Mildura Rural City Council, Media Release, 23 May 2022

People anywhere in the world can now take a step back in time to what was making the news during our region’s Soldier Settlement years thanks to Mildura Rural City Council Libraries’ newspaper digitisation project.

The project – 100 Years of Soldier Settlement – started in 2020, aiming to digitise the library’s collection of Sunraysia Daily newspapers from the 1920s and 1930s, which are currently stored on microfilm.

The digitised collection is now available on the National Library of Australia’s TROVE website, allowing anyone locally, nationally or internationally to easily search and access them from one central location, free-of-charge.

Councillor for Arts, Culture and Heritage Helen Healy said the library has so far digitised Sunraysia Daily issues up to 1937.

“This is a wonderful initiative that is not only preserving aspects of our past for generations to come, but providing a chance for anyone, anywhere in the world, to research what was happening in our region during our soldier settlement era,” Cr Healy said.

The Sunraysia Daily issues of the 1920s and 1930s coincide with the return of World War 1 soldiers to the region, and the soldier settlement scheme that was instrumental in shaping our recent history.

Cr Healy said the project would be an ongoing initiative as more funding became available.

“Our library team were able to complete the bulk of this initial stage of work thanks to a $14,994 funding grant from the Public Records Office Victoria and Victorian State Government, and they’ll continue this work as more funding becomes available,” she said.

For more information contact Council’s Library Team Leader Collections and Technology Rose Connell on 03 5018 8350.