2026 History Symposium Exhibition

Their previous exhibition was the Dead Merch Fair history exhibit.

Panel 61

Members and guests on the 1980s: Long-standing Buffalo Club members, including Russell Oldham (who passed away in 2025).

BUFF2026-7: Six brown photo albums (c. 1980). A forklift can be seen exiting the main door onto High Street, presumably having just delivered the new fridge.
BUFF2024-7: General Correspondence 1956-67 (c. 1960). Beer keg sizes and weights, as provided by the Swan Brewery in 1961. 240 pounds is about 109 kilograms.
BUFF2026-7: Six brown photo albums (c. 1980). George Pincetich, life member of the Buffalo Club, standing at the newly-constructed bar and fridge.
BUFF2026-7: Six brown photo albums (c. 1980). People in the main bar room, prior to the installation of the new bar.

Charles “Curley” Molyneux (1882 – 1953). Member of the Royal Order of the Antediluvian Buffalos. Known for visiting patients at Fremantle Hospital for more than 30 years. On average he visited the hospital at least 3 times a week. In honour of his his services a plaque and drinking fountain was erected a the hospital in 1949. In 1952 he was awarded the Order of the British Empire – Member (Civil) for his service to the community in Western Australia
Top left: Curley in his ROAB regalia, photo ca. 1940
Top right: Curley with Fremantle Hospital Nurses, Captain Pitt – Seafarers Mission, Mr. Hunt – Fremantle Hospital, photo 1951
Bottom left: Excerpt from the Curley Molyneux Fountain Booklet, 1949
Mid, bottom right: Memorial brass plaque, 1949 (courtesy of Fremantle Hospital museum).

Parliamentary letters: John T. Tonkin was Premier of Western Australia from 1971 to 1974 and was the Member for Melville from the early 1960s. A look over the members' list of the Fremantle Buffalo Club suggests that many members lived in Tokin’s electorate, and accordingly, it appears he wanted to be on the good side of the Fremantle Buffalo Club. Seen again, on panel 58, the correspondence suggests he was instrumental in transforming the Buffalo Club from a company with shareholders to a not-for-profit social club in 1962 via a private members' bill. Saving the Club from one of its many near-ruins.
Committee Business: BUFF2024-7 contains an endless stream of letters by F.S. Maybank, Secretary of the Club and a key figure during the 1960s. He appears to have collaborated with parliamentary members to get the Club converted from a joint-stock company to a members-based organisation.
Absent Brothers’ Toast: Lodge members recite this toast at regular meetings.

Committee business: The archives contain many letters detailing members behaviour (generally the misbehaviour, although exemplary conduct also gets mentioned).

BUFF2024-7-260: Maybank to D.J. Young re poor behaviour at the Buffalo Club (1966 November 14 Mon). Letter from the Buffalo Club to D.J. Young, warning him (not for the first time) against his "antagonism and hostility" and the fact that he and his friends had put their "feet on the walls".
Letter from John Tonkin (MLA for Melville), responding to an invitation to attend Decoration Day in 1961.
Bank of New South Wales cheque, made out for £5/0/0, to R. Reid on 17 June 1960. File:IMG 6443.JPEG.

BUFF2024-7-117: Letter from the Newcastle Club Hotel's Ladies' Darts Club (1959 December 2 Wed). Letter of appreciation to the Secretary of the Fremantle Buffalo Club, for a function held on the 28 November 1959 from the Newcastle Club Hotel's ladies' darts team.
BUFF2026-8: Portrait of R.S. Haynes (1888). Richard Septimus Haynes KC (14 August 1857 – 20 February 1922) was president of the West Australian Buffalo Club when it was founded in 1919. He was a barrister and also a member of the Legislative Council of Western Australia from 1896 to 1902.
BUFF2024-6-2: D.G. Apps' exhaltation (pamphlet, 1974) (1974). Brother David George Apps joined the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes in 1962, under the Grand Australasian Banner.
BUFF2024-6-4: Ritual of the RAOB (c. 1960). This page shows an initiation ceremony from about 1960. The reference to 'weeds' is to tobacco.

{[cite item|BUFF2024-7-19}} Three TV and Radio Licenses (1961–62): Two examples of Television Viewer's Licenses and one of a Broadcast Listener's Licence, dating from 1961 and 1962. The licence holder was E.S. Holland, secretary of the Buffalo Club. The licences cost £5, which was equal to about $185 in 2026. The licenses are dated 1961-08-30, 1961-03-15, and 1962-03-15. TV licences in Australia were introduced in 1956, and abolished in 1974 by the Whitlam Government.

Directory of Buffalo Lodges around the world: List of lodges under the Grand Lodge of England banner. 1968.
Letter to Buffalo Club from Wally Christensen of the HMAS Quickmatch Buffalo lodge (1961 April 29 Sat) [BUFF2024-7-160]
GCA Lodges of Western Australia: From a 1948 Buffalo Gazette. [SRO1949-0057-7]

BUFF2024-6-3: Fremantle Buffalo Club Articles of Association (1940 June 23 Sun). Prior to the Buffalo Club Act of 1964, the Club and RAOB lodges operated as a company. This is the first page of the Memorandum and Articles of Association from 1940.
BUFF2024-7-2: Hat-wearing and Suansson membership (c. 1967). Hat-wearing inside the club was a contentious topic in the 1960s.
BUFF2024-7-127: Paraplegic Association letter re donation box (1967 August 28 Mon). An example of the club's support of charity work. It is not known how much money was raised.
BUFF2024-6-6: D.G. Apps' Primo certification (1968 May 17 Fri). David George Apps was inducted to the Ocean View Lodge in the town of Penguin on the north coast of Tasmania. This is an example of some of the wide range of RAOB material that ends up being donated to and preserved in the Fremantle Buffalo Club archives.

BUFF2026-9: Map of RAOB Lodges in Western Australia (March 2026) Map of locations of Buffalo lodges in Western Australia. See also the list of Buffalo lodges in Western Australia.