Historic images live again

Had a visit from a family who normally use the Mobile Library, and who had a couple of historic items they wished to have copied.

Firstly was a 70s vintage photo of Eddie Jaensch's original home, near Pepper's Plains. The structure was built primarily from kerosene tins. The ingenious building lined with flattened kero tins also has a row of tins to catch the rain from the galvanised iron roof where there was no spouting.
The ubiquitous re-use of readily available materials such as kerosene tins was a feature of many rustic structures on farms across the Wimmera.

Shed with rude timber poles and flattened kero tins

In addition to the photo, which the library scanned and printed for them, the family had a small strip of microfilm sent to them from the State Library of Victoria. The mircofilm was a page from an old edition of the Jeparit newspaper with an article on the history of the beautiful Edwardian Yurunga Homestead at Rainbow. Again the Library was able to copy them a full size print of the article complete with a picture of the building.

Yurunga homestead

Money for jam/preserves

The Community Heritage Grants (CHG) program provides grants of up to $15,000 to community organisations such as libraries, archives, museums, genealogical and historical societies, multicultural and Indigenous groups. The grants are provided to assist with the preservation of locally owned, but nationally significant collections of materials that are publicly accessible including artefacts, letters, diaries, maps, photographs, and audio visual material.

Digitising rare books

The program is funded by the Australian Government and managed by the National Library of Australia, with support provided by the Department of Regional Australia, Local Government, Arts and Sport; the National Archives of Australia; the National Film and Sound Archive and the National Museum of Australia. The NLA encouraged representatives from historical societies, museums, public libraries, archives and Indigenous and migrant community groups, particularly those from remote and regional areas of Australia, to apply.

Many groups around the country are playing their part to help preserve Australia’s history. Since 1994, $4.9 million has been awarded to community organisations throughout Australia.

Scanning old newspapers

The program aims to identify Australian cultural heritage collections which are publicly accessible, locally held and nationally significant. The types of projects supported include Significance Assessments of collections; Preservation Needs Assessments of collections; conservation activities and collection management; and training workshops.

The 2014 Grant Round is now open, with applications closing on 2nd May.

More information, application form and guidelines are available online.

Golden history

The annual Bendigo Family History Expo is on Sunday 16th March from 10am to 4pm, at the YMCA Leisure Centre, Browning St, Kangaroo Flat in Bendigo.

Derelict building, Bendigo North

Topics to be covered include:

• Mining history from accidents to registers
• Regional archives & databases
• Sporting Clubs - records & memorabilia
• Pioneers & settlers
• Scrapbooking & photo restoration
• Maps & indexes

Something for everyone and only $10 entry, and while you're there check out the newly refurbished Goldfields Library in Hargraves Street, which re-opened at the end of January.