WONTHAGGI & District Historical Society is one of 42 organisations announced last Wednesday that will share in $350,000 of funding from the Local History Grants Program.
The local historical society has been awarded $7150 for Black Dust & Community Strength: A digital history of Wonthaggi and district.
The digital project weaves together the stories of Wonthaggi and the surrounding district in a way that will be a visual and immersive experience.
Over 50 years 300 oral recordings were collected by the society from residents. They include memories and experiences of growing up in the town, to those working on the land. These recordings will form the foundation of the project which can be likened to six mini documentaries.
“The grant allows us to curate and weave together a suite of digital stories, which will be distributed across a range of different mediums. It will showcase the collection we have here,” Rees Quilford explained, noting a touch screen will be one format people can view the stories on.
“We will utilise them in our new museum space, and are exploring how we can potentially build them into digital walking tours.
“A lot of the work will be going through the archive and curating it, most of the material has already been digitised.
“It’s such a rich and diverse collection, an amazing record and testimonial legacy of the town and district.”
Digitising photographs is an ongoing process at the society, with 3340 pictures catalogued to date.
Jenny Churchill and Rees collaboratively prepared the application for the historical society.
Rees highlighted the Wonthaggi Miners’ Women’s Auxiliary, which started in the mid-1930’s and ran until the 60s, as a story likely to feature in one of the six documentaries.
“It was the first women’s auxiliary of a miner’s union in Australia. Originally a subcommittee they eventually formed as an incorporated type body.
“They were active in fundraising, political activism, women’s rights, they were also involved in setting up the kindergarten. They established a women’s rest station in town, where women travelling in from farms could privately breastfeed. They raised funds for the school, the theatre… they left a huge legacy for many institutions around the town.”
In making the announcement last week, Minister for Government Services Gabrielle Williams confirmed that the program will continue into 2025.
“It’s almost harder to figure out what to leave out as opposed to what to include!” Rees smiled.
A detailed list of all the projects funded through the Local History Grants Program can be found at prov.vic.gov.au.
