Movie night to help preserve local history

A DOCUMENTARY that follows the events of the 1973 Nimbin Aquarius Festival will be shown at Eaglehawk’s Star Cinema on Thursday 21 November to raise money for the Bendigo Historical Society.

The film – Aquarius – covers how in May 1973 up to 10,000 artists, activists, hippies, students, gurus and visionaries descended on Nimbin for 10 days of “social and cultural exploration.”

BHS president Euan McGillivray said funds raised from the evening will go partly towards buying preservation supplies for the Society’s more than 40,000-item archive.

“Museums and libraries around the world use particular archival materials, and we do the same,” he said.

“It’s not cheap – these are specialised for preserving glass, leather, wood, textiles, photographs, paper and cardboard, for example.”

While the Society’s headquarters, History House in MacKenzie Street, is provided by a generous benefactor for free, of course there are associated costs with that as well.

“We have to run the building, like everyone else,” Mr McGillivray said.

“We have to pay for (utility) costs and we have 20 or so computers and scanners which need to be updated from time to time. And we pay for our online services, our website, and communications, so it’s really like a small business in that sense.”

History House is also currently holding an exhibition of select items from its catalogue – Treasures from the collection, which runs until 29 March next year.

View the exhibition between 11am and 2pm every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

The Bendigo Historical Society fundraiser: Aquarius takes place at Star Cinema on Thursday 21 November from 7pm.

Tickets can be purchased on the Star Cinema website.