Museum Without Walls opens up

TORQUAY historians have used the power of the internet to build a “museum without walls”, and have called on the community to share their stories.

The virtual museum was launched at a ceremony at the Spring Creek Community House on Tuesday night.

Torquay Museum Without Walls president Chris Barr said the project was a digital history of the town that people could get access to anywhere, anytime, including pictures, databases, oral histories, and videos.

In the future, the group hopes to create audio walking tours and a smartphone app.

“It’s about old history, and new history, and unless we start recording what we think is relevant and new history, it’ll get lost before it becomes old history,” Mrs Barr said.

“What happened in the 1970s when the hippies came to Torquay? It’s very much part of our history and young people of Torquay think it is old history.

“If we don’t record those stories, they’ll be lost before we can get them down.”

She said the project needed contributions from “you and everyone you know”.

“We want people to share their stories so that we can build a library of stories from Torquay.”

Mrs Barr said the Museum Without Walls was particularly important for students at Surf Coast Secondary College “We want them to read as many views as they can (about Torquay), and make up their own minds on what might have happened.”

“It’s really wonderful in our community when new initiatives are done, and it’s just growing and growing,” she said.

To visit Torquay’s Museum Without Walls, head to torquayhistory.com or facebook.com/torquay.museum.without.walls.