The Myrtleford and District Historical Society (MDHS) successfully hosted its 'Women of Myrtleford and District: 1860 to 1960' exhibition on Saturday and Sunday, at the town's Uniting Church Hall, in honour of International Women's Day for 2026.

The exhibit featured 12 women who lived in the Myrtleford region from the gold-rush era to the mid-20th century, with a summary of each subject, artefacts to pair with their photographs and a small photographic slideshow which played on a loop, for attendees to enjoy.

MDHS president Kerry Murtagh thanked all the volunteers who each put so much effort into presenting the exhibition.

"We've been (working on) it since last October," she said.

"Last International Women's Day when we put on our display, we started a bit too close to the end-date, so we thought we'd start earlier this time around.

"Thank you for being here and participating, because women need to be recognised."

Ms Murtagh said when she first entered the Old School Museum approximately eight years ago, she noticed the 'little place' set aside for the army nurses, with all the rest of the museum centred around men.

"We really need to bring [women] out into the open and show they worked a lot harder and there's a lot of women in the gold-rush era time who actually built Myrtleford," she said.

Tricia Glass, one of subject Amanda (Dubois) Pini's great-grandchildren, who attended the exhibition, said it was an outstanding tribute to all the ladies featured.

"This exhibition [allowed] me to do some research on my family," she said.

"I wrote some of the information included in Amanda's summary, which I translated from a collection of her past letters in French.

"The whole family are very keen about this exhibition, because historically we hadn't written much down over the years."

Alpine Shire Mayor, Cr Sarah Nicholas declared the exhibition open on Saturday morning and said it was a real privilege to be able to participate in the event.

"It is terrific to have had a look at the display with Kerry so far," she said.

"To me, this display is a way of saying 'thank you', and it's a way of telling the [subjects] and their relatives, 'we've got them' as a community and as women, in particular.

"Being able to demonstrate now that we see normal people who were absolutely amazing and celebrate them is really, really special.

"I congratulate all those who have put this wonderful display together.

"From the first vision, to the very hard work which it must have taken to [assemble] it all: it's absolutely terrific."