The Bega Clock Tower. A memorial to Dr. Montague Evershed. Click to enlarge.

Dr. Montague Evershed Memorial Clock Montague Evershed was born 1841 in the UK.  He travelled to Australia as Ship's Surgeon on the "Agnes Muir" and eventually settled in Australia marrying Bega girl Louisa Welby. He died in 1927 after a notable career of local community service spanning approximately 50 years. The clock was built in 1930.  Stories abound of the heroic acts of Dr. Montague Evershed in the difficult circumstances prevalent at the time. The Clock Award has become the Bega Chamber's symbol of reward for excellence in business or community service. Click here to find out more about Dr. Evershed. A Millenium Clock Tower has also been erected in our sister city Littleton, Colorado, USA. You can also visit the Bega Pioneers' Museum cnr. Auckland and Bega Sts., near Bega's first European settlement.

The Highest Chammber Award The Bega Chamber of Commerce and Industry has chosen the Clock as the highest Award for excellence in business or community service. The Awards are given at the annual Bega Outstanding Business Awards, a gala event held each October. The Award is hand crafted using 31 separate actions to render it into the weighty artifice so many people wish to recieve. To get "The Clock", "the gong", "the Monty" is recognised as the pinnacle of achievement in business or community service. The Outstanding Business Award recipients are nominated by the whole community and then judged in secret for business presentation, service and value to customers.

The Chamber Award. Click to enlarge.

The Old Commercial Hotel. Click to enlarge.

Here is the Commercial Hotel prior to 1930.  If you can date this image please leave a message here.

Today's Commercial Hotel. Click to enlarge.

Here is the Commercial Hotel as it is today.  Many colourful characters are associated with the Commercial Hotel.  One of the previous owners, Dom Brady, now retired and active in the Rotary Club of Bega, is himself a fine story teller, gentleman and source of much happiness for all who come across his path.

A penny farthing rider during an early Bega festival event. Click to enlarge.

Bega is the commercial and administrative centre of the region and as such has been host to many community festivals, marches and events.  This photo is testament to the rich cultural history we are proud to be a part of.

A penny farthing rider and associated bunting on the Court House (1881) in advance of a march clearly shows that these events were the highlight of town life from a very early stage.

The Court House has since been internally rennovated to provide a modern amenity for workers and those at Her Majesty's pleasure.

	Bega Court House. Click to enlarge.

The oldest civic architecture, some lost to the minimalist period of the fifties, can still be found throughout the town.

The Court House (1881) remains in use as the District Court with a commanding view of the main street and as a landmark identifying the corner where B-Double semis have to negotiate the awkward camber of the road.

The Court House now enjoys services such as the Court Support Scheme where those people unfamiliar with court proceedings can be assisted in their relationship with the legal process.

	The Rural Bank of Bega, since demolished due to fire, now the site of the Bega District News. Click to enlarge.

The Rural Bank was once situated on the corner diagonally opposite the Commercial Hotel.

In a brush with fame, Sir Robert Askin, former premier of NSW, married Mollie Underhill from Bega when he worked in a Rural Bank branch in Manly.  Slim pickings from history's annals but it may have been whispered across the dusty benches of the Bega branch.  Mollie was a typist in the Manly branch of the Rural Bank.

The plot does thicken because on election to leadership of the Liberal Party, Askin sold a printery he owned in Manly; he had used it to produce the Manly-Warringah News, a small local paper he and Mollie had published from 1953 to 1957

The site now houses the Bega District News and a law firm in a new building.