CAIRNS Historical Society will receive $2,690 from the Federal Government’s Community Heritage Grants to hold a collection, storage and handling workshop.
The funding is part of more than $420,000 announced by Minister for the Arts, Senator the Hon Mitch Fifield, for 75 community organisations around Australia to preserve and increase access to locally owned and nationally significant collections.
Federal Member for Leichhardt Warren Entsch welcomed the funding.
“Cairns Historical Society provides a vital service in recording and preserving the history of our region – from the stories of local First Australians, to our city’s involvement in the Second World War, and the industries and people that have made us what we are today,” said Mr Entsch.
“This funding will provide important support for Clive Skarott and his team to train more volunteers in how to best collect, store and manage key pieces of our history.
“It’s exciting that the Australian Government has provided Cairns Historical Society with one of the 75 grants – it reinforces the value of Cairns history to our nation while recognising the hard work and dedication of the Cairns Historical Society team,” he said.
The Community Heritage Grants program is managed by the National Library of Australia and, since 1994, has provided a total of $5.7 million to more than 1,200 projects.
Senator the Hon Mitch Fifield said: “Australia’s national collecting institutions play an important leadership role in the program by building the capacity of the sector through providing preservation and collection management workshops where experts share their invaluable knowledge, experience and expertise with their peers from local, regional and community organisations.
“The program is supported through the Ministry for the Arts and four of our country’s leading cultural institutions – the National Library of Australia, the National Archives of Australia, the National Film and Sound Archive and the National Museum of Australia.”
More information about the Community Heritage Grants program and a full list of funding recipients is available at http://arts.gov.au/collections/community-heritage-grants