by Tracie Griffith
The project to digitise early Port Fairy (Belfast) newspapers started with a chance conversation between myself and Claudia Matthews, Port Fairy’s head librarian. We were discussing how the library no longer had a reader to view the old newspaper microfilm reels and wasn’t likely to get one as it is outdated technology now. The reels could only be viewed at the Warrnambool library on their reader.
Claudia happened to mention that the Public Record Office of Victoria (PRO VIC) provides grants for the digitisation of early newspapers to TROVE and I decided to look into their program, motivated by our association’s extensive use of these resources in the past.
The research for the Port Fairy Ghost Stories book was ongoing for three and a half years prior to the publication of the first edition. I spent a lot of time at the State Library of Victoria in Melbourne searching for information in their newspaper and family history room. The old newspapers are notoriously difficult to read and this type of research is very time-consuming. The idea that you could simply enter a single word descriptor into TROVE’s state of the art search engine to locate relevant items was an irresistible proposition. And it was all possible from the comfort of your own home!
Port Fairy Ghost Stories Inc. was eligible to apply for the PRO VIC Local History Grants Program so we forged ahead. The State Library of Victoria (SLV) holds the microfilm masters for all of Victoria’s newspapers and we started a conversation with Paul Dee about the process. Paul’s team provides page estimates and letters of support for the National Library of Australia (NLA)/TROVE. Based on the page estimates, the NLA/TROVE generates a quote for the proposed work, and the documentation from both the SLV and NLA/TROVE then forms the basis of any grant application.
Claudia and I put together a summary of local microfilm holdings for Paul’s reference, with Linda Tieman kindly providing information from the Port Fairy Historical Society. An extra bonus was the agreement by the SLV to include the project under their umbrella so we were eligible for the lowest rate for the digitisation work.
At this point, we were aiming to digitise all of the Belfast Gazette and as much of the Port Fairy Gazette as funding would allow. TROVE had digitised early newspapers across Victoria for the centenary of World War I, covering the years 1914-1918. Our pie-in-the-sky dream was to digitise the town’s early newspapers to the end of 1913, to compliment this work.
Our association’s submission to the PRO VIC was successful in obtaining a $12,586 grant. When we notified the NLA/TROVE, we discovered Pamela Marriott had already donated funds for the digitisation of the Banner of Belfast and some of the Belfast Gazette. Pamela is a former Port Fairy resident and well-known author of local history books. Taking Pamela’s contribution into account, our grant would now complete the digitisation of the Belfast Gazette and allow for far more digitisation of the Port Fairy Gazette.
We made contact with Pamela and she was a great help in assisting us to navigate the NLA’s processes. The NLA is a huge organisation and she made sure we were speaking to the right contacts from the outset. Her steady guidance was to prove essential to the project’s overall success, providing a welcome boost to our confidence in times of uncertainty.
When the Moyne Shire Council learned of the success of our application to the PRO VIC and Pamela’s personal contribution, they encouraged a grant application to their Community Assistance Fund. We were very excited when we received a further $15,000 in funding and for the first time, started to believe the project might actually reach our pie-in-the-sky goal after all.
Philip Hahn became our contact at the NLA/TROVE and his team embraced the vision of the project, carefully shepherding it through their work stream. As the months went by, it was exciting to see the work sponsored by Pamela appear online first and then gradually the work sponsored by the PRO VIC, the Moyne Shire Council and Port Fairy Ghost Stories Inc..
The project ultimately came in under budget and exceeded our wildest expectations, digitising the Port Fairy Gazette through to the end of 1922.
We are thrilled these resources are now available for researchers to access the world over. New information is sure to come to light about Port Fairy’s early history and allow for a more faithful representation of events. Early newspapers are a wonderful resource for researchers because the reporting is immediate and generally free of early censorship, providing insights into the society of the times.
Of course we searched Port Fairy’s early newspapers for the word ‘ghost’ and you can read some of the results on our NOTICEBOARD page. The stories and jokes are very entertaining.
We would like to thank Claudia Matthews, the SLV, the PRO VIC, Moyne Shire Council, NLA/TROVE and of course, the brilliant Pamela Marriott for the important roles they played in this project’s success.