By Casey Neill
History preservers will share more about Dandenong’s past than ever before thanks to a new space and new technology.
The Dandenong and District Historical Society officially moved into the old council chambers at 39 Clow Street, Dandenong, on Wednesday 22 February.
It left behind cramped and dim rooms at the Tom Houlahan Community Centre in Foster Street East.
“This is our new home which we are absolutely delighted with,” the group’s president Chris Keys said.
She said “tireless volunteers” packed and unpacked photos and documents – and found items thought lost.
Ms Keys said a $5000 Federal Government Infrastructure Grant had paid for new scanners that had tripled the group’s digital archiving capacity.
Volunteer David Nassau gave a demonstration of the device, which looks like a desk lamp and means no more struggling to close a scanner lid onto a bulky book.
Fingers can easily be removed from the scanned image, he explained, and a program can extract text into a searchable file.
Greater Dandenong mayor Jim Memeti said the society enabled people to discover and celebrated the city’s “long and proud colourful history”.
He said the large room filled with natural light would be a great space to work in and looked better than when the councillors were based in the building.
Cr Memeti said “the whole world will be able to see the rich history of Greater Dandenong” thanks to the new scanning technology.
Federal Bruce MP Julian Hill said local history could show a community where it had come from, how it had changed and even how to deal with present-day dilemmas.
“There’d be none of these societies unless people step out of their lounge room and wander down,” he said.
“The history is recorded because people put in their time as volunteers.”
In February last year, Greater Dandenong Council officially opened an archive facility in Hammond Road, Dandenong South, to use alongside the Dandenong and District Historical Society and Springvale and District Historical Society.
