Media Release
State Library Documents Enshrined in World Memory
9 August 2004
An item in the State Library of Victoria’s collections has been recognised by a UNESCO committee as a significant piece of Australian history.
The Port Phillip Association Records, which are part of the Library’s Manuscripts Collection, will be included in the UNESCO’s Australian Memory of the World Register. The citation was accepted by CEO and State Librarian Anne-Marie Schwirtlich at a presentation ceremony today hosted by ABC Radio’s Ian ‘Macca’ McNamara.
The Records are the foundation documents of European settlement in the Port Phillip and Melbourne region. They are important records of contact between European settlers and the local Kulin nations. The ‘treaties’ that John Batman claimed to have signed with the Aborigines remain relevant to ongoing debates on land rights and reconciliation. The papers also record the cross-cultural experience of the escaped convict William Buckley, with rare insights into Aboriginal culture before white settlement.
State Library Manuscripts Librarian, Jock Murphy says, ‘It’s important that these documents receive this public recognition. They hold significant historical relevance to our nation’s history and identity.’
Also included in the Register is a nine-minute 1906 film about the story of the Ned Kelly Gang from ScreenSound Australia, 461 signed ‘Sorry Books’ from the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies and the Australian Children’s Folklore Collection held by Museum Victoria.
The UNESCO program protects and promotes important documentary material that reflect significant periods in Australia’s history. The Australian Memory of the World Register helps us understand how we got to be the nation we are today through a range of material. Materials already inscribed on the Register are: The Endeavour Journal of Captain James Cook; The Mabo Case Manuscripts; The Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahoney Griffin Plan of Canberra and The Cinesound Movietone collection of weekly cinema newsreels from 1931 to 1975.
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