Heidelberg Historical Society Weekday Volunteers win an award!

Posted on Monday, 20th May 2019 by Janine Rizzetti

Congratulations to the weekday volunteers at Heidelberg Historical Society who, on Sunday 20th May, were honoured by receiving the Community Group Award at Banyule Council’s Banyule Volunteer Awards.

Our volunteers were among a group of eighteen community groups nominated for the award - and we won!!

Congratulations: Eve Almond, Brenda Andrea, Elizabeth Banham, Margaret Birtley, John Butler, Brenda Brook, Maggie Callaghan, Fiona Campbell, Helene Gannac, Warren Hicks, Mathilde LeFort, Kathy Liley, Sue Markby, Graham Thorley,

We decided to nominate those weekday volunteers who are not also committee members but of course, committee member volunteers are also here every week. They include: Steven Barlow, Jenn Burgess, Nick Gammon, Mary Reid, Janine Rizzetti, Graeme Speers, Patricia Tippett, Kim Torney, Mike Torney.

Our nomination read:

Heidelberg Historical Society has been operating for 52 years and provides an insight into the history and development of the Heidelberg district and subsequent municipalities through a range of collections and exhibitions.

This particular cohort of weekday volunteers had its genesis in 2004 and have made it possible for the Society to create 14 distinct databases that allow material to be located quickly and efficiently. These databases include real estate brochures, oral histories, photographs, community archives, scanned hard copy resources, newspaper indexes and object and book catalogues.

In the last 12 months the group has added 744 images to the photograph and map databases and have increased the digitised general information files by 269 PDFs.

This cataloguing effort is an ongoing and cumulative effort that not only captures the past, but documents the present for researchers in the future.

These volunteers are also the backbone of social events held at the museum, participate in our open meetings held every second month, and act as volunteers for Sunday openings of the museum and research room.

The work of this group makes it possible for Heidelberg Historical society to provide resources and information to visitor, Banyule Council and the wider community. They enable the Society to document the rich history of the local community for future generations to enjoy.