Project Notes

The Project The Valuing Our Veterans: Victorian Oral History Project began at the beginning of 2000 when the Department of Veterans' Affairs approached the State Library to undertake a series of interviews with Victorian veterans. As part of the selection criteria, all the interviewees had to be residents of Victoria. The Department of Veterans' Affairs supported the project by providing the State Library with a grant of over $30 000 from the Local Commemorative Activities Fund under the Federal Government's Their Service - Our Heritage commemorative program. The aim of the project was to raise community awareness of the experiences and recollections of a number of Australians who served their country during times of war and conflict. The project involved two stages. The first stage involved recording the stories of 19 veterans and one person who served on the homefront; the second, providing access to these stories through a web site constructed by the State Library. The Department of Veterans' Affairs selected the twenty interviewees who represented Australia's involvement in conflict during the twentieth century. Dr Ina Bertrand undertook the interviews that were intended to cover the life of each interviewee before, during and after their involvement in war or peacekeeping. The interviews were recorded on a Sony Digital Audio Tape Recorder in the homes of the interviewees. Audio preservation of the interviews on reel-to-reel and CD-R was undertaken by Crystal Mastering in Ascot Vale, Victoria. All the original tapes and preservation copies are held in the State Library's La Trobe Australian Manuscripts Collection. Duplicates of the interview tapes are also held at the Australian War Memorial. The valuable contribution of Aboriginal servicemen to the Australian war effort is recognised through the interviews with Ned Egglestone, Lester Marks Harradine and Glen James. Copies of these interviews are also available at the Koorie Heritage Trust, 234-236 Flinders Lane, Melbourne. The archive section of the web site is designed to demonstrate the breadth of the State Library's collections in the area of Victorian war history and to provide researchers with ideas for source material. Digitising Material for the Site All the images on this site derive from the State Library collections unless otherwise stated. The personal stories section of the archive contains photographs donated by the interviewees for use on the site. Several photographs of the interviewees were commissioned by the State Library from photographer Kyla-Jane Hunt. Web Site Development The web site was constructed by Experimedia, the State Library of Victoria's experimental multimedia unit. The site was curated by the library's Field Historian, Frances Thiele, and designed by Aneta Bozic in Experimedia. Other library staff also contributed to the development of the site. Adrian Flint photographed many of the collection items, images of which were then scanned by Margaret Monro, Genevieve Pergl and Leonie Triolo from the Multimedia Access Team Shona Dewar from the Australian Manuscripts Collection, Mary Lewis from the Picture Collection, Judy Scurfield from the Map Collection and Des Cowley from the Rare Books Collection assisted in the selection of material that appears on the site. Katrina Phemister from the State Library's Education Centre wrote the Educational Tools. John Murray from the Department of Veterans' Affairs, our main point of liaison with each of the interviewees, played a crucial role in the construction of the site and the successful conclusion of the project as a whole. The main purpose of the web site is to provide access to the stories of the individuals who were interviewed. The project could not have been completed without the cooperation of these people and we are very grateful for the time that they have given us.

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Victorians at War - Oral History Project