Appendix H – Discretionary grants

In 2007–08 the Archives awarded grants under three schemes, described below. All grant holders gave public lectures during their tenures and were invited to publish material on the Archives’ website. For the first time the Archives also made the public lectures available online as podcasts. The Archives also contributed to the Community Heritage Grants scheme.

Ian Maclean Award

The Ian Maclean Award provides recipients with a paid opportunity to conduct research that will benefit the archival profession. The Award commemorates the contribution of Ian Maclean (1919–2003), who worked as an archivist at federal, state and international levels for 50 years, including as Chief Archives Officer of the Commonwealth Archives Office from 1961 to 1968 and as Director of the Australian Archives (now the National Archives of Australia).

The grant holder in 2007–08 was Gavan McCarthy, a Senior Research Fellow at the School of Historical Studies and Director of the eScholarship Research Centre at the University of Melbourne.

Frederick Watson Fellowship

This Fellowship is awarded annually in honour of Dr Frederick Watson (1878–1945), a firm advocate and user of government archives at both the state and national level. He is best remembered for his editorship of the Historical Records of Australia series, produced by the Parliamentary Library Committee. The Fellowship is granted to established scholars undertaking research focused on the Archives’ collection.

The grant holder in 2007–08 was Dr Mickey Dewar, a prominent established historian from the Northern Territory. Dr Dewar is the first recipient of the Frederick Watson Fellowship from the Northern Territory.

Margaret George Award

The Margaret George Award provides an opportunity for emergent historians to undertake scholarly use of the Archives’ collection. The Award is named after a young Australian historian whose research was published after her premature death in 1980.

The grant holder in 2007–08 was Dr Craig Stockings, a lecturer at the University of New South Wales and the Australian Defence Force Academy.

Community Heritage Grants

In 2007–08 the Archives joined with the National Library of Australia, the National Museum of Australia, the National Film and Sound Archive, and the then Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts to fund the fourteenth round of the Community Heritage Grants program.

This program provides small organisations with funds to help identify and preserve community owned, but nationally significant, heritage collections. Applicants include museums, libraries, archives, historical societies, art galleries, and migrant, Indigenous and religious organisations.

The Archives contributed $20,000 towards the grant pool, and assisted on the grants steering committee and judging panel. A total of 85 grants were awarded in 2007–08, with a total value of more than $428,000. In November 2007, grant winners visited the Archives for training in how to preserve documentary heritage.