State Library Victoria launches End of Financial Year Appeal

Thousands of recorded memories from Victorians of all walks of life are at risk of being lost forever, unless urgent work is carried out to save State Library Victoria’s collection of oral histories and recordings of Victorian voices. 

The collection includes more than 20,000 eye-witness accounts of historic moments, as well as personal insights into Victoria’s changing society and traditions. While work has begun to digitise parts of the collection, further preservation is needed and almost 13,500 are still held on at-risk analogue formats that have reached the end of their life. Thousands of cassettes, reel-to-reel and VHS tapes are subject to restricted access due to their fragility, and unless they are digitised, these recordings may never be played again. 

The 2026 End of Financial Year Appeal, Hear Their Voices Again: Help us preserve 100 years of memories seeks to raise $200,000 to digitise the most fragile and significant recordings. In total, the Library hopes to raise $2 million to preserve the entire collection and make the interviews easily accessible to historians and the public. 

State Library Victoria Director of Collections and Chief Librarian Roxanne Missingham said the oral history collection is an urgent priority for the Library. 

‘These are stories that you won’t find in history books. They are the human voice of historic events, rich with personal meaning, interpretation and details that are often missing from traditional documentary sources,’ she said. 

The Library’s Chief Digital Officer Paula Bray said preserving the collection will open access to the oral histories beyond the walls of the Library. 

‘Access to this significant oral history collection will ensure all Victorians can hear the voices of past generations, preserving memories and stories for today’s audiences and for future researchers. Digitising this fragile material is critical; without it, these voices are at risk of never being heard’ she said. 

The Library began collecting oral histories in the 1970s. The memories held in this collection span from the early 1900s, through to the First and Second World Wars, the 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, the Great Depression and civil rights movements, as well as the memories of Victorian sportspeople, artists, musicians, chefs and journalists.