By CASEY NEILL
A NEW archive will protect Greater Dandenong’s history for the future.
City of Greater Dandenong will join with Springvale and District Historical Society and Dandenong and District Historical Society at a refurbished hall in Hammond Road, Dandenong South.
There’ll be space for about 200,000 items to cater for a 5 per cent growth in the collection each year.
The historical societies each have thousands of documents and artefacts and the council has more than 10,000 items in its civic collection.
Dandenong and District Historical Society president Chris Keys said the move was “very exciting for us” and a great step forward for the retaining the city’s history.
“It means that people can go and have a look and feel like they belong,” she said.
“I think it’s very important for people to belong to where they live and I don’t think you can do that unless you know the history of the place where you lived.”
Ms Keys said the collaboration included a scanner and someone to complete archive work.
“We’ve been plodding along in three locations with three different collections in varying places,” he said.
“We’re absolutely up to pussy’s bow in terms of taking stuff in here.
“The civic collection, that is absolutely up to pussy’s bow as well.”
Springvale and District Historical Society president Colin Robinson said the project was “something that’s got to happen, that’s for sure”.
“We’ve got to work together. It is all the City of Greater Dandenong so we’ve got to work together and have a place where we can keep all the archives together,” he said.
The three groups will sign a memorandum of understanding to finalise the deal at Heritage Hill Museum and Historical Gardens in Dandenong on 1 April.
Councillor Matthew Kirwan initiated the archive concept with unanimous support from his colleagues in March 2013.
“Our historical societies do amazing work,” he said.
“Their collections need to be stored in a place where the temperature is appropriately controlled and where there will be the capacity for their collections to grow.”
