The Director-General of the National Archives of Australia, Ross Gibbs, has announced that the winner of the 2006 Margaret George Award is University of Western Sydney lecturer and leading scholar on the history of the voluntary sector, Dr Melanie Oppenheimer.

Dr Oppenheimer, who works in the university’s School of Humanities and Languages, won the award for her proposal to produce Volunteering: The Australian Experience — a book on the history of volunteering in Australia after 1945.

‘This is the first detailed empirical study of volunteering and its relationship with government focussing on the post-1945 period,’ Mr Gibbs said.

‘With a fresh set of eyes and an original perspective, it is hoped that Dr Oppenheimer’s use of the Archives’ unique collection will assist her in charting the journey of volunteers and volunteering in Australia.’

The National Archives collection is rich with holdings on volunteering. It encompasses documents about national sporting events (eg the 1956 Olympic Games), environmental movements, overseas voluntary aid organisations, and a variety of social welfare groups such as the Australian Red Cross, Meals on Wheels, and Marriage Guidance Counselling.

The foundations of Dr Oppenheimer’s project originate from her PhD work on the Australian civilian volunteer experience in WWII, and her monograph, All Work No Pay. Australian Civilian Volunteers in War, that examined civilian wartime volunteering from the Crimean War onwards.

Dr Oppenheimer argues that volunteering after 1945 and its interplay between the government and the non-profit sector, is a 'neglected topic in twentieth century Australian history'.

The National Archives Margaret George Award was established to encourage and facilitate use of the Archives’ extensive collection of files, photos, films and other records dating from Federation in 1901.