Apply for Victoria local history grants :: Closing Nov 12

=====================================================

From the Public Record Office Victoria Press Release: 10th September 2012

Victorian ommunity groups are invited to apply for a share in $350,000 in grants for projects that preserve and share stories of Victoria's past.

Premier and Minister for the Arts Ted Baillieu said individual grants of up to $15,000 were available to not-for-profit groups such as historical societies, schools, sporting clubs and special interest groups, for projects that capture and share the fascinating stories of Victoria across the ages.

“The Local History Grants program provides grants to support a diverse range of projects, including exhibitions and multimedia projects, publications, oral histories and the digitisation or preservation of vital historical items, which together provide greater access to our community history,” Mr Baillieu said. “Victoria has a rich history with so many important stories to uncover and celebrate. This program supports projects that enable community members to connect with their history in innovative and engaging ways.

“Importantly, in addition to supporting individual projects, the Local History Grants Program also supports the tireless efforts of volunteer networks and community organisations that act as custodians of our state’s heritage, ensuring that it is available to future generations,” Mr Baillieu said.

The program, which is run by Public Record Office Victoria, is open to not-for-profit community groups across the state.

Applications for the Local History Grants Program are open now, and close on Monday 12 November 2012.

Media contact: Ali Webb, Communications and Marketing Coordinator, Public Record Office - 03 9348 5709, 0418 698 364 or alison.webb@prov.vic.gov.au

Author Q&A :: Ann Howard - Rainbow on the River

From time to time, we'll be talking to great Australian authors about their local history and what inspired them to start researching and writing their stories.

This week we talk to Ann Howard, author of Rainbow on the River - a terrific new book on the history of Dangar Island and the lower Hawkesbury. It continues her series on the subject, including:

1. Rainbow on the River
2. A Ghost, a Murder & Other Dangar Tales - Volume 1
3. Ten Dry Pies & other Dangar Tales - Volume 2
4. Derrymacash to Dangar

Your can purchase by contacting Ann on annhoward[at]ozemail.com.au or phoning 02 9955 2074. All books are $25 + $5 postage except Derrymacash to Dangar, which is $10 + $3 postage.

=====================================================

1. Q. What inspired you to research the Hawkesbury River area? 
• A. Thirty-eight years ago, I was invited to a party on the island from university. I went there in September. The jasmine hedges were perfuming the air and there was no traffic. It was an instant love affair. I moved on a year later, buying and restoring The Pavilion, the last remaining part of the Dangar homestead.  
2. Which resources did you find most helpful?
• Q. Favourite website? 
• A. Trove is brilliant but I’ve been researching for 38 years and all my preliminary research has been primary.
• Q. Favourite library? 
• A. For this particular research I didn’t have one – I looked at the Royal Australian Historical Society Library but found sketchy and inaccurate information about the Dangar family. I was really on my own as an independent scholar. 
3. Q. What resources did you come across when researching your books that haven’t been widely used by others? 
• A. Well really it was finding and interviewing people (sometimes serendipitously, sometimes by due diligence), and obtaining family documents, diaries, photographs and letters. People have been very generous with their time, resources and information. I think that the great mass of Australian history is slipping through our fingers. People are grateful to me, because I record in a straightforward, non-political, non-judgemental way. When I first came to Australia from London, I found that children did not know what a drover was, but they knew what cowboys were. Australian drovers moved more head of cattle at one time than their American counterparts. I took my sons in a gypsy caravan over stock routes in the far reaches of NSW and interviewed drovers for a book.
4. Q. Was there any information you uncovered that stopped you in your tracks? For eg, you've previously mentioned that a chance encounter with a 90-year-old woman led you to fascinating research into the 1890s. 
• A. Yes, historical research is like opal mining. I chipped away at it over many years and found new historical facts about the 1890s that stopped me in my tracks. The Dangar family was unaware of what I uncovered – illustrating just how quickly history is obliterated! They had a father who was really keen on history and they tuned out! Then later they were grateful to me. Also, the mother of John Dangar Reid transcribed the family letters, for which I am abidingly grateful. 
5. Q. Which stories affected you the most in your research? 
• A. Well, the fact that 800 passengers at a time and two brass bands used to leave Lime Wharf and go out into the ocean and up the river to Dangar Island, where they stayed for four hours. Everybody had assumed the island was a quiet backwater. 
6. Q. Which stories amused you the most in your research? 
• A. Ryland, a manager from the American company which won the tender for building the Hawkesbury River Bridge, arrived with his whole family, a cigar-smoking American full of bravado, with a revolver in his belt. He was the father of a little boy, born to a local Australian woman, name unknown. His baby was christened ‘Hawkesbury’ after the river and taken back to the US.  
7. Q. If you could track down one thing you haven’t yet managed to find out, what would it be?  
• A. I’d like to know the draught of the SS Namoi because I know the Hawkesbury River is 108 feet deep in the centre, but I wonder whether they had to moor offshore and take passengers in small boats to Dangar Island, or if they could moor at the wharf. I’d also love to go underwater in the murk of the river because there must be all sorts of artefacts half-buried there. I’ve watched people lose fishing knives and bottles in the river – it’s easily done! 
8. Q. What’s your best tip for people wanting to write a history book of their own? 
• A. If you are passionate about a subject, you will find a way to do it.
9. Q. How did you go about bringing the stories to life?  
• A. I let them speak for themselves. The last book I wrote was hardly edited and is in the voice of an 8-year-old girl. Learn to listen carefully to what folk tell you. 
10. Q. How do you know when you’ve written a good book?  
• A. I get the same warm, expansive feeling you get when you have your family and pets around you, or you’ve drunk slightly too much good single malt whisky or had a great cassoulet. 

Next Chapter History Group :: Capital Punishment in NSW

The Next Chapter History Group meets on the second Thursday of each month at Randwick City Library, Randwick from 10.30-11.30am. Facilitated by Inside History editor Cassie Mercer, each month a guest speaker talks about an aspect of Australian history.

On July 12, local Randwick historian, Pauline Curby, presents: To die or not to die, Capital Punishment in NSW 1910-1939.

Long Bay Gaol, undated. The last 9 NSW executions, between 1917 and 1939, took place at this gaol. 

(Courtesy of Randwick Library & Information Services)

One hundred years ago opinion was sharply divided in NSW on the merits of capital punishment. It was either a deterrent to crime, as many conservatives believed or a “relict of barbarism”, as one Labor politician proclaimed. Despite these polarised attitudes, hanging was falling into disuse in early 20th century NSW, as was the case in other Australian states. Why then were a handful of offenders executed, when their crimes seemed no worse than those who received gaol sentences?

The seminar is followed by morning tea. All are welcome.

Cost: FREE - $0
Time: 10.30am - 11.30am
Contact: For more information call Jane on 02 9314 4888.
Email: contactus@randwick.nsw.gov.au

Find out more about Pauline Curby and Download Chapter 1 of her book, Randwick, for free on the Randwick City Council Library page.

To celebrate Randwick City Council's 150th anniversary, Council commissioned professional historian, Pauline Curby, to write a fully referenced, illustrated, comprehensive new history of Randwick.

The 406 page hardcover book celebrates the history of one of New South Wales' oldest local government areas and tells the story of the diverse range of people who live in this scenic part of Sydney. Indigenous Australians, Anglo-Celtic Australians and more recent migrants all feature in its pages, as do jockeys, surf lifesavers, bodgies and widgies. Social problems such as the care of neglected children and the issues of crime and punishment, drinking and gambling are also part of the rich tapestry of this history.