Have your say on local history treasures
Tuesday, 7 August 2018
Council is inviting all residents to explore some fascinating
research material and have their say on the planning and delivery of
history services over the next ten years via a community survey.
The local history service across the expanded Inner West Council
contains a treasure trove of items of community interest and Council is
looking for feedback on how it is stored and presented.
The Council correspondence files (former Marrickville, St Peters and
Ashfield Councils) are the key treasures from the Council archives and
considered to be an information gold mine for historians and
researchers.
Community collections allow residents to explore the history of local
community groups such as ‘Saving Dulwich Hill’, ‘Saving Ballast Point’,
the Greek Community collection or the Italian Community Collection.
Many individual research items also tell a great story such as the
mystery of the Annette Kellerman suitcase. This once discarded piece of
property of the globally famous local swimmer was found on a pile of
council clean up goods full of paper memorabilia capturing some of her
career travel and exploits.
There is some much more cross collections including letters and
postcards from the World War 1 battle fields, Marrickville Hospital
silverware and nineteenth century photography collections of the local
area.
Feedback from the community survey on the collections and other research
will be used to develop a draft History Strategy which will be put on
public exhibition for comment later this year. The strategy will be used
to ensure Council’s History Service meets the needs of current and
future users.
Council is also seeking community input on location options for the
Inner West Council History Collections as a result of the 2016
amalgamation. Specifically, Council is considering whether to
consolidate the Community History Collection and the historic Council
Archives at one central location given there are currently six locations
in which History and Heritage collections are held across the local
government area.
These include: Ashfield Local History Collection at Ashfield Library;
Ashfield Council Archives at Ashfield Service Centre; Balmain Community
Archive at Balmain Town Hall; Leichhardt Local History Collections at
Leichhardt Library; Marrickville Local History Collection at
Marrickville Library and Marrickville Council Archives at Petersham Town
Hall.
Once the History Strategy is finalised, the project will continue with the development of a Library Strategy.
If residents would like a survey mailed to them, they should phone Amie
Zar, Community History and Heritage Coordinator on 9392 5817.
For more information and to complete the survey online, view https://www.yoursayinnerwest.com.au/historystrategy