Benalla history comes alive thanks to community grant

Now, thanks to a local history grant, Benalla Historical Society will be able to digitise and preserve eight years of Benalla Standard newspapers.

The state government grants are designed to support community history projects making Victoria's rich local history more accessible for all.

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The latest round of the Local History Grants saw 52 projects share $350,000 in funding under the program run by Public Record Office Victoria to support community and history organisations to preserve, record and share Victoria’s local history.

This year’s successful grant recipients include five projects across the north-east, including:

● Benalla Historical Society, which will receive $15,000 for the digitisation of Benalla Standard newspapers from 1932–1940;

● Kilmore Historical Society which will receive $1536 to transpose cassette audio tapes into MP3 format;

● Murchison and District Historical Society, which will receive $1850 to produce Art Captured: an eBook;

● Nagambie and District Historical Society, which will receive $11,408 to digitise Nagambie Times; and

● Wooragee Landcare Group, which will receive $5952 for the Wooragee Landcare Oral History and Digitisation Project.

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State Member for Northern Victoria Jaclyn Symes announced the grants recently.

“I congratulate all this year’s successful projects which reflect the diversity, innovation and creativity of community groups and local historians across Northern Victoria,” Ms Symes said.

“Maintaining local history is also an important driver of jobs and tourism and it’s important that we continue to support our attractions both big and small.”

Other successful projects will help Victoria’s history reach everyone in the community through interactive online exhibitions, podcasts, eBooks, history apps and oral histories.

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Applications were open for up to $15,000 per project, with the program focusing on acknowledging community organisations telling stories about the past and shining a light on the future.

Public Record Office Victoria Director and Keeper of Public Records Justine Heazlewood said the grants served a vital purpose.

“Public Record Office Victoria is delighted to support these projects and the fantastic work of local historians through our Local History Grants.”

“This program enables Victorians to look back on things that happened in their town and stay connected to its history.”

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