For the past few weeks, I have been watching the news and seemingly all other television coverage, showing the devastation that these fires are causing.
Apart from the obvious displacement of people, pets, native animals and livestock, the loss of houses and other important local community infrastructure, my mind has gone to the probable loss of local history and records. I can only imagine the amount of history lost.
I have thought about what I can do to help from way over in the Western Suburbs of Melbourne. Food and clothing is already being taken care of. But one thing that I can offer that not many others probably can, is preservation of local history.
If you or someone you know is aware of any datasets (sets of documents, books, manuscripts, files etc) or photographs from the affected bushfire areas, please let me know. I am willing to care for, store and digitise it for you, free of charge. Thats correct, no charge. Once I have digitised it, I can arrange for the original documents to be returned, and can supply the digital files on disc or via cloud.
Because historic documents and photographs should never become history…
