The custodians of a town's tales

NEW developments are taking shape for the Ballan Shire Historical Society.

A sneak peek around the back of the town’s historic court house in Steiglitz Street confirms that the society’s new archival storage and work space has been built with only a few finishing touches needed before the Society can move in and start using it.

“We hope to move in next month,” the Society’s secretary Rick Biden said.

The society will also continue to use and occupy the historic court house building which has long housed its significant collection of historic documents, photographs, newspapers and books relating to the former shire of Ballan area.

Ballan Shire Historical Society’s new archival storage and work space building is now almost complete and ready for the Society to move in with an official opening date to be set.

“The old Ballan Courthouse has very limited storage and is not big enough for our collection so we have now built out the back for archival storage and work room,” Mr Biden said.

“Over the last couple years we’ve been raising funds for that and now it’s built we’re just about ready to move in.

“We’re just waiting for the car park and disabled ramp and the flooring and fittings.

“We received substantial funding from a private donor for the new building, also grants from the Community Bank Ballan and District, and the Moorabool Wind Farm.”

The Ballan Shire Historical Society will continue to use the historic Ballan Court House in Steiglitz Street following completion of its new archival storage and work space building behind the court house.

Over the past couple of months they’ve also welcomed seven new members to their already healthy membership of more than 70, while planning to boost their visibility in town by beginning a new regularly recurrent presence at the town’s library as well.

Mr Biden has been with the society for a quarter of a century after initially joining with his wife, Gail, who died in January.

The dedicated local history enthusiast said it was due to his wife that he initially became interested in local history in the first place, after she encouraged him to attend a Werribee historical society meeting prior to their move to Ballan 26 years ago.

An early photo of Ballan from the Ballan Shire Historic Society’s large and significant collection.

“It’s a bit of everything,” Mr Biden said, explaining his own attraction to local history.

“It’s the people, the area and the history behind the area which is pretty interesting when you get into it.”

For Mr Biden being part of the society is a means to feeding an ongoing fascination in the rich stories from the area’s past, and to keeping busy – “very busy” as it happens.

“We get a lot of enquiries from people who get in touch with us and want to know about their grandparents or other earlier family members,” he said.

“We get enquiries all the time and we do get a couple from people writing books, but mostly family history.

An historic capture of the Ballan Mechanics Institute.

“We will still use the court house for meetings and functions and open days and displays, and we will have a room there dedicated to newspapers.

“Anyone else who wants to hire the court house can do so by contacting us, and we are open by appointment for family and local history research.”

The Society is very welcoming of new members and meets at 1.30pm on the last Saturday of the month at the old Ballan Courthouse with the meetings open to all and more information available by phoning the society on 5368 2544 or emailing [email protected].