June Bronhill (Gough)Print Page

The Blue Plaque recognises June Bronhill (Gough) an Australian soprano who became a celebrated star of light opera during the 1950s, 60s and 70s.

The New South Wales Blue Plaques program celebrates heritage by recognising noteworthy people and events from our State’s history. The program aims to capture public interest and fascination in people, events and places which form the story of NSW. It is inspired by the famous London Blue Plaques program which originally started in 1866, and similar programs around the world.

Opera singer June Bronhill has been honoured in the first round of the NSW Heritage Blue Plaques program designed to acknowledge and capture public interest and fascination in people, events and places that are important to the stories of NSW.

The program is similar to the blue plaque system in the UK which sees buildings linked with famous and worthy people carrying a plaque to show where they lived, were born, or died.

State Heritage minister, James Griffin, said that it was a fantastic program which is reinvigorating community connections with our rich NSW heritage.

June Bronhill the first of two plaques – hers was unveiled yesterday – Friday – at the Civic Centre by Mayor Tom Kennedy and Barwon MP Roy Butler. The second plaque which will be unveiled soon is for Hollywood actor Chips Rafferty.

Cllr Kennedy said they were just the first of several notable local historical characters that will be nominated, such as Pro Hart, Irene Drummond, and Albert Morris. “The plaque may be small, but they are very, very important to honour your history, to honour the people that made a significant difference to the community as a whole and people that were ambassadors for Broken Hill,” said the Mayor.

June Bronhill, was a prominent world-renowned Opera Singer born in Broken Hill on June 26, 1929. Her original surname was Gough, but as part of showing her gratitude to the town that was instrumental in her career, changed her surname to Bronhill to show her gratitude to the town for their support.

She won the prestigious annual Sun Aria contest in 1950 and aged 23, travelled to London to further her singing career largely financed by Broken Hill residents, who raised more than £3000 – a very sizeable sum of money back then.

Mr Butler said if you look at June Bronhill and her roles in opera and TV, she was also a skilled actress. “She had an amazing voice and a very clear voice as a singer with an amazing range. You have so many great people and figures from Broken Hill that could end up on a blue plaque, like a lot of our towns there are a lot of champions that come out of the Far West so it’s a great way to recognise the contributions they have made whatever field they were in. Also really building that community pride and I think that is a huge part of it and tourism is another aspect of it that I welcome,” Mr Butler said.
Barrier Truth, 9 December 2022. 

 

 

 

Location

Address:	31 Chloride Street, Broken Hill Civic Centre, Broken Hill, 2880
State:	NSW
Area:	AUS
GPS Coordinates:	Lat: -31.956921 Long: 141.464551 Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate.

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Details

Monument Type:	Plaque
Monument Theme:	People
Sub-Theme:	Arts
Link:	https://blueplaques.nsw.gov.au/

Dedication

Source: Blue Plaques Program, ADB, MA