Grant helps preserve local history

Published on 08 November 2018

Rockhampton Regional Council’s History Centre has been awarded a $5632 Federal Community Heritage Grant to fund a Preservation Needs Assessment of its archives.

The assessment will be carried out on the Central Queensland Collection which holds historical and contemporary materials relating to the local area dating back to early settlement, including Council Rates books, cemetery records, immigration records, maps, plans and family history resources.

Chair of Council’s Community Services Committee Cr Rose Swadling said that the Preservation Needs Assessment will assist in identifying what materials within the collection need to be prioritised for conservation.

“We are absolutely delighted to receive funding to undertake an assessment of our History Collection so that we can review our current preservation standards and consider where we may need to introduce new methods of preserving our materials,” Cr Swadling said.

“The conservator will look at things like our housing systems, storage and display environments, and the condition of our collections and will then make recommendations from there.

“We are very fortunate that local families donate some very precious and historical materials to us, but sometimes they are in very poor condition, so the assessment will tell us if and how we can preserve some of these deteriorating items.

“After the Preservation Needs Assessment has been completed in the New Year, we will be able to apply for further funding to assist with preservation and digitisation of the collection as well as further staff training.”

The Community Heritage Grants program is funded by the Australian Government through the National Library of Australia; the Department of Communications and Arts the National Archives of Australia; the National Film and Sound Archive and the national Museum of Australia.

The History Centre is located at the Rockhampton Regional Library and is open from 9am - 5pm Monday to Friday.