Historic donation made

By Lachlan Ellis

A local historical society has had a historic moment of its own, with a significant donation made to help establish a new building.

The Ballan Shire Historical Society (BSHS) recently received a $90,000 donation from Simon and Peter Fraser, the sons of the late Helen and Don Fraser, who were long-time members of the Society.

BSHS President Catherine Green thanked Simon and Peter for their generous contribution, and said it would go towards a new space for storage of archives and meetings.

“The new building project has been on the Society’s wish list for a long time, and we have spent many years working towards this goal. The former Court House in Ballan is a fantastic historical building, and the Society has been fortunate to have the Court House as our home since 1991. But the Court House is obviously an older building, and we have been wanting a space that is more suitable for storing the historical archive collection, with a bigger workspace to be able to work on indexing and digitisation and preservation projects for preserving the historical collection,” Ms Green told the Moorabool News.

“We will still be using the former Court House as our home, but this donation is a huge boost towards gaining a portable building to put on site together with the Court House so that we can have access to modern facilities for our working space and a more comfortable meeting space, and also to keep the collection in safe storage conditions.”

Ms Green added that Helen and Don Fraser were keen supporters of the Historical Society and its work preserving history, and the Fraser family had been living in Ballan for generations.

“Helen and Don Fraser were amongst the founding members of the Ballan Shire Historical Society and were always very active in supporting the Society’s activities and events. They were both very eager to share awareness of our local history, and in protecting local heritage sites and preserving historical objects, including some items from the Fraser family blacksmith business, which began in Ballan in 1866 and operated for many years into the twentieth century,” Ms Green said.

“We are really looking forward to being able to start planning the details of a new modern storage space for the collection and for our Society meetings, and we are very grateful to the Fraser family for this donation in memory of two of the Society’s very active and engaged supporters who had a real passion for protecting and sharing their local history.”