Society secures collection future

Arapiles Historical Society in Natimuk will digitise its collection with help from a $5000 Horsham Rural City Council grant.

The society is one of many organisations to receive money through the council’s annual Community Development Grants Program, which provides cash support for community projects and improvements.

The society project started with Australian Museums and Galleries Association, Western Victoria training in the digitisation process in February. Victorian Regional and Creative Arts funded the training.

The digitisation process includes consistently lighting, photographing, cataloguing and manually recording each item in the collection.

The Horsham community grant means the society can buy necessary equipment for the work, including a camera, flash, backdrops and tripod.

Arapiles Historical Society collection ranges from large farming equipment to small household goods and photographs, dating from the 1800s to modern times.

One of the larger items in the collection is a horse-drawn wagon which brought European settlers to Natimuk from South Australia in the 1870s.

Society grants officer Elizabeth Both said receiving the community grant was ‘wonderful for us’.

She said many of the items in the collection were delicate, so having digital images to view instead of handling the real items would help safeguard them for the future.

“They are irreplaceable,” Ms Both said.

Members of Arapiles Historical Society will start the digitisation works as soon as practical.

The society will share the digitised collection online at Victorian Collections website, victorian collections.net.au.