To celebrate their 50 years as keepers of Cowra’s history a luncheon at the Cowra Bowling Club will be held 12 noon for 12.30pm, with a historical performance by the Cowra Musical and Dramatic Society.

Society President, Ray Walsh, said Saturday would mark nearly 50 years to the day the organisation was founded.

“We’ve had 50 years of collecting, collating, cataloging and preserving the history of the district. The members in 2017 acknowledge and thank those with vision to form the society in 1967 and over the last 50 years we’ve had good times and we’ve had disappointments,” he said.

“To all those who have been part of the journey thank you.”

When it was first founded the Cowra and District Historical Society had a membership of 70 people. Today, the Society has a membership of 28. Mr Walsh said it was difficult to attract new members.

“Like most voluntary organisations we are finding it hard to attract new members, one of the reasons I think is that Cowra lacks a Cultural Centre or Museum,” he said.

“Cowra is one of the very few towns that lack an appropriate building for the several organisations we have that collect, collate and display our history.

“It has a very important tourism aspect as well, a few years ago we conducted a survey at the Visitors Centre and 64 per cent of respondents said they were here looking at the heritage and history of Cowra,” he said.

Mr Walsh said despite this they were keen to celebrate their 50^th Birthday.

“We are putting together a booklet on our 50 years which will be available at the luncheon and we will also have our 50th Birthday calendar as well,” he said.

“It depicts how Cowra looked 50 years ago and is available from the Tourist Information Centre for $13. Well also have a few items of significance on display at the luncheon as well.”

All members of the public are invited, tickets are available from the Cowra Visitors Centre at a cost of $25.