Locals win Victorian history awards

PUBLIC Record Office Victoria and the Royal Historical Society of Victoria recently presented the 2024 Victorian Community History Awards at a ceremony at the Langham in Melbourne’s Southbank.

Ballarat locals Alexandra Pierce and Keira Quinn Lockyer won awards for their history-focused projects.

Lockyer won the Community Diversity Award for her book The Pioneering Jews of the Ballaarat Goldfields.

“The [book] began as a personal family history journey and finished as a work to which more than 70 people have contributed,” said the judges.

“It is valuable for all those interested in the history of Ballarat and Jewish history in Australia.

“The author has made use of family history links and a sound contextual knowledge of Ballarat history to demonstrate a personal and highly engaging narrative style.

“The work recounts a period when the Jewish community engaged at a high level in the local political, business and charitable institutions of Ballarat.

“Indeed, seven of the early mayors were Jewish and the earliest institutions such as the hospital, orphanage, fire brigade, Mechanics Institute and Benevolent Asylum were inaugurated and/or given starting finance by the Jewish pioneers.

“The author considers the role of Jewish women and includes comprehensive notes on all traceable Jewish pioneers and their family members, as well as useful notes on her research sources.

“The book is lavishly illustrated with many significant artworks and photographs from the Gold era.”

Ms Pierce won the Oral History Award for her Women, Conscription, War podcast.

“The 15-episode podcast…tells the story of the Melbourne women who opposed the Vietnam War and the National Service Act from 1965-1972,” said the judges.

“Each thematic episode weaves together narratives from fifty-eight oral history interviews conducted by Alexandra Pierce for her project.

“It also includes contemporary archival documents, photographs and protest ephemera and invaluable bibliographies of primary and secondary source material.

“It allows historical actors to make sense of their experiences, to bring us along with them on that journey of understanding, and to recreate and explain a momentous period of Victorian and Australian history – through the stories of women who made history in so many ways.

“Created as a response to a gap in the historical record, this podcast series fills that gap and then some.

“The podcast approach makes the women’s stories and the wider history accessible to a wide audience.

“The fact that this history podcast was produced by a solo oral historian without institutional support is truly inspirational.”