• SA History Network News

Grants for Heritage Places

February 6, 2019

Owners of State Heritage Places may be able to secure funds through the Department for Environment and Water for projects that contribute to the longevity of these places. To be eligible the project has to relate to a place that is on the State Heritage Register, or located in a State Heritage Area.  Throughout South […]

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Museums and Collections Program Launched

February 5, 2019

The History Trust’s Museums and Collections (MaC) program is up and running!  MaC is a standards and funding program for incorporated historical societies, community museums and community archives.  It replaces the long running Community Museums Program (CMP) and offers greater opportunities for a wider range of participants. The purpose of MaC is to recognise and […]

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All Aboard! 50th Anniversary Last Passenger Service to Milang Re-enactment

December 1, 2018

On Friday 30 November 2018, 67 railway enthusiasts, friends and relatives were transported to Milang from Mount Barker via Strathalbyn on historic railcars, to commemorate the closing of the Milang railway station which took place 50 years ago to the day in 1968. Organised by the Milang Historic Railway Society in collaboration with SteamRanger Heritage […]

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National Grant Funds for South Australian History

December 5, 2017

The Peterborough History Group, Embroiderers’ Guild Museum and the History Trust of SA have each received a grant in the 2017 Community Heritage Grants (CHG) grant round. The CHG program provides grants of up to $15,000 to community organisations such as libraries, archives, museums, genealogical and historical societies, multicultural and Indigenous groups. The grants are […]

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Preserving and Accessing Collections

April 3, 2017

Digitisation has proved to be a popular topic with two workshops held in March booking out fast. Run as a partnership between the History Trust of South Australia and the State Library of South Australia the workshops were held in the north of the state at Port Augusta and in the south at Willunga on the Fleurieu Peninsula. The […]

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South Australian History Fund 2016-17 Grants

August 15, 2016

The South Australian History Fund (SAHF) 2016-17 grant round is now open and closes on Friday 19 August 2016. The South Australian History Fund (SAHF) is History SA’s annual grant fund supporting community groups to undertake small South Australian history projects. Funding for up to $2,000 for projects, $3,000 for publications and $5,000 for research […]

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Railway History is made at Milang

June 28, 2016

Port Milang Historic Railway Museum officially received their registration certificate marking their entry into the Community Museums Program, History SA’s Museums Standards program last Monday. The occasion was as unique as it was auspicious. The framed certificate was presented by History SA’s new CEO Greg Mackie to the museum’s President Allan McInnes, whilst standing on […]

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Dressing Up the History Festival

May 25, 2016

To create a big splash for the start of the History Festival History SA held a major event on the theme of dressing up. Held over three days, the Dressing Up program included a fashion parade of Victorian-era costumes and a workshop about underwear, a host of short talks and demonstrations on a huge variety […]

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Caring for your family treasures

April 28, 2016

There will be a special free conservation clinic on Tuesday 31 May at Mount Gambier City Hall offering expert advice to those in South Australia’s southeast, about caring for your family treasures. This clinic is ideal for those living in the South East who are concerned about those precious family heirlooms that are perhaps stored […]

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Community Heritage Grants

March 15, 2016

The National Library of Australia is calling for applications for the 2016 Community Heritage Grants (CHG). The grants of up to $15,000 are available to community groups around the country to help preserve and manage locally held, nationally significant cultural heritage collections of documents and objects for future generations. Eligible projects include significance assessments, preservation […]

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War at Sea: the Navy in WWI exhibition

January 27, 2016

Over one hundred years ago – on 14 September 1914 – Australia’s first submarine AE1 disappeared while patrolling the seas near present day New Guinea. No trace of the vessel or its 35 hands has ever been found to this day. This story is now being told in War at Sea – the Navy in […]

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Grants to Community Museums Announced

December 22, 2015

We are pleased to announce that through History SA’s Community Museums Program (CMP) grant fund 29 projects have been supported for 2016, totalling $148,177. History SA received 43 applications from 29 museums in the 2015-16 CMP annual grant round which closed on 15 September. The majority of projects funded were for new or stage two […]

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Celebrating Centenarians

December 7, 2015

A series of short films ‘Celebrating Centenarians’ was recently launched by Resthaven Inc, the South Australian aged care community service of the Uniting Church in Australia. Aiming to celebrate the stories of people aged 100 years and over, this collaborative project between Resthaven and the University of South Australia was funded through a ‘Positive Ageing’ Grant, […]

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South Australia’s Railways and the World War Years

November 13, 2015

The National Railway Museum’s latest displays, South Australia’s Railways and the World War Years, were launched today by the Hon Susan Close, State Member for Port Adelaide.  Registered museum in History SA’s Community Museums Program (CMP), the museum received a 2013-14 CMP grant for the display which was developed by its Curator and Assistant Curator, Moana […]

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Mary MacKillop Museum becomes 63rd Registered Museum in CMP

October 30, 2015

The Mary MacKillop Exhibition Centre and Archives, now known as the Mary MacKillop Museum, is the latest community museum to achieve Registration status in History SA’s standards program. Community History Officers Amanda James and Pauline Cockrill, who run the program for History SA, have been working closely with the museum and archives management team at […]

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Community Heritage Grants Recipients 2015 announced

October 28, 2015

Eight community history groups in South Australia have been awarded federally-funded Community Heritage Grants (CHG) amounting to $54,560 in the National Library of Australia’s CHG program, it was announced today.  Overall, 75 grants were awarded Australia-wide in 2015, totalling $438,710. CHG provides grants of up to $15,000 to community organisations such as libraries, archives, museums, […]

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Celebrating Violets

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 […]

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Peterborough Print Shop Rolling On

September 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 […]

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Australian Made Museum

September 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, […]

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South Australian History Fund 2015 Grants

July 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 […]

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Great War event Features Community Collections

May 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 […]

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Women of the River Country

April 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 […]

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School Museums in the Spotlight

April 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. […]

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Caring for Collections on Kangaroo Island

April 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 […]

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Glencoe Goes Off With a Baaaang!

March 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 […]

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Celebrating 120 years of women’s suffrage

December 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 […]

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A rather ‘splann’ trip to ‘Little Cornwall’

November 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 […]

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Name change for Highercombe Hotel Museum

October 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 […]

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Lady Soldiers reclaiming their place in history

October 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.  […]

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Full on Day Out at Loxton Village

October 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. […]

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Collections MOSAiC training workshops

October 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 […]

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Bravest of the Brave braves the Outback

August 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 […]

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