CONFERENCE REPORT

Saving History

Danny Blackman

Saving History, a panel discussion on preserving vital local, union and business records, organised by the Sydney Branch of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, in conjunction with the Labour History Group, Sydney University, was held 9 February 2003 at PSU House, Sydney. As part of the Sydney Branch's regular Sunday afternoon discussion series, the seminar featured a panel of five speakers and attracted around 45 participants, including local historians, librarians, archivists and trade unionists, as well as labour historians.	1
Original records are the very bread and butter of history, and events of the last decade or so in Australia have highlighted some of the challenges facing historians — and in a very immediate sense librarians and archivists — in ensuring ongoing access to local, union and business records.	2
Labour historians are of course familiar with, and have participated in, the struggle to save specialist collections such as the Noel Butlin Archives of Business and Labour in Canberra. Their knowledge of and relationship with the keeping of history at a local level is less certain. Since the 1960s, labour history has moved beyond institutionalism and a view of the Australian labour movement confined by the boundaries of the institutions of organised labour, the trade unions and the ALP, to a broader view of the social, cultural and political history of the working class. Gender and race have been added to traditional class perspectives, and the use of place and community as a lens has been legitimised, providing fruitful intersections between labour and local history.	3
This intersection is apparent in Hearn and Patmore's Working the Nation1, and is highlighted in Labour History no. 782 under the theme of Labour History and Local History. But in taking up the lens of place, labour historians seem constrained in their use of original, locally created records. In the six local studies in Labour History no. 78, less than a dozen of the five hundred-odd references are to local government records, and local material is mostly drawn from newspapers, parish registers or census and other data from government archives. There are a number of possible reasons for this. Labour historians may not see local government records as relevant sources, they may not expect to be able to access the records, or relevant records may no longer exist.	4
Saving History aimed to highlight the relevance of local government records and to draw attention to the fact that, in NSW at least, relatively few local councils adequately maintain and provide access to their records. While the State Records Act 1998 (NSW) includes local government in its ambit, it has been less than successful in halting the widespread destruction of many key records.	5
Shirley Fitzgerald, in exploring the nexus between labour and local history, drew out the 'rich pickings' awaiting the labour historian in the 'fabulous, extensive and complex' records of the City of Sydney — one Council that has taken very seriously its responsibility to keep the record. Evidence of council's early role as 'dispenser of jobs for the needy', the resulting connections between political patronage and jobs, barrow licences and market stalls; Council's own records on industrial negotiations (a key source on the Municipal Employees Union) and strikes (the garbos, the electricity workers, 'the time the blockboys struck in sympathy with their dads in the great strike of 1917 and none of the horse shit got swept from the roads'); hall hiring records — together with infectious diseases registers, planning and building records — these constitute a very rich lode to mine.	6
Peter Orlovich outlined the history of legislation requiring record keeping in local government, indicating that the earliest local government records in NSW are now all but extinct. Peter's work, as a consulting archivist and as lecturer in the now-defunct University of NSW Graduate Diploma in Archives Administration, has been instrumental in saving what records remain, and he continues to work with any council that is prepared to put the effort into identifying, preserving and conserving surviving records. Edith Cowan University in WA now offers the only remaining graduate archives program in Australia; we may not have reached the end of history but we face a shortage of trained archivists to organise, describe and preserve it.	7
Margaret Penson addressed the typical situation confronting the local studies librarian, archivist or researcher, using the inner Sydney municipality of Leichhardt as an example — records 'lost in floods or fires', spirited away to the tip on weekends or simply left to moulder away in leaky basements or attics. Economic rationalism has left its mark here too, for history is seen as having little monetary value, and cash-strapped councils aren't prepared to pay to house it.	8
David Roberts outlined State Records Act provisions covering local government, and strategies since 1998 to improve local government record keeping. Faced with the classic regulatory bind of increasing compliance with no additional resources to do so, NSW State Records opted for the carrot rather than the stick, encouraging councils to maintain their own archives with appropriate standards; but progress overall has been glacial. Most councils favour operating their own archives, however 60 per cent do not store them in climate-controlled areas and more than 70 per cent report mold, vermin or fragility problems. Less than 30 percent offer public access as part of their regular service.3 Provisions in the Act enabling prosecutions for unauthorised destruction, damage or neglect of records are unworkable so none have been launched, much to the chagrin of those who see a successful prosecution as a key factor in securing local government compliance.	9
Sigrid McCausland's account of the successful fight to save the Butlin Archives provided a useful counterpoint, highlighting the value of mobilising public and community support and showcasing key records through web and other publications to force recognition of their value. These strategies struck a chord with local historian participants and triggered a useful discussion canvassing options for housing collections in local heritage buildings, seeking research funding to promote local holdings, and repositioning local collections as major community resources and money-spinners for councils.	10
In NSW (a state with a 'history' Premier) there is an urgent need for action to save the enormous wealth of information contained in endangered local government records. Historians and other interested people should note that the State Records Act is to be reviewed this year, with a very public consultation process and call for submissions.	11
Endnotes 1. M.Hearn and G. Patmore (eds), Working the Nation: Working Life and Federation 1890-1914, Pluto Press, Annandale NSW, 2001. 2. Labour History, no. 78, May 2000. 3. NSW State Records, Local Government Archives Survey 2001.

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