
“I enjoyed meeting Liz Ellis,” she said. “She was very easy to relate to and I thought it was quite a privilege.”
Former Local Heritage Adviser for Coonamble Shire Ray Christison was also asked to be involved and appeared in the program chatting to Liz on the verandah of the Coonamble Museum.
“It was really nice to be a part of it,” Mr Christison said.
“Liz Ellis is a genuinely nice person and in a lot of ways that program is a celebration of Australian history.”
“We’re actually learning about our own country. I was impressed at how well researched it was.”
“It was a great story of the Rigneys, from a small farm on the Hawkesbury to the Liverpool Plains and then Coonamble.”
“One of the nice things was helping Liz getting her head around the family leaving those areas and coming out here. It was nice to explain that there were so many more opportunities out at Coonamble.”
If you missed the airing on 2 August, the program is still available to watch on SBS On Demand.