mmg.com.au

Tatura and District Historical Society has been awarded a $10505 Federal Community Heritage Grant to fund an audio visual project.

Announced in Canberra, this year grants of $428675 were distributed to 78 community groups and organisations from across Australia, to assist in the identification and preservation of community owned but nationally significant heritage collections.

In addition, Tatura and District Historical Society wartime researcher, Arthur Knee attended a three-day intensive preservation and collection management workshop held at the National Library, the National Archives of Australia, the National Museum and the National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra.

Mr Knee said the grant was important in supporting the effort to preserve the Tatura Wartime Camps Collection at the grassroots level.

‘‘While the grant provides the funds, the workshop offered the expertise to help us protect our collection and make it accessible while it remains in the local context,’’ he told The Guardian.

Mr Knee said the project would be carried out over the next 12 months by a local graphic artist, assisted by the society’s World War II camps researchers.

National Library of Australia director Anne-Marie Schwirtlich said the program showed the commitment by the National Library, along with its partner institutions and the Federal Government, in encouraging communities to care for the nation’s heritage, be it in small country towns or capital cities.

The program is managed by the National Library and funded by the Australian Government through the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Office for the Arts, the National Archives of Australia, the National Film and Sound Archives, the National Museum of Australia and the National Library.