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eBulletin


The Federation of Australian Historical Societies is supported through funding from the Australian Government’s Community Heritage and Icons Grants program via the ACT Government

No. 174, 24th Feb 2018
Contents:
FAHS President Don Garden presents Award of Merit, Tasmania
FAHS Report - Making Collections Accessible
Featured Historical Society - NT Police Museum and Historical Society
Heritage Properties transfered to National Trust SA
Saving Van Dieman's Land Legislation History
History Resources, National Museum of Australia
Mcintyre Lecture, Melbourne
History Victoria Support Group Seminar, Lilydale
Talk, History West, RWAHS
Jim Kerr Address, Sydney
Australian LGBTI Military Service, Exhibition, Sydney
Eltham District Historical Society receives award, Victoria
The Historical Society of the Northern Territory Field Trip
Memorial to China's Forgotten Anzacs, Sydney
Digital Access to Collections Workshop, Perth
Community Heritage Grants, Victoria, Now Open
Chinese Heritage Conference, Townsville
FAHS President Don Garden presents Award of Merit, Tasmania

George Town man Peter Cox was awarded one of the most prestigious Australian prizes for history last week. 

The Federation of Australian Historical Societies deemed Mr Cox worthy of an Award of Merit for his work on George Town planner, and former NSW Governor, Lachlan Macquarie. 

The award, given for efforts in community historiography, was only attained by two people nationwide in 2017.

Read more (The Examiner, Northern Tasmania)
FAHS Report - Making Collections Accessible

Image: Sorting and cataloguing, Australian volunteer Louise Barber with Chack Tuoch from the National Library of Cambodia. 2005. Photo- Kevin Evans (10722189116).
 
The FAHS has developed a report on digital collections and access - Making Collection Accessible. Whether you are using paper based records or have a partner agreement with Trove, get help with making your collections more accessible and planning for digital futures.

The report discusses the stages involved in developing a collection – from paper based catalogues to fully discoverable digital records and offers advice on appropriate software.

Unlock the potential of your collection through increased digital presence, outreach and collaboration.

See the full report: http://www.history.org.au/Documents/MakingCollectionsAccessible.pdf
Featured Historical Society - NT Police Museum and Historical Society
The Northern Territory Historical Society (Incorporated) was formed in 1995 and after a short suspension it formed again in May 2000 and was renamed the Northern Territory Police Museum and Historical Society (Incorporated - NTPMHS).   

The society focuses on collecting and preserving items associated with the history of the Police Force in the Northern Territory. This rich history is shared through online information documenting NT police history from the first rural constabulary in 1864 to the present along with a collection of links and reference sources and the publication of a newsletter Citation. A small active volunteer group assists with the conservation and preservation of this police history whether it be physical objects, photographs, documents, records and voice recordings (with guidance provided by the NT Museum and Art Gallery). 

The collection of the Northern Territory Police Museum and Historical Society includes a wide variety of items used in the police service from uniforms and tack to communications equipment and oral history recordings made by members regarding their time in the NT Police. The society takes the long view in actively collecting recent obsolete equipment. A collections policy is in place, which accepts all items but avoids duplicates. Physical items and documents are stored in a temperature controlled shed with plans to upgrade in the future.

The society has successfully collected over 10,000 photographs most of which are now digitised. Where possible the society obtains copyright from the copyright owner and uploads low resolution images for public access. The photographs range from mounted police, police events to scrapbooks and personal albums including rare images by Foelsche (first inspector of police in the NT) among them hundreds of photographs of Larrakia, Woolna (Djerimanga) and Iwaidja people with names and some personal details. 

As a museum without an exhibition space the focus is on creating a digital museum through a Website, Youtube channel, Google archive and Facebook. A number of travelling collections have also been prepared and displayed throughout the Territory including: The Last Hanging and Police Stations of the Northern Territory.  A semi-permanent exhibition about Cyclone Tracy is on display at the Peter McCauley Police Centre and another exhibition is planned for the 150th anniversary in combination with a book on the history of the NT Police Force. 

The society has a membership of around 130 members in the Northern Territory, interstate and overseas. The society receives funding from the Commissioner of Police, the Northern Territory Police Association and the occasional bequest. This helps with operational costs and pays for a part-time office administrator.

Mark McAdie, President of the Northern Territory Police Museum and Historical Society outlines the challenge of maintaining a balance between collecting items and documents and saving and preserving artefacts. Another challenge is making this accessible. A member, who is also a serving police officer manages the website and social media. Access to the much larger collection is by arrangement and research services may be available for an hourly fee by negotiation.

Another challenge cited by Mark is to develop a history of the Police Force without denying the truth of the past. One example is Foelsche who was the inspector of police in the NT (1870-1904) and recognised as  an amateur anthropologist and photographer of indigenous culture and languages. He was also instrumental in the massacre of Aboriginal people openly talking about 'nigger hunts' (letter to the Police Commissioner in Adelaide) or more obliquely about 'having a picnic with the niggers' (letter to a friend, John Lewis). A disclaimer on the site acknowledges that historical images and text reflect past attitudes and values.


l: Photograph from the Foelsche Collection,  r: a page from The Timber Creek Letter Book  -The Aboriginals arrested at Auvergne and Bradshaws Stations on a charge of unlawful possession of beef (Letter Book from 1927-1929 currently being digitised).

The society welcomes new members and any information or sites that are of relevance to the history of the NT Police Force. 

Email: ntpolicemuseum@bigpond.com
Web: https://sites.google.com/site/ntpmhsociety/

Sources: The Northern Territory Police Museum and Historical Society website and interview with President Mark McAdie. 
Heritage Properties transfered to National Trust SA
Gawler’s Old Telegraph Station Museum is one of 19 heritage properties across the state to be transferred to the ownership of the National Trust of South Australia for continued care and conservation.

The move further supports former gaols, courthouses, customs houses, police stations and schools, as well as historic houses and cottages.

The Gawler museum was built in 1860 and is located at 59 Murray Street. According to the National Trust, the building highlights the history of Gawler and district with displays of objects and is located in a two-story stone structure initially built to house a telegraph office first used in 1861

Source: https://www.barossaherald.com.au/story/5219793/gawler-property-under-national-trust/
Saving Van Dieman's Land Legislation History

Retired Supreme Court Librarian Dorothy Shea at work in the storeroom

George Arthur Lieutenant Governor's 1833 bill to extend liquor licences written on Vellum
Retired Supreme Court librarian Dorothy Shea is devoting her spare time to ensuring a cache of historic documents is preserved for future generations.

Mrs Shea stumbled across the documents two decades ago after noticing some brown paper parcels stacked in the court's storeroom. 

'I came searching for a piece of transcript,' she said.
'I didn't find what I wanted but I did notice these brown paper parcels tied up with pink legal tape and wondered what they were.'

Inside the parcels were original copies of legislation dating back to 1833 when Tasmania was known as Van Diemen's Land.

Many of the Acts are written on vellum, which is made from animal skin, and bear the signatures of lieutenant-governors including George Arthur and John Franklin. Read More

Source: ABC News http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-21/original-copies-of-tasmanian-legislation-uncovered-in-storeroom/9343860
History Resources, National Museum of Australia
Australian Journey is presented by Professor Bruce Scates, FASSA, historian, novelist and film producer and Dr Susan Carland, sociologist, social critic and the co-creator of Salam Cafe. Each of the 12 episodes has an extra ‘Susan Carland in conversation’ interview with historians and other expert guests.

Image: Professor Bruce Scates and Dr Susan Carland.
Source:http://www.nma.gov.au/education/resources/activities/australian-journey
The National Museum of Australia has just unveiled a new resource for secondary and tertiary students. It is called Australian Journey: The Story of a Nation in 12 Objects and it can be found on the NMA website

The series is suitable for high school and tertiary students and explores issues including the Australian environment, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and history, democracy and citizenship, immigration and multiculturalism, reconciliation and the Anzac legend.
Mcintyre Lecture, Melbourne
Mcintyre Lecture by Professor Andrew J. May - Melbourne Street Life: The Itinerary of our Days

Ugo Catani’s A Summer Shower in Collins Street, 1889, will set the scene for Professor May’s invitation to walk the streets of Melbourne, imagine the everyday past, and see the urban landscape with new eyes.

For artists and historians, the street frames the ever-changing throng of the wealthy and down and out, the passers-by, shoppers, idlers, hawkers, larrikins, prostitutes, custodians and law-breakers. It is the stage of ritual, procession and protest and the site of proud architecture, fine trees and public utilities. And it also has its hazards. 
In the lecture, Professor May will discuss the growth and transformation of a great Australian city and the balance between the need for public order and the democratic right to public space.

Date: Wednesday 14 March 2018
Time: 7.30pm for 8.00pm
Venue: ‘Just Theatre’, Kew Court House, 188 High Street, Kew, 3101

A limited number of seats will be available, so bookings are essential.
Purchase tickets by phone (03) 9278-4770  $10 members, $20.00 non-members.
History Victoria Support Group Seminar, Lilydale
Succession Planning: Embracing the future
History Victoria Support Group
When: 28 April 2018.
Time: 9am – 3pm
Hosted by: Lilydale & District Historical Society Inc
Location: Lilydale Primary School
63 Castella Street, Lilydale (corner of Castella & Jones Streets)
Speakers 
Christine Worthington, RHSV Collections Manager – ‘Digitisation and Historical Societies'

Lisa Clausen, joint winner of the Judges’ Special Prize in the Victorian Community History Awards 2017 for Garden Diaries will provide an intimate insight into one of Australia’s foremost private gardens, Cruden Farm 

Key note speaker: Dr Bernadette Flynn, Federation of Australian Historical Societies Outreach Officer. Bernadette introduces the newly published FAHS Succession Planning Guide and the 7 steps that can help you survive and thrive into the future

Jane Nigro, (Stonnington History Committee); Alleyne Hockley (Income streams for societies) and Russ Haines (Classic flubs)

Rosemary Cameron, EO RHSV will highlight how societies can run successful, interesting and rewarding walks. 

Tickets $20 at https://www.trybooking.com/book/event?eid=346950&
Further information from RHSV e: office@historyvictoria.org.au, t: 03 9326 9288
The FAHS Succession Planning Guide is available for free on the FAHS website http://www.history.org.au/SuccessionPlanning.html

Download the Guide and Workbook and put your plans into action for attracting and developing potential successors for your organisation.
Bernadette Flynn, the FAHS Outreach Officer is offering assistance in Succession Planning through the FAHS History Clinic.  Whether you are just beginning to think about future needs or need help with updating your succession plan, contact the outreach officer to book in for a session fahsbflynn@gmail.com
Talk, History West, RWAHS

Gallop House, Dalkeith (NTWA: M Poon) 

UWA excavations at Gallop House (NTWA: G Pickering) 
Revealing the Layered History of Gallop House: Conservation, Interpretation and Archaeology 

Gallop House sits within an area known as Nanulgarup to the Whadjuk Noongar people. It was also the site of one of the first farms in the Swan River Colony under Captain Adam Armstrong who called it Dalkeith Farm. The existing house was built by James Gallop I in the 1870s on a portion of this earlier farm. 

In this talk Trust Archaeologist, Leanne Brass, will explore some of the major conservation, landscaping, interpretation and archaeological work undertaken by the National Trust of Western Australia. Of key public interest was a partnership program with the University of Western Australia aimed at exploring the archaeological evidence associated with the existing house and earlier demolished structures. 

Date: 10am Friday 16 March 2018 
Venue: The Royal Western Australian Historical Society (Inc.), 49 Broadway Nedlands 
Tickets: $10 each Bookings essential 
Tel: 08 9386 3841 email: admin@histwest.org.au 
Further information: https://www.histwest.org.au/activities/revealing-layered-history-gallop-house-conservation-interpretation-and-archaeology
Jim Kerr Address, Sydney
The 2018 speaker will be the Sydney City Historian Dr Lisa Murray. Lisa’s talk is titled Monuments and Memories: re-assessing colonial imperialism

18 April, Sydney Opera House.
5.30pm for 6pm start.

Image: A worker removes graffiti from the Cook statue in Sydney's Hyde Park (The Australian).
Public monuments and memorials have been a vital form of commemoration that have shaped our collective memory and understanding of history for generations. Monuments have been erected by governments and institutions, private citizens through public subscriptions, and by individuals. They function to reinforce power and privilege, shaping public narratives. Memorials help people to remember, but at the same time they also assist in the art of forgetting. The meaning and social values of monuments are never static. Monuments take on layers of meaning through interpretation, cultural practices, re-inscribing and protest. The broadening of historiography in the late 20th century has allowed many groups of people to challenge the dominant colonial imperial narratives and to add other voices to the historical dialogue.

This lecture will reflect upon how the social values of monuments evolve and the challenges in addressing conflicting memories, both European and Aboriginal social values, in our public monuments.

Cost: Australia ICOMOS members: $30; Non-members: $40 ; Full-time students, unemployed & individuals under 30 yrs: $20
Register: https://www.registernow.com.au/secure/Register.aspx?E=29130
Australian LGBTI Military Service, Exhibition, Sydney
Serving in Silence?  Australian LGBTI Military Service since World War 2.

Exhibition: TAP Gallery
First Floor, 259 Riley St
Surry Hills NSW 2010

February 27th to March 4th
In November 1992, the Australian government overturned a longstanding ban on gays, lesbians and bisexuals serving in the Australian Defence Force. Transgender service would continue to be banned until September 2010. Yet, LGBTI people were serving in the military long before these milestones, with a range of experiences.

To commemorate 25 years since lifting the LGB ban, this exhibition showcases the history of LGBTI military service in Australia since World War II. The exhibition brings together photographs, objects, documents and the life stories of current and former service personnel to explore how LGBTI Defence members navigated their lives in the Royal Australian Navy, Australian Army, and Royal Australian Air Force. The exhibition includes tales of lesbian subcultures, witch-hunts targeting homosexuals for expulsion, kamp men in Papua New Guinea, participation in Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, and the changing Defence approaches to LGBTI service.

This exhibition derives from a larger research project on the history of LGBTI military service and is being co-sponsored by the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives and Sydney Pride History Group.
Eltham District Historical Society receives award, Victoria
The Eltham District Historical Society has received the 2018 Nillumbik Community Group of the Year Award.

Photo: EDHS members with Cr. Peter Clarke, Mayor of Nillumbik after receiving the award
The society stated:
'We feel this valued award is an appreciated recognition of the commitment and
contributions of current and past members of our society over many years.

It is fitting to receive this award in our 50th anniversary year and encourages our
society to continue engaging and supporting the interests of our community, in our
local history.'

Source: Eltham District Historical Society Newsletter, Feb 2018
The Historical Society of the Northern Territory Field Trip

Stone Pictures, a Yolngu record of Macassan Traders

Wurrwurrwuy (Garanhan) Macassan Beach Interpretive Walk, NT
The 2018 Field Trip will see the Society travel over to Nhulunbuy.
The area is steeped in Aboriginal/Macassan and European history and the surrounding country is uniquely beautiful.

Further information contact Janie Mason  janie.mason@cdu.edu.au 
Memorial to China's Forgotten Anzacs, Sydney
Military Historian Will Davies and prominent member of the Australian-Chinese business community Albert Wong
are trying to raise money for a memorial in Sydney's Chinese Gardens to commemorate the 'forgotten' Anzacs.

Davies, who has written five books on World War One, is also working on a new book about the role of the Chinese in the war.


Photo: Chinese Gallipoli sniper Billy Sing, one of the few ethnic Chinese permitted to serve with Australian troops during World War I. Courtesy of historian Will Davies.
Davies says Chinese historians believe 10,000 to 20,000 Chinese Labour Corps died during the war although most of the casualties were from disease, hypothermia or starvation rather than direct hostile action. He says many of their graves are spread around Commonwealth War Graves cemeteries but usually off in a corner or along the fence, away from the soldiers' graves. Chinese men fought with Australian soldiers in Turkey, Palestine and on the Western Front.

Read more:  http://www.afr.com/news/push-to-commemorate-chinas-forgotten-anzacs-20180114-h0i1z4
Digital Access to Collections Workshop, Perth
You’re invited to the Perth Digital Access to Collections Workshop!

Dates: Monday 26 to Tuesday 27 March 2018
Time: 10am - 5pm both days  
Location: Gordon Stephenson House, 140 William Street, Perth
This two-day workshop gives attendees the opportunity to participate in training focused on digitisation and the provision of digital access of collections, Q&A’s with leading technology providers and the chance to network with other GLAM organisations.

Who should attend? Staff and volunteers from small- to medium-sized non-metropolitan collecting organisations, including galleries, libraries, archives, museums, indigenous keeping places, sporting clubs, returned services clubs and historical societies.

The workshops will provide information, training and advice for organisations on their way to providing digital access to their collections.

Funding is available to organisations through grants that can support participation at the workshop and/or assist with setting your organisation up for digitising collections. More information about the grants can be found at http://www.digitalcollections.org.au/workshops/grants 

Register to attend here
More information on the workshop here.
Community Heritage Grants, Victoria, Now Open
Safeguarding and reactivating our heritage

Applications for Round 3 of the Victorian Government’s competitive community heritage grants program are now open and close on 13 April 2018.  
Eligible applicants may apply for an amount between $20,000 and $200,000 per project, to fund conservation works to ‘at risk’ places and objects included on the Victorian Heritage Register.

To find out if you are eligible and apply, read the 2018 Program Guidelines and Frequently Asked Questions at https://www.heritage.vic.gov.au/grants/living-heritage-program
Chinese Heritage Conference, Townsville
Northern Links: Protecting their interests and pushing back, CHINA Inc. 'No Fuss' Conference 

Dates: 3-4 March 2018

Image: The Kum Yuen store, Mossman, North Queensland 
Chinese Heritage in North Australia (CHINA Inc) will present their 7th 'no fuss' conference in Townsville.

The theme of the 2018 conference aims to explore themes of settlement, adaption, integration, solutions and creative responses to institutional impediments imposed on the Chinese community.

Registration is now open, with single-day and package prices available.
March 3 (Day 1) - $60; March 4 (Day 2) - $35; March 3+4 (both days) - $95.

A pre-conference tour of the Lower Herbert sugar fields and a conference dinner will be highlights of the weekend. A flyer is available for download here.

Please submit queries and registration details to the organisers via china_nth@yahoo.com.au or for more information about CHINA Inc, please visit their website http://chinainc.yolasite.com/
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The FAHS e-Bulletin, No. 174,
24th Feb 2018
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