Federation of Australian Historical Societies

FEDERATION OF AUSTRALIAN HISTORICAL SOCIETIES INC

e-BULLETIN No. 109 – 10 March 2013

Hon Editor, Dr Ruth S. Kerr

1) Your Community Heritage grants

2) Anzac Centenary Local Grants Program

3) Australian Heritage Week

4) National Cultural Policy

5) Tasmanian portraits donated to Runnymede House in New Town, Hobart

6) National Library of Australia - recent additions of digitised newspapers to Trove

7) Tasmanian West Coast ABT Railway announcements

1) Your Community Heritage grants

The 2012-13 Your Community Heritage funding round is now open for applications.

Grants up to $500,000 are available to help community groups to conserve and protect Australia’s nationally significant historic sites, undertake natural disaster recovery and mitigation activities relating to historic heritage places, honour eminent Australians who have made a significant contribution to our nation, assist communities tell their heritage stories, and enhance community engagement in heritage through celebrations and events.

Applications close at 5pm (AEDT) Thursday 21 March 2013.

The Guide for Applicants and Application Form are available from the Your Community Heritage website at: www.environment.gov.au/heritage/programs/ych/index.html.

If you require further information after reading the Guide for Applicants and Frequently Asked Questions, please contact the Department by telephone on (freecall) 1800 653 004 or by email at heritagegrants@environment.gov.au.

(Source: Your Community Heritage Program, Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities - 28 February 2013)

2) Anzac Centenary Local Grants Program

On 21 February 2013 the Prime Minister, Hon Julia Gillard MP, and the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on the Centenary of Anzac, Hon Warren Snowdon MP, announced grants to encourage communities across Australia to become involved in the Centenary. The Anzac Centenary Local Grants Program, providing $100,000 per electorate, will enable and empower communities across Australia to commemorate the Centenary of Anzac in their own way. Grant funding will be available in 2013-14.

(Source: www.pm.gov.au/press-office/anzac-centenary-grants-announced - 19 February 2013)

3) Australian Heritage Week

The third annual Australian Heritage Week will take place from Saturday 13 April to Sunday 21 April 2013.

Australian Heritage Week is an initiative of the Australian Government and is open to anyone who wants to get involved. By bringing a focus to the immense range of heritage events and experiences on offer around the country, Australian Heritage Week provides an opportunity to celebrate and reflect on the stories and places that make our communities special.

If you have been thinking of hosting an event during Australian Heritage Week 2013 and haven’t already done so, I invite you to register your event for free at http://heritage-week.govspace.gov.au/ You can register your event at any time. If you would like to change details or add a photograph at any time after you have registered, please email ausheritageweek@environment.gov.au

There is no theme for Australian Heritage Week in 2013, but the Australian Heritage Week logo is available to download from the website once you have registered an event, and you are welcome to use this in marketing your event. We encourage your feedback on Australian Heritage Week, and I invite you to tick the appropriate box on the registration form to participate in a short electronic survey following the event.

If you would like to feature an article about Australian Heritage Week on your website or in a newsletter, please contact me.

Find out more at http://heritage-week.govspace.gov.au/ .

Contact:

Charmaine Hastings
Heritage Strategies Section
Heritage South Branch, Heritage, Wildlife & Marine Division
Australian Government
Dept. of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities (DSEWPaC)
Ph: (02) 6274 2054
email: ausheritageweek@environment.gov.au.

ahw-2013 for signature block

Your heritage...pass it on!!

(Source: Charmaine Hastings - Dept. of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities - 4 March 2013)

4) National Cultural Policy

At a celebratory function for the 40th anniversary on 18th February 2013 of the establishment of The Australia Council, the Arts Minister, Hon Simon Crean MP, stated that he is seeking to have the National Cultural Policy announced in mid-March 2013. His father, Frank Crean, Treasurer in the Whitlam government, provided funding to establish The Australia Council. He has linked several funding initiatives to the Policy including $20 million over three years for the Australian Interactive Games Fund and $3.2 million over two years for Creative Partnerships Australia to advance private-sector arts support. Hon Simon Crean also stated that the National Cultural Policy will assist arts institutions and agencies to ‘fit the times and realise the opportunities.’

(Source: Australian 20 February 2013 p.15)

5) Tasmanian portraits donated to Runnymede House in New Town, Hobart

Portraits of Tasmania’s first Anglican Bishop, Francis Russell Nixon (1803-1879), and his wife, Anne Maria Nixon (1811-1868), by George Richmond (1771-1837) have been donated to hang in the National Trust property, Runnymede in New Town, Hobart. The donor is United Kingdom resident, Ms Margaret Benedict Moehrle, who is the great great grand-daughter of the Nixons who lived at Runnymede (which they called Bishopstowe) from 1850 to 1862 when they returned to England. The portraits were painted before the Nixons came to Australia.

Runnymede was named after the ship of Tasmanian whaling operator, Captain Charles Bayley. The Bayley family lived in the house for over a century.

(Source: Australian Financial Review 21 February 2013 p.21 including photographs of the portraits)

6) National Library of Australia - recent additions of digitised newspapers to Trove

The National Library of Australia (NLA) is pleased to announce the following newspapers which have issues that have been newly added to Digitised newspapers and more on Trove. Many of these newspapers are currently being added to Trove and further issues will become available shortly.

New South Wales
Globe (Sydney, NSW : 1911 - 1914)
Irrigation Record (Sydney, NSW: 1913 - 1917) Digitisation generously supported by Griffith City Library, McWilliam’s Wines & Murrumbidgee Irrigation Ltd.

Queensland
Queensland Country Life (Qld. : 1900 - 1954)
Sunday Mail (Brisbane) (Qld. : 1926 - 1954)
Western Star (Roma) (Toowoomba, Qld. : 1948 - 1954)
Western Star and Roma Advertiser (Toowoomba, Qld. : 1875 - 1948)

South Australia
Bunyip (Gawler, SA : 1863 - 1954)
Port Lincoln Times (SA : 1927 - 1954)
Port Pirie Recorder (SA : 1918 - 1919)
Southern Argus (Port Elliot, SA : 1866 - 1954)

To ascertain the latest titles which have been added to Trove, subscribe to one of NLA Web feeds. Through Trove, the national resource discovery service, there is free online access to over 8 million pages from over 350 Australian newspapers. All of the digitised newspapers are fully text-searchable and users can enrich and enhance the data through subject tagging, text correction and annotations.

Titles have been selected by the NLA in consultation with the state and territory libraries. A number of the titles are being digitised with the generous support and funding from a range of organisations.

For those libraries and organisations wishing to digitise a newspaper title, please see our Contributor guidelines. (For additional information please email NLA at andp@nla.gov.au).
A list of newspapers scheduled to be digitised through the Australian Newspapers Digitisation Program over the coming year is shown on the website: www.nla.gov.au/content/new-titles-coming

7) Tasmanian West Coast ABT Railway announcements

The Tasmanian and Federal Governments are providing funding for infrastructure upgrades critical to the future of the West Coast Wilderness Railway.

Minister for Infrastructure David O'Byrne and Minister for Tourism Scott Bacon announced on 24 February that the State Government would provide up to $1.5 million a year for four years to underwrite the railway's operation, in partnership with Federal funding of $6 million.

It will also assist other tourism operators who rely on the West Coast Wilderness Railway.

Minister O'Byrne stated that, while the funding was now in place, an operator had to be secured. He stated at the Queenstown public meeting that he hopes that there will be a viable long-term business model with the private sector.

(Source: Press Release of Tasmanian Minister for Infrastructure, Hon David O'Byrne MP and Minister for Tourism, Hon Scott Bacon MP on 24 February 2013; Press Release of Federal Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Hon Anthony Albanese MP on 24 February 2013)