Albany 2026: Albany historian Sue Lefroy says the bicentenary is the perfect time to dig deeper into the past

Albany’s resident historian Sue Lefroy says Albany’s bicentenary year is the perfect opportunity to dig into the city’s decades of history and find something new — and to share stories of Albany and its people.

If you need to know anything about Albany’s rich history, Ms Lefroy is the woman to talk to.

The proud keeper of Albany’s past, she works at the Albany Public Library’s Albany History Collection as a historian, and has done since 1998.

Visitors and locals alike visit her office on the top floor of the library, trying to track down family histories, date match historic photographs, or learn the history of a heritage building or block of land, and Ms Lefroy and her team comb through their decades of resources to help them.

“I look forward to Albany 2026 as a time for stories of the past to be told, recorded and preserved for future generations to share,” she said.

“Stories unfold in so many ways — through oral tradition, artistic expression of art, dance, music and song, visual illumination and soundscapes, language, photography and written dialogue, all inviting us to immerse ourselves in the past and be enriched by those experiences.”

She said she was looking forward to a packed calendar of events over the year and planned not to miss anything.

Ms Lefroy was born in Williams and lived in Katanning before relocating to Albany in 1994.

She said helping people find pieces of their history was a special way to share the hidden stories of the region and make people better connected to the Great Southern.

“There’s always this intrigue about the past, what and who has gone before,” she said.

“A lot of people come in with a fairly blank canvas, as in, I know my family lived here, but I’m not sure exactly where.

“So from there we can use rates and electoral roles and we can track down where people were living and for how long.

“Through this process you can see if families have moved around town, and that’s always fun for people because they get to go on a bit of a journey with their ancestors, a scenic tour of sorts of where their forebears built and lived a life.

“I think the lovely part about sitting in this chair is seeing people go away just really emboldened by the information they found, particularly when there’s been something completely new discovered.

“There’s this wonderful sense of excitement and pride and fulfilment, and that’s pretty special to be able to help people find.”

Some of the lesser-known but significant events in Albany’s history that came to mind for Ms Lefroy are cyclone Alby, which blew through the Great Southern in 1978, clocking 150km/h winds in Albany, and the demolition of the Freemasons Hotel on Stirling Terrace in 1972.

“Cyclone Alby came through just before my son was born, we were back living in Williams at the time so we were right in the thick of it,” she said.

“The cyclone swept right through the Great Southern and left a lot of damage in its wake.

I think an incredible thing about Albany is that it represents the wider Great Southern in so many ways, and the stories that are rooted in this city are so vast and phenomenal

“The tearing down of the Freemasons Hotel on Stirling Terrace is another significant event that comes to mind.

“That heritage precinct is one of the most intact representations of heritage buildings at that time that there is left standing, and the Freemasons is now the missing tooth in the comb, I guess you could say.

“There is a true exchange that happens when someone comes in looking for a piece of history.

“It’s not just me providing the resources or me helping people find the information they need, I’ve learnt so many fascinating things from these inquiries as well, and they inspire me.

“There’s always a different perspective that comes to light in terms of a historical event or person, but also in terms of the way we view things from where we sit now, in 2026, the way we look at the past from our present.

“I never leave work without thinking about something I’ve discovered as well.”