Minutes of Meeting of Local Studies Group held on Thursday 3rd June 2010 at the Royal Historical Society of Victoria
Item
1. Attendance &
Apologies
Minutes
Anne Burrows
Lina Favrin
Melissa Gilmour
Carol Yates
Edith Fry
Vicki Court
Liz Pidgeon
Robyn Luczynski
Ros Ryan
Kay Rowan
Kathy Smalley
Natasha Kamenev
Paul Michel
Judi Clark
Gary Edge
Jackie Goddard
Genealogy Centre, State Library of Victoria
Fitzroy Library, Yarra Libraries
Richmond Library, Yarra Libraries
Koorie Heritage Trust
Ballarat Library, Central Highlands
Whitehorse Manningham, RHSV
Yarra Plenty
Sam Merrifield, Moonee Valley (left after tour)
Wimmera
Port Phillip
Eastern Regional Libraries
Bayside Libraries
Darebin Libraries
Darebin Libraries
Darebin Libraries
Darebin Libraries
Action
Apologies:
Kathleen Smith
Fiona Campbell
Elaine Craig
Melbourne Libraries
Melbourne Libraries
Doncaster Library, Whitehorse Manningham
2. Confirmation of
Minutes.
3. Business Arising
Accepted.
4.
Kate Prinsley, Executive Officer of the Royal Historical Society of Victoria, welcomed those present and then
spoke about her forthcoming trip to the USA and UK on a Churchill Fellowship in June and July to investigate the
sustainability of local history and its volunteers in the community.
By
None.
Vicki Court then took the group on an introductory tour of the RHSV collections. The RHSV has been collecting
books, manuscripts, images, ephemera, maps and other information resources relating to the history of Victoria
since 1909. It is primarily a volunteer run society with paid executive and admin officers plus two other part
time staff. The Victorian Historical Journal – a refereed journal devoted to the history of the state – is published
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Minutes of Meeting of Local Studies Group held on Thursday 3rd June 2010 at the Royal Historical Society of Victoria
twice a year. Regular exhibitions are also held – the current one being on the history of Flinders Street Station.
Monthly lectures are held on Tuesday evenings with occasional lunchtime lectures throughout the year. All
these activities help achieve the RHSV’s role of preserving and promoting the history of Victoria.
The meeting was then held with members of each group providing reports. Information about the proposed
changes to the structure of special interest groups was circulated and discussed, particularly the plan to
compress lists into three broad categories. It was unanimously voted that the Local Studies group should
continue to have and use its own list.
5. Around the Table
Anne Burrows, Genealogy Centre, State Library of Victoria:
 7th Victorian Family History Conference The Border and Beyond 28 to 30 May 2010
 Organised by the Victorian Association of Family History Organisations (VAFHO) and Yarrawonga Family
History Group and held at Club Mulwala, Mulwala,NSW. Very well organised with a good range of
speakers. Over 150 people attended from a number of Australian states (Victoria, SA, NSW, ACT and
Queensland)
 Second Australian National Conference on Jewish Genealogy 7 to 9 March 2010
 From 7 to 9 March 2010, Anne Burrows and Carmen Quick represented the State Library of Victoria at
the Second Australian National Conference on Jewish genealogy Our Jewish Roots held at the Beth
Weizmann Jewish Community Centre, Melbourne. Genealogy Centre brochures were included in all
200 Conference bags. On Monday 8 March, Anne represented the Library in a plenary panel session on
“Accessing Australian records” for 180 attendees along with staff from Public Record Office Victoria
and National Archives of Australia (Victorian Office). On 9 March 46 Conference attendees participated
in a series of overviews of the Genealogy Centre and Rare Books and Manuscripts collections with
particular emphasis on resources relevance to Jewish research. On 10 March the tours given by Anne
and Grant Hamston featured on the international Jewish genealogy blog Tracing the tribe written by
Schelly Talalay Dardashti.
 Searching Australian civil registration indexes on CD-ROM handout
 This has recently been published for use in the Genealogy Centre (not online).
 Family History Feast Monday 2 August 2010 from 10am to 4pm
 Don Grant Lecture to be given by Professor Blainey on : Victoria in the 19th Century : everyday life and
family history. Bookings open Tuesday 15 June 2010 email: reception@prov.vic.gov.au
phone: 9348 5600 or 1800 657 452 (tollfree)
 New State Library of Victoria website and family history blog (Family Matters) ** postcript to the 3
June meeting Launched Monday 7 June 2010. http://familymatters.blogs.slv.vic.gov.au/ Check out our
new Family Matters blog!
Edith Fry, Ballarat Library, Central Highlands
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Minutes of Meeting of Local Studies Group held on Thursday 3rd June 2010 at the Royal Historical Society of Victoria
 Renovations at Ballarat are finished but not complete as the company doing the refit went bankrupt ¾
of the way through it, lucky we were as far on as we were. The new circ/enquiry desk arrived but the
walls all behind us are 'temporary' and who knows when completion will happen.
 Received a grant from Heritage Victoria to digitise our oral histories, about 150 cassette tapes will be
put on portable hard drives.
 Heritage Weekend (Mother's Day weekend) was a huge success this year and I am slightly less grumpy
about it than usual, it was good exposure for the library to be part of the expo at the Mining Exchange
in town. Thousands of people went through including many new locals who took away library
information, as well as the people just out to look at nice old photos, so it was all good. The Historical
Society put on a splendid display at the Town Hall.
 We hope our digitisation project will finally get underway, we've been talking about it for so long and
are sick of it - watch out for (hopefully) exciting developments on our website!
 Chinese Newspapers: in a magnificent coup I managed to buy 2 copies of the Chinese Advertiser and 1
copy of the English and Chinese Advertiser, at a very obscure stamp auction, for absolutely bargain
prices, no one seemed to know what they were. Lucky for us. They were published on the goldfields in
1856 by Robert Bell, a very eccentric Englishman, who had studied Chinese for 4 years, and was later
appointed official interpreter. As well as their significance re the Chinese aspect, the papers also have
an amazing print history - first commercial use of lithography in Australia - it must have been quite
something, producing those papers against all odds, on the dusty (or muddy) goldfield. They were
distributed free every Saturday, were not considered at all important or worth keeping, so they are
extremely rare to find today. Up until our discovery there was only one known copy of the Chinese
Advertiser, and they are on the NLA's missing newspaper list. So watch out for interesting
announcements from Ballarat way (after a meeting today it looks like being formally announced in
October). They've been conserved already so you can see them if you visit me.
Lina Favrin Fitzroy Library, Yarra Libraries
 Yarra Libraries received a Local History Grant from the PROV to digitise City of Fitzroy Rate books from
1950-1974. They will be available online from PROV and Yarra Libraries once the project is completed.
 A new microfiche/film reader, a Canon Microfilm scanner 800II, with the A3 size screen has been
purchased for Fitzroy Library. It’s been networked to the printer in the library so we don’t need to deal
with coin boxes, toner cartridges or paper jam issues.
 New book about ‘MacRobertson’ by Jill Robertson is due to be published in July/August 2010. It’s more
a pictorial edition and is being published by Arcade Books.
 The suburb of North Fitzroy turns 150 this year and the Fitzroy Historical Society are putting together a
program of events to celebrate this milestone.
Liz Pidgeon Yarra Plenty Regional Library
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Minutes of Meeting of Local Studies Group held on Thursday 3rd June 2010 at the Royal Historical Society of Victoria
 Attended the PROV@Whittlesea session May 6
 Eltham Library are undergoing redevelopment and renovation. Closing June 6 till mid August, brochure
available.
 Booklovers Festival launching June 2 till 19 June. Brochure available.
 Finished planning Family History Month in August, includes programs also in partnership with the
Whittlesea Cultural Program. Posted to AFTC, National Family History Week website and Unlock the
Past – encourage other libraries to do this too.
 Victoria 175 grants available via PROV.
 I am in receipt of AEHS Newsletter for May (distributed at meeting)
 Working on new library website.
 Registering our events that require bookings on Eventbite.
 Attended FindMyPast roadshow
 Staff training, last one coming up on June 28.
 Yesterday facilitated my second YPRL Heritage Forum for the year at HHS.
 Just had our first Living Library.
 GSV book buy this morning
 New digitized records from Heidelberg Historical Society including their newsletter and newspapers
Vicki Court Nunawading Library, Whitehorse manningham
 The date for closure of Nunawading Library for renovations is still unknown – possibly end of July.
 The Constance Pavey Room (local and family history room) will disappear to be replaced by a set of
shelves in a corner of the library. Local newspapers may need to be stored downstairs. Computers and
microfiche readers used for family and local history research will be with the computers for general
use.
 Lesley Alves’ new book on the history of Whitehorse, Suburban Heartland, was published in March.
 Whitehorse Heritage Week is in September – normally events are held at Nunawading Library but may
be able to hold an event at another branch.
 The names of the soldiers from Whitehorse and Manningham who served in World War I have been
transferred to a DB TextWorks Database and sets of records have then been converted to html files –
this is at present a draft project, and definitely a work in progress, but the results can be viewed at
http://vcourt.teesee.net/wmww1.htm
Melissa Gilmour, Richmond Library, Yarra Libraries
 Joint event with Richmond and Burnley Historical Society NOT a book launch as stated but an author
talk by Ron Amor about his book Explore the Yarra
 Teaming up with Richmond U3A in July to do genealogy training
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Minutes of Meeting of Local Studies Group held on Thursday 3rd June 2010 at the Royal Historical Society of Victoria
 Green lighting project at Richmond Library, instigated by Council.
 The company we ended up going with was Sustainable Group Services
Direct: 0439 370 832 | Helpdesk: 1300 820 557
kent.hutchins@sustainablegroup.com.au
www.sustainablegroup.com.au
 So far we have four lights replaced as a trial, but we are very happy with them and we love the 60% cut
in emissions. Kent has been a pleasure to deal with. The rest of the library floor will follow in
increments of how much they can get done before we open for the day.
Robyn Luczynski Moonee Valley, Sam Merrifield
 Wireless has been working across our five branches for the last three months and is very successful;
our public access PC’s are no longer as heavily booked now with patrons using their own laptops for
internet access.
 Milleara Library will be moving to the new Avondale Heights Community Learning Centre (AHCLC) and
is expected to be up and running in September, 2010. The library will have a larger public floor space,
access to additional facilities such as a community meeting room, greater access to the Internet and
educational courses. The $4 million Avondale Heights Community Learning Centre is being built on the
site of the former Kangan Batman TAFE, and is due to open in October, 2010.
 Preserving your own past. Digitising Your Memories. Hisham Attia continues his very popular digital
story-telling workshops. Hisham is a local multi media artist and IT engineer who is engaged
professionally with three universities. He uses digital techniques to tell personal and family stories. He
will be running a free workshop to introduce these concepts and encourage you to tell your own story
using digital technologies.
 Chinese Family History. Dr Pauline Rule has undertaken considerable research into Chinese-Australian
families. Her presentation will give a brief history of Chinese immigration to Australia, give guidelines
on how to trace Chinese heritage including genealogical resources and finally look at relevant
organisations, institutions and other resources. This workshop is an ideal introduction for those people
just beginning to explore their Chinese forebears.
 Exhibition: “Forgotten Faces”. To coincide with our Chinese family history session the library will have
on display the PROV exhibition “Forgotten Faces: Chinese and the Law”.
 Author Talk: David Carlin, “Our Father Who Wasn't There”
Ros Ryan – Wimmera Regional Library Corporation
 Wimmera getting ready for launch of Bolinda’s eAudio,
 Changeover to Sirsi-Dynix’s Enterprise product – the new portal will enable us to produce a Local
History blog/ning/wiki for items of local interest
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Minutes of Meeting of Local Studies Group held on Thursday 3rd June 2010 at the Royal Historical Society of Victoria
 Will be running a display for the Burke and Wills 150 th anniversary as the camels ended up in the
Wimmera.
6. Next meeting
Date: Monday 13th September 2010
Time 12.45pm. Group tour at 1.00 pm. Please arrive early so that individual entry fees can be paid prior to the
group tour
Fee: $7 ($5 concession)
Venue : Old Treasury Building, Spring Street, Melbourne
http://oldtreasurybuilding.org.au/
We have been given a room for a meeting after the 50 minute tour.
RSVP Essential by Tuesday September 6
Liz Pidgeon lpidgeon@yprl.vic.gov.au
A reminder that it would be appreciated if reports could also be emailed to me before or immediately after the
meeting to facilitate minutes. If you are unable to attend, a report can be delivered on your behalf.
Future Meeting Dates
2010 meetings
Thursday 25th November? Kathy Smalley
Characters and Spaces Walk covering 1 City Block (Of Elizabeth, Collins, Finders and Swanston) and within that block, looking at the cultural and social significance of sites within this
block. www.characterevent.com We could then meet in a cafe and Lina offered to source that for us. (Perhaps near City Library)I
2011
Yarra Ranges Museum when redevelopment is finished.
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