On Sunday 7 June 2026 The Falls Creek Historical Society (FCHS) held its second annual Legend’s Lunch fundraising event at The Frying Pan Inn. What an event and what a community. MC'd superbly by Kerry Lee Dodd, and organised by a committee made up of Bronwyn Wruck from Attunga Lodge, Kerry Lee Dodd, Jess Neale from Traverse Alpine Group and the chair of the FCHS Karen Smyth, the event was a mix of old and new memories.
The talk by Di Shirling about her amazing husband George Shirling was both informative and emotional and the panel discussion with Mark ‘Macca’ Macdonald, Jodi Spice nee Lawther, Lisa Allport nee Spargo and Dougie Zollo gave guests a wonderful insights into growing up in the mountains, ski school and competitive skiing at Falls Creek.
The event is the brain child of Bronwyn Wruck of Attunga Lodge, who was struck by the wealth of memories and history in the room at the 2024 memorial for the incomparable Noleene Lee and wanted to find a way to remember and celebrate the foundation of our wonderful alpine village each year. From that spark of an idea, the Legends Lunch was born and has sold out both years. Bronwyn: you’re a legend for coming up with a brilliant idea and bringing it to life for the community.
The theme for this year's lunch was instructors' uniforms. This gave me the opportunity to riffle through the FCHS storage container for the uniforms within the Society’s archive (which is always fun). Special thanks must go to Falls Creek Ski Lifts for lending the Legends Lunch a number of old uniforms they have in storage and which the Museum does not have. It was Kerry, Bron & Jessie’s idea for the Fryers staff to wear the instructors' uniforms during the event, and it was a brilliant way for everyone to view the outfits.
Raffle and silent auction prizes were generously donated by Traverse Alpine Group, Attunga Alpine Lodge Falls Creek, Falls Creek Distillery, Bogong Jacks Tavern, Pique Cafe, I Dream of Snow, Snonuts Donuts and Astra Falls Creek. A huge thank you to these businesses for their donations and to everyone that bought a raffle ticket or bid in the silent auction. Thank you to the Falls Creek Museum team that helped out on the day with selling tickets, organising the outfits for the staff and us and to those that helped prior to the event getting us set up and ready to go.
The event raised over $4800.00. This will help the FCHS achieve our next project in Falls Creek and we can't wait to share that with you soon.
Nyree Fiddes, on behalf of the Falls Creek Historical Society.