Seymour and District Historical Society salvages documents

By Bianca Hall

Nov 1, 2022

A dedicated group: Jeff, Doug and Nancy Halpin, Dianne Davey and Bob Chapman are part of a group of about 10 Seymour and District Historical Society members who have been doing rolling shifts at the Whiteheads Creek CFA hall trying to salvage historical documents.

Since Monday, October 17, members of the Seymour and District Historical Society have been attempting the painstaking task of drying and reorganising the documents that were damaged in the floods.

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It has become a race against the clock to separate boxes of damp sheets of paper before they grow mould.

A big task: Secretary and curator Dianne Davey separates individual sheets of paper and lays them out to dry.

Historical society member Nancy Halpin said it was a long road ahead, with the documents taking a week to dry once they were separated. Once dry, they need to be re-organised.

“It’s Seymour’s history. We will never get it again if we lose these,” Mrs Halpin said.

Doug and Jeff Halpin are members of the Whiteheads Creek CFA, which has allowed the society to use its hall for the project as the historical society building has been impacted by the floods.

The Tallarook St building is expected to take eight months to repair.

The group is hoping to move the contents of the historical society headquarters to the hall behind the Uniting Church in Crawford St.