Community
16 May, 2025
Digitisation project complete
A SMALL band of enthusiastic volunteers are now celebrating the digitisation of early Port Fairy (Belfast) newspapers.
What began as a “casual conversation” between Port Fairy librarian Claudia Matthews and local, Tracie Griffith, has now come to fruition thanks to many months of hard work, persistence and research.
“Originally, Claudia (Matthews) and I were discussing how the library no longer had a reader to view the old newspaper microfilm reels and wasn’t likely to get one as it is now outdated technology,” Tracie said.
“The reels could only be viewed on a reader in the Warrnambool library.”
From that conversation, grants were sought (and approved) and the wheels began to turn.
“Our initial aim was to digitalise all of the Belfast Gazette and as much of the Port Fairy Gazette as funding would allow. Our pie-in-the-sky dream was to digitise the town’s early newspapers to the end of 1913.”
Thanks to a community assistance fund from the Moyne Shire Council, the digitisation of the Port Fairy Gazette through to the end of 1922 was made possible.
“Our not-for-profit association in Port Fairy published a book titled Port Fairy Ghost Stories back in 2017 and released a second edition in July last year,” Tracie said.
“We have now completed the digitisation of Belfast newspapers to TROVE and believe this will be of great interest to the local community.
“TROVE is an extraordinary resource and this now means these early newspapers are now permanently archived and readily available online.”
Tracie said keyword searches on a state-of-the-art search engine now enables anyone to access this material the world over from the convenience of their homes.
“This is not only important for researchers but also for locals who may be searching for information on their family history.”
