Veterans Heritage Workshop to help prepare for the Anzac Centenary

Are you a volunteer interested in learning more about preserving your organisation's war-related heritage? The next Veterans Heritage Workshop will be held on Thursday 4 October 2012 in Shepparton.

Since 2010 Veterans Heritage Workshops have been held across Victoria to assist volunteers from RSLs, historical societies and community museums to care for their war-related material. Read more about the forthcoming Shepparton Workshop.

To date these Veterans Heritage Workshops have skilled-up over 200 participants from ex-service and community organisations. The strong demand for training demonstrates a growing concern about the condition of local war memorabilia collections, especially as we approach the ANZAC centenary.

The last regional workshop was held in Mildura where volunteers received practical skills on how to care for their collections of war-related material. Museums experts provided training to more than twenty participants on how to care for their collections of war-related material including medals, photos, diaries, objects and uniforms.

Workshop participants were encouraged to bring along an item from their collection to discuss its historical significance.  Teri Scott from the Ouyen District History & Genealogy Centre brought along a dented tobacco tin from World War Two. “This tin saved my husband’s life’, said Teri, “and it’s up to me to look after it now.”

The skills of heritage volunteers are vital to preserving Australia’s war heritage. Collectively these organisations hold more heritage material than the Australian War Memorial. Volunteers are typically passionate and dedicated, but often don’t have the specialist skills to look after fragile items in their collection.

“The workshop has made us think more deeply about what we collect and how we look after it”, said Lucy Hamilton from the Red Cliffs Historical Society, “especially with all the dust up here!”

Veterans Heritage Workshops ensure that the objects, documents and collections which allow us to tell Australian wartime histories are preserved for future generations.