September 16, 2015
On a sunny spring Saturday morning in early September, History SA’s Online Programs curator, Catherine and I attended the launch of a new interpretive sign on the Old Norton Summit Road alongside Third Creek Reserve. It seemed an odd place to be standing sharing a delicious afternoon tea on a turn around, with the intermittent […]
Keep readingSeptember 2, 2015
The South Australian mid-north town of Peterborough is well known as a railway hub – the place where three railway gauges came together opening up the railways in the region and adding greatly to the ability of local farmers to get crops to ports. But Peterborough has another claim to fame and last week Amanda […]
Keep readingSeptember 1, 2015
Tucked away in a residential street in Birkenhead is an interesting maritime themed museum. After hearing about Austbuilt Museum over many years, Amanda finally got to visit it. The Austbuilt Museum is the result of one man’s passion for collecting ‘Australian made’ maritime objects. Over decades Keith Le Leu collected from around Australia and internationally, […]
Keep readingJuly 28, 2015
The South Australian History Fund (SAHF) is closing on 17 August. History SA welcomes applications from community groups for small projects, publications and research projects. Individuals can also apply for publication and research projects. Each year History SA receives a large number of applications for a diverse range of small projects. In last two grant […]
Keep readingMay 20, 2015
As part of the About Time History Festival, History SA held a major event over two days on the theme The Great War at Home. More than 400 people enjoyed a range of talks, activities and displays but for the community history sector the highlight of this event was a temporary display of 33 objects […]
Keep readingApril 16, 2015
On Thursday 9 April, almost 200 people attended the official opening of the Women of the River Country exhibition at the Mannum Dock Museum of River History. This new exhibition profiles 19 women of strength, passion and dedication and portrays how women from across the Murray Darling Basin have shaped the River Murray and its […]
Keep readingApril 8, 2015
South Australia was well represented at the recent 2015 Symposium of the International Association of School Museums and School History Collections held at Sovereign Hill, Ballarat, on 25-28 March. This was the first time since its formation 32 years ago that the bi-annual event has been held anywhere in the world other than in Europe. […]
Keep readingApril 2, 2015
Last week saw me driving down to the ferry terminal at Cape Jervis with the History SA car packed to the gunnels with archival material, monitoring equipment and sample artefacts from Artlab Australia. I was heading for Kangaroo Island to facilitate a two-day ‘Caring for Collections’ workshop for community museums and history groups. We run […]
Keep readingMarch 12, 2015
Can you use sheep to tell history? The Sheep’s Back Museum at Naracoorte has been preserving and telling stories of the wool industry since the 1960s, but on the March long weekend Blades of Glencoe put a new twist on telling history with sheep. Organised by the Mount Gambier branch of the National Trust, who […]
Keep readingDecember 17, 2014
Minister for the Status of Women, the Hon Gail Gago MLC launched a temporary exhibition Her Absolute Right on Friday 5 December at Adelaide Town Hall to mark the 120th anniversary of suffrage in South Australia. The exhibition outlines the journey to suffrage in South Australia from the late 19th century outlining the key activists […]
Keep readingNovember 4, 2014
Last week Amanda and I clocked up over 600 km during a two and half day trip visiting seven community museums on the Yorke Peninsula. These included those in the Copper Triangle, sometimes referred to ‘Australia’s Little Cornwall’, where many Cornish tin miners migrated in the late 19th century. Starting at Kadina, we attended the […]
Keep readingOctober 21, 2014
Old Highercombe Hotel Museum is to change its name to Tea Tree Gully Heritage Museum. This is to better reflect the wide range of exhibits, including five pavilions and a blacksmith shop in the museum grounds. The new name was officially announced at the museum’s Vintage Fair, held last Sunday, 19 October, to celebrate the 160th anniversary of […]
Keep readingOctober 17, 2014
Chance meetings can sometimes take you down some interesting roads. Early one morning this week, I was at the Torrens Parade Ground waving off 40 very excited former women soldiers with their family and friends as they headed down the Anzac Highway in a convoy of six historic vehicles from the National Military Vehicle Museum. […]
Keep readingOctober 16, 2014
You would think I would see enough museums in the course of my normal work, but I couldn’t resist the draw of the Loxton Village Kids’ Day Out on 8 October during the school holidays and the chance to see the newly installed signs that are helping to interpret key buildings in the Village streetscape. […]
Keep readingOctober 3, 2014
Nine enthusiastic participants attended the Collections MOSAiC training workshops in the Memorial Hall, Torrens Parade Ground, held over three days from 30 September to 2 October. MOSAiC, the Collections management and archiving software for museums, arts and heritage organisations, is produced by the Perth-based family business ISTechnology and is a popular choice by many small […]
Keep readingAugust 19, 2014
History SA/Veterans SA’s travelling exhibition Bravest of the Brave, which tells the moving stories of the eight South Australians awarded the Victoria Cross (VC) in the First World War, is on its way to Port Augusta and then on to the tiny town of Yunta, towards Broken Hill. To date these will be this popular […]
Keep readingAugust 5, 2014
Conservation Volunteers Australia (CVA) would like to commemorate 100 years of the Anzac spirit (1914-18) by creating 100 Living Memorials across Australia through their Living Memorials program. This program will support locally driven activities that engage the community in commemorative events across Australia. The program aims to recognise an individual local hero or community activity […]
Keep readingJuly 29, 2014
What I love about my job is coming into contact with the various community collections around the state and uncovering interesting and often significant items in unlikely places. Costume collections and their care seem to have been an overriding theme recently. During our visit to the South East back in June, we got to see […]
Keep readingJune 26, 2014
The South Australian History Fund (SAHF) is History SA’s annual grant fund supporting community groups to undertake small South Australian history projects. Funding up to $2,000 for projects, $3,000 for publications and $5,000 for research projects is available. In previous years the SAHF has funded oral history, archiving, digitisation, conservation and interpretation projects, along with […]
Keep readingJune 23, 2014
The Telling our Stories Alexandrina digital stories project was launched on 26 May. The enthusiastic crowd of about 150 people settled in to the Strathalbyn Town Hall to view the inaugural screening of ten short films. The films focus on different aspects of local history from the Alexandrina Council region, including stories about the River […]
Keep readingMay 22, 2014
Once Upon a Time: Stories of South Australian childhood is the latest travelling exhibition from History SA. It offers a glimpse into the lives of children living in South Australia over successive generations, in both the happy and more challenging times. It is intended to motivate people to share their community’s own unique stories of what […]
Keep readingMay 8, 2014
History SA jumped into its own About Time History Festival events early this year with a popular workshop on 2 May. The very cold and wet weather couldn’t keep 30 keen women away from the chance to learn and talk about costume and textiles. After an overview of the Australian Dress Register (ADR), Mary-Anne Gooden, […]
Keep readingApril 24, 2014
Recently I was tempted by the aroma of baking biscuits and some culinary history to attend another presentation by Allie Reynolds at Adelaide Farmers’ Market, at the Wayville Showgrounds. Timed perfectly for Anzac Day, it was a follow up to her first fascinating talk at the Market about her search for the first Anzac biscuit recipe […]
Keep readingApril 4, 2014
History SA/Veterans SA’s new joint travelling exhibition Gallantry, telling the stories of the brave actions of five South Australians awarded the Victoria Cross and George Cross in the Second World War and the Vietnam War, opened on 1 April at Adelaide’s new City Library. Following a welcome speech by the City of Adelaide’s Lord Mayor, […]
Keep readingApril 4, 2014
History SA/Veterans SA’s travelling exhibition Bravest of the Brave, which tells the moving stories of the eight South Australians awarded the Victoria Cross in the First World War, is on the move again. Affectionately known as BoB, the exhibition has already spent the beginning of the year at Semaphore & Port Adelaide RSL, before heading […]
Keep readingMarch 28, 2014
A new storeroom was officially opened at Axel Stenross Maritime Museum in Port Lincoln on Wednesday 19 March. A small evening reception was held to celebrate the occasion on the museum’s verandah with a pleasant sea view. Guests included those attending the History SA/Artlab Caring for Collections workshop held over two-days in the Port Lincoln […]
Keep readingMarch 28, 2014
Last week Artlab’s Principal Textile Conservator Kristin Phillips and I headed for the airport. We were on our way to Port Lincoln to run a two-day ‘Caring for Collections’ workshop for community museums and history groups. This skills development program is one that we run every two years or so in different regions but this […]
Keep readingMarch 27, 2014
35 eager participants attended our free one-day Digitisation for Preservation and Access workshop at the Hetzel Lecture Theatre in The Institute Building on North Terrace on Wednesday 12 March. Participants were largely from community museums, historical societies, school and university archives, but there were also representatives from a writers’ festival and a car club. Mainly […]
Keep readingFebruary 3, 2014
On a hot evening right at the end of January I headed out to the Old Highercombe Hotel Museum at Tea Tree Gully, where I had the honour of officially opening the Museum’s latest exhibitionVines to Wines. The exhibition looks at the history of grape growing and wine and spirits production in the Tea Tree […]
Keep readingJanuary 30, 2014
Recently I assisted the South Australian Bhutanese Community to install their Forum exhibition in the community gallery at the Migration Museum. There are some lovely objects – various vessels made from copper and brass and some beautiful handmade jewellery. There are also some perhaps unexpected items – soccer balls made from plastic bags and models of […]
Keep readingDecember 20, 2013
This week Amanda and I played Santa for a number of museums in our Community Museums Program (CMP) when we handed out free cabinets from the South Australian Museum (and mince pies!) Earlier in the year we were pleased to be able to offer a number of free shallow-drawer wooden storage cabinets to members of […]
Keep readingDecember 3, 2013
Fifty years ago a team of public servants endured freezing night time temperatures and water rations to accurately survey the southern Simpson Desert. An exhibition on at the Mortlock Library commemorates their journey. In July 1963 an eleven man survey team from the South Australian Department of Lands left Adelaide to undertake the first comprehensive […]
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