At the RAHS Annual General Meeting, the President, Emeritus Professor David Carment AM, spoke on "Local History and Local Historical Societies in Twenty First Century".
Following are some extracts from his address with a link to the full text at the bottom.
The Royal Australian Historical Society has long regarded its outreach role with local societies as being one of its principal functions. I briefly want to reflect on local history in Australia and the roles and future of local historical societies.
The publication of local histories in Australia rarely occurred before the gold rushes of the 1850s. After them, as what was known as the gold generation aged, pioneers wrote their reminiscences and journalists compiled substantial histories of the gold towns. They tended to be stories of material and social progress. They had long lists of firsts – the first European ‘discovery’, the first river crossing, the first school and so on. In doing so, they established a record for communities still in the process of being formed. They also often ignored or said little about Aboriginal people both before and after the first white settlers came.
The publication of local histories in Australia rarely occurred before the gold rushes of the 1850s. After them, as what was known as the gold generation aged, pioneers wrote their reminiscences and journalists compiled substantial histories of the gold towns. By the late nineteenth century, Australian local histories were becoming more common. They tended to be stories of material and social progress. They had long lists of firsts – the first European ‘discovery’, the first river crossing, the first school and so on. In doing so, they established a record for communities still in the process of being formed. They also often ignored or said little about Aboriginal people both before and after the first white settlers came. Many of these histories were anecdotal and badly organised but the best of them include powerful evocations of past events.
Historical societies set up museums and resource centres that provided those interested in conserving the physical elements of the past with the essential information that they needed to do so.
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