The Victorian Community History Awards are held annually to recognise the contributions made by Victorians in the preservation of the State's history, and to recognise excellence in historical research. The effect of the VCHA over the period from 1998 to the present has been the stimulation of community history, the lifting of standards and the fostering of diversity and originality.The Victorian Community History Awards, by Carole Woods in Victorian Historical Journal, June 2013, Vol 84 No 1, p 159. Royal Historical Society of Victoria: Melbourne, 2013.
History The Victorian Community History Awards were established and sponsored in 1997 by Information Victoria. The judges have always been appointed by the Royal Historical Society of Victoria, and among the first were Professor Weston Bate, Professor A. G. L. Shaw, and senior journalist at The Age, John Lahey.The Victorian Community History Awards, by Carole Woods in Victorian Historical Journal, June 2013, Vol 84 No 1, p 159. Royal Historical Society of Victoria: Melbourne, 2013.
Funding was suspended in 2006 to provide additional funds for the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. After 2010 Information Victoria Bookshop withdrew support for the program, but after a vigorous campaign by the RHSV for the continuance of the Awards, the Baillieu government accepted a submission from the Public Record Office Victoria (PROV) to continue the program for a further four-year period.The Victorian Community History Awards, by Carole Woods in Victorian Historical Journal, June 2013, Vol 84 No 1, p 159. Royal Historical Society of Victoria: Melbourne, 2013.
From 2011 the Awards were administered by the RHSV in partnership with PROV.The Victorian Community History Awards, by Carole Woods in Victorian Historical Journal, June 2013, Vol 84 No 1, p 159. Royal Historical Society of Victoria: Melbourne, 2013.
In 2012, following consultation between the Public Record Office Victoria and the Royal Historical Society of Victoria, award categories were slightly altered and renamed, as below:
Victorian Community History Awards winners, from 2012
Victorian Premier's History Award 2012: Maree Coote for The Art of being Melbourne 2013: Robin A Vowels for Victoria’s Iron Lacework The Founders, Part A 2014: Anne Vale for Exceptional Australian Garden Makers 2015: Meredith Fletcher for Jean Galbraith: writer in a valley 2016: Pam Baragwanath and Ken James for These Walls Speak Volumes. A History of Mechanics' Institutes in Victoria 2017: John Burch for Returning the Kulkyne 2018: Jill Giese for The Maddest Place on Earth 2019: Phil Roberts for Avenue of Memories 2020: Amanda Scardamaglia for Printed on Stone: The lithographs of Charles Troedel 2021: Alec Morgan, Tiriki Onus and Tom Zubrycki for Ablaze – A Feature Documentary 2022: Janet McCalman for Vandemonians: The Repressed History of Colonial Victoria 2023: Carmel McKenzie for St Kilda 1841-1900: movers and shakers and money-makers
History Publication Award 2012: Paul Strangio for Neither Power Nor Glory: 100 Years of political Labor in Victoria, 1856–1956 2013: Olwen Ford for Harvester City: the making of multicultural Sunshine 1939–1975 2014: Robert Kenny for Gardens of Fire: an investigative memoir 2015: Lucy Sussex for Blockbuster! Fergus Hume & the mystery of the hansom cab 2016: Rozzi Bazzani for Hector: the story of Hector Crawford and Crawford Productions 2017: John Barnes for La Trobe. Traveller, Writer, Governor 2018: Gregory C. Eccleston for Granville Stapylton: Australia Felix 1836, Second in Command to Major Mitchell 2019: Carolyn Rasmussen for The Blackburns: Private lives, public ambition 2020: Brian Rhule for Maldon: A New History 1853-1928 2021: Michael McCarthy for In the Shadow of the Prom 2022: Barbara Minchinton for The women of Little Lon 2023: Kath Kenny for Staging a revolution: when Betty rocked the pram
Special awards 2012: Judges' Special Prize for Excellence - Lorne Historical Society & Lorne Aireys Inlet P-12 College VCAL Students for Construction of The Great Ocean Road DVD 2013: Judges' Special Prize for Excellence - Rod Charles for A Whirr of Many Wheels. Cycling in Geelong: A chronicle from 1869 to 1980 Volume 1: 1869 to 1914 2014: Mornington Peninsula Local History Network and Lavender Hill Multimedia for Postcards: Stories from the Mornington Peninsula (DVD) 2015: Graeme Davison for Lost Relations: fortunes of my family in Australia's Golden Age 2016: Magda Szubanski for Reckoning: A Memoir 2017: Michael Morrison and Lisa Clausen for Cruden Farm Garden Diaries 2018: Jennifer Bantow and Ros Lewis for Barro-abil Our Beautiful Barrabool Stone: History and Use of Barrabool Sandstone 2019: Chloe Hooper for The Arsonist: A Mind on Fire and David Sornig for Blue Lake: Finding Dudley Flats and the West Melbourne swamp 2020: Nick Anchen for Visions of Victoria: The Magic of Kodachrome Film 1950–1975 2021: Richard Broinowski for Under the Rainbow: The Life and Times of EW Cole 2021: Paul Paffen for For the Fallen: The 1921-1922 Melbourne Public Library Mural Competition within the setting of Decorative Painting in Australian Art 2022: Judges' Special Prize - Dr David Rowe for About Corayo: a thematic history of Greater Geelong 2023: Judges' Special Prize - John Cary for Frontier Magistrate: the enigmatic Foster Fyans
Oral History Award (from 2019) 2019: Peg Fraser for Black Saturday 2020: Sandy Jeffs and Margaret Leggatt for Out of the Madhouse: From Asylums to Caring Community? 2021: Lynda Mitchelson-Twigg, representing the Gippsland Lakes Commercial Fishing Community, assisted by Nikki Henningham, Leigh Henningham, Tanya King, Donna Squire and Geoff Stanton for End of an Era: The Last Gippsland Lakes Fishermen 2022: Nat Grant for the Prima Donna Podcast 2023: Richard Lowenstein and Martie Lowenstein for Don't Be Too Polite Girls
Local History – Small Publication / Small History Publication Award 2012: Ken McKimmie for Chewton Then and Now: A series of studies investigating change over time in the former Mount Alexander Goldfield town of Forest Creek later known as Chewton 2013: Coleen Bower for Water Races and Tin Mines of the Toora District: A Short History of the Tin Mines at Granite Bar and Toora 2014: Margaret Bowman for Cultured Colonists: George Alexander Gilbert and His Family, Settlers in Port Phillip 2015: Fiona Poulton and Katherine Sheedy for Boroondara Remembers: stories of World War 1 2016: Judith Buckrich for The Village of Ripponlea 2017: Robyn Lewis for Building Castlemaine: The Red Brick Legacy of H.D. McBean 2018: Hans-Wolter von Gruenewaldt and Kay Ball for Art Captured: Hans-Wolter von Gruenewaldt, Prisoner of War Camp 13 Murchison: His Story and His Art 2019: Beris Campbell et al. for More Than Just Housing: The South Port Community Housing Group Story 1983–2018 2020: Benjamin Wilkie for Gariwerd: An Environmental History of the Grampians 2021: Sarah Pinto for Places of Reconciliation: Commemorating Indigenous History in the Heart of Melbourne 2022: Dr James Lesh for Report on the place name: Moreland 2023: Flinders District Historical Society for Flinders Cargo Shed: heritage and environs
Small Organisation History Project Award
2022: Helen Petschel, Christine Cook and Matthew Cook for Red Cliffs recollections: a century of soldier settlement 1921-2021 2023: Willaura Modern Incorporated at Historic Railway Station Gallery in association with Willaura Historical Society for Precious objects: shared memories of our collective past
Local History Project Award 2012: Mick Woiwod for Coranderrk Database 2013: Kevin O’Reilly for Flyers of Time: Pioneer Aviation in Country Victoria, The First Fifty Years. A Collection 2014: Marguerita Stephens (et al. for Vol 4) for The Journal of William Thomas, Assistant Protector of the Aborigines of Port Phillip & Guardian of the Aborigines of Victoria, 1839-1867, 4 volumes 2015: Gillian and John Francis for Strewth! An insight into local involvement in World War One, 2 volumes 2016: Ian D. Clark (historian) for We Are All of One Blood: a History of the Djabwurrung Aboriginal People of Western Victoria, 1836-1901 2017: Collingwood Historical Society for Notable People of Collingwood 2018: Elizabeth O’Callaghan for Silent Lives: Women of Warrnambool and District 1840-1910 2019: Jill A'Vard and Armin Richter for When Roads Were Tracks: A history of the roads of Monbulk, Kallista, the Patch and Sherbrooke 2020: Patrick Ferry with Wally Nye for Blood, Toil, Tears & Sweat: Remembering the Pakenham District’s WW2 Service Personnel, 1939–1945 2021: Chinese Australian Family Historians of Victoria for Victorian CEDT Index 2022: Luciano and Georgia Keats, supported by the Australian Queer Archives, for Queer-ways 2023: Elio Sarpi for Houses of North and West Melbourne
Collaborative Community History Award 2012: Lyn Skillern and others for From Inkwell to Internet: a century of State Secondary Education in Leongatha 2013: Maree Hanlon and Pam Herbert (editors) for Through Their Eyes: A Glimpse into the Lives of Women from Benalla & District 2014: Gerry Robinson and friends for From Apples....to Coffee, the first 90 years of the Heathmont shopping centre, 1923-2013 2015: Craig Cormick (ed) for Ned Kelly Under the Microscope: solving the forensic mystery of Ned Kelly's remains 2016: Susan Blackburn (ed) for Breaking Out: Memories of Melbourne in the 1970s 2017: Julie Eagles (project coordinator) for Fletcher Jones: Stories from our Community 2018: John Andrews and Deborah Towns for "A Secondary Education for All?" A History of State Secondary Schooling in Victoria 2019: The Springthorpe Heritage Group for Mont Park to Springthorpe heritage project 2020: Cheryl Threadgold for In the Name of Theatre: The History, Culture and Voices of Amateur Theatre in Victoria 2021: Graham Willett, Angela Bailey, Timothy W Jones & Sarah Rood for A History of LGBTIQ+ Victoria in 100 Places and Objects 2022: Melbourne Women's Walking Club for Still on track: 100 years of the Melbourne Women's Walking Club 2023: Lisa Byrne and Dr Jane Eckett for On Bunurong country: art and design in Frankston
Multimedia History Award / Digital Storytelling Award 2012: Friends of Wyperfeld for Wyperfeld 100: A traverse in time DVD 2013: Valerie Wilson for A Guide to Pioneer Graves in the Mornington Cemetery Website: 2014: Lilydale & District Historical Society Inc for Gun Alley: the forgotten story of Lilydale's back streets 1880 to today (website) 2015: Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society for Postcards from Port: an audiovisual retrospective of Port Melbourne (DVD) 2016: Rural City of Wangaratta for We Remember: honouring the service and sacrifice of local veterans and the Wangaratta community during WW1 (website & DVD) 2017: Ros Stirling and Heritage Films for Joseph Reed and the Making of Marvellous Melbourne 2018: Mallacoota and District Historical Society for Secrets from the Mallacoota Bunker 2020: Rachel Fensham and Andrew Fuhrmann for the Digital Studio at University of Melbourne and Digital Heritage Australia for La Mama: The Biggest Little Theatre in Australia 2021: Atalanti Dionysus / Atalanti Films for A Miscarriage of Justice 2022: Way Back When and the City of Melton for City of Melton 150th Anniversary online exhibition 2023: Julian O'Shea for Unknown Melbourne
Historical / History Interpretation Award 2012: Gib Wettenhall for Goldfields Track Walking Guide 2013: Chewton Domain Society for The Monster Meeting, The Great Meeting of Diggers 4 pm, 15 December 1851 2014: Friends of La Trobe's Cottage for The garden at la Trobe's Cottage, Kings Domain, Melbourne 2015: Meyer Eidelson for Melbourne Dreaming: a guide to important places of the past and present 2016: Eva de Jong-Duldig and filmmaker David Smith for Duldig Studio Documentaries. Volume 1: 4 documentaries