Care of Heritage

Across Victoria thousands of families and communities hold items of significance relating to the history of Australia’s involvement in war. Such material includes memorabilia, letters, diaries, medals, uniforms and other items of historical significance. Caring for private collections is vital to preserving the state’s heritage and history.

Below are some resources for families and communities to assist them to look after their heritage.

Veterans War Heritage Factsheets

The 'Preserving war heritage and memorabilia' fact sheets have been designed for volunteers in RSLs, ex-service organisations, community museums and historical societies. They contain practical and easy-to-understand information about preserving many different types of heritage commonly found in local communities across Victoria.

Resources for individuals and families

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  A Guide to Donating Veterans Heritage in Victoria (PDF 590 KB) provides information about how and where to donate veterans heritage material – objects, documents and memoirs – if you are no longer able to care for them.

• Caring for your Wartime Memorabilia is an online publication produced by the Commonwealth Department of Veterans Affairs. It provides tips on how to look after everything from medals, to uniforms to documents.

• Collectish is an online museum maintained by Museum Victoria. It allows people to upload images of objects in their personal collections and share information with others.

Resources for RSLs, community museums & historical societies

• Heritage Victoria’s Managing heritage collections - useful resources and contacts (PDF 547 KB) lists resources for community museums and local historical societies, covering everything from the cataloguing to the conservation of community collections.

• A Guide to Caring for Veterans Heritage Collections (PDF 688 KB) or (Word 86 KB)  provides information about how to manage veterans heritage collections including information about conservation, cataloguing and training for volunteers.

• The Royal Historical Society of Victoria provides support and resources for local historical societies and community museums.

• The Federation of Australian Historical Societies represents 1,000 local historical societies and over 100,000 members. A range of heritage resources is available on their website.

• The Australian Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Material website provides information about the conservation of objects as diverse as furniture, photographs, costume and glass.

• Community Collections Training is provided by Museums Australia (Victoria) to local RSLs, community museums and historical societies who are the custodians of heritage collections. They offer a number of practical workshops offered on a regional basis.

• The Small Museums Cataloguing Manual is an industry-standard reference for museums wishing to start or develop their collections cataloguing system.