Close to $2000 was raised for the Pastoral Times Trove Digitisation Project on Friday, at a morning tea hosted by the Deniliquin Genealogy Society.
The amount raised equates to around 1200 pages of the Pastoral Times being digitised, or approximately 1.5 to two years of papers.
The $1852.70 was raised through a mix of donations from the guests of the morning tea and through the raffles, which contributed $350 to the total sum.
Some significant donations were also made on the day including one from Councillor Marc Petersen, the Beames and Hallum families, Sally Stewart, and three anonymous donors.
Deniliquin Genealogy Society member Pam Jones said that once the amount of donations made from those who couldn’t attend the morning tea are tallied, along with the generous donations from the community, the overall amount raised for the fundraiser so far will be at nearly $5000.
“This is a great start to a big project,” she said.
“The Deniliquin Genealogy Society would like to thank all who supported this event.
“The society has already received other donations from the wider community and will acknowledge these contributions in due course.
“We really appreciate how the community is supporting this project.”
More than 30 people attended the morning tea, where there was multiple raffles drawn, a delicious spread of baked goods provided and a demonstration of Trove was given by Pam on the big screen.
“Members of the Genealogy Society are usually in the Edward River Library on Fridays, so if anyone wants to learn more about using Trove or to find out how the fundraising is going, they are welcome to come in and ask,” said Pam.
“We would like to thank the Pastoral Times for advertising this event, the Edward River Library for allowing us to host the fundraiser there, our members who willingly give their time and do the baking, and the guests who came and enjoyed the morning tea.
“The Pastoral Times Trove Digitisation Project is an ongoing project, so please keep an eye out for our next event.”
The Deniliquin & District Pastoral Times Digitisation Project has pledged $25,000 to kickstart the digitisation process, which is sufficient funding to digitise the Pastoral Times from July 1863 to about 1925.
The committee has accepted a quote from the National Library of Australia and the initial stage of digitisation is scheduled to commence later this year.
The campaign is designed to help fund digitisation from 1925.
Initially, with an average of five pages including supplements and published weekly, digitisation will cost about $400 per year.
But with the introduction of a bi-weekly publication in 1926, and an increase in the number of pages from four to eight in 1945, the cost will increase to more than $1,000 per year.
Donations to the Deniliquin & District Pastoral Times Digitisation Project can be:
• Deposited at the Edward River Library, 55 Napier Street;
• Transferred direct to BSB 633 000 Account Number 192631687, using your name as a reference. Forward confirmation of transfer to secretarydenigs@gmail.com; or
• Posted attention to the treasurer, Deniliquin Genealogy Society Inc., PO Box 144, Deniliquin, NSW 2710.