The Carnamah Historical Society collects, records, preserves and promotes the history of Carnamah, a town and farming community in the

Mid West The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...

region of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

.Carnamah Historical Society
Retrieved 17 June 2014 The society was formed in 1983, began a museum in 1992, and established itself online in 2003.Inside History magazine
. Nov-Dec 2011, "Calling Carnamah home". It was subsequently profiled at the joint national conference of

Museums Australia The Australian Museums and Galleries Association (AMaGA), formerly Museums Galleries Australia and Museums Australia, is the national professional organisation and peak council for museums and public art galleries in Australia. It advocates for ...

and Interpretation Australia in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

in 2011."Virtual Existence & Social Media". Andrew S. Bowman
" Retrieved 31 March 2012. Its online content also resulted in Carnamah being featured at the

National Museum of Australia The National Museum of Australia, in the national capital Canberra, preserves and interprets Australia's social history, exploring the key issues, people and events that have shaped the nation. It was formally established by the ''National Muse ...

in Canberra."Carnamah's Place at the National Museum of Australia". Carnamah Historical Society's Blog
Retrieved 31 March 2012. The society is an institutional member of Museums Australia, an affiliate of the

Royal Western Australian Historical Society Royal Western Australian Historical Society has for many decades been the main association for Western Australians to collectively work for adequate understanding and protection of the cultural heritage of Perth and Western Australia. It was fou ...

(RWAHS), and was the first Australian listing with the Society for One-Place Studies. At the RWAHS State History Conference in 2010 it was the recipient of the inaugural Affiliated Societies Merit Award for being a "dynamic, but very different society". The society was the 2015 winner for contribution by a community-based organisation in the Western Australian Heritage Awards, which are conducted annually by the Heritage Council of Western Australia. The award citation attributed the society with using "cutting-edge technology to engage with and promote the heritage of, not only their own and neighbouring districts, but also the State".

Museum

In 1992 the society established the Carnamah Museum near the centre of the Carnamah townsite. The museum contains a diverse collection of objects, tools, machinery, photographs, and ephemera relating to Carnamah’s social, domestic, commercial, and agricultural past. In 2010 the society received a grant of $171,500 from

Lotterywest Lotterywest was established in 1932 as the Lotteries Commission of Western Australia, to run the lottery in Western Australia. It is referred to in the legislation as the Lotteries Commission. It distributes profits to a number of community bene ...

to finance the extension of its museum. Additional financial and in-kind contributions were received from various sources including the

Royalties for Regions Royalties for Regions is a political policy formulated by the National Party in 2008 which involves the redirection of Western Australian state government spending from the major population centres, particularly Perth, into the rural areas of th ...

Regional Grants Scheme and the

Shire of Carnamah The Shire of Carnamah is a Local government in Australia, local government area located in the Mid West (Western Australia), Mid West region of Western Australia, about north of Perth, the state capital, and about south of the city of Gerald ...

. The extension included the installation of a "Window to the Past" where an enlarged historic photograph of Carnamah's main street was fitted into an old window cavity (creating the illusion of looking through the window and into the past). The extended museum was officially opened on 15 September 2012 by Grant Woodhams, M.L.A. for Moore.

Macpherson Homestead

The society also cares for the Macpherson Homestead, located about one kilometre east of the Carnamah townsite."Macpherson Homestead". Carnamah Historical Society
Retrieved 31 March 2012 The stone homestead was built in the late 1860s and following deterioration was restored with locally raised funds and grants from Lotterywest. The homestead is permanently on the

State Register of Heritage Places The State Register of Heritage Places is the heritage register of historic sites in Western Australia deemed significant at the state level by the Heritage Council of Western Australia. History In the 1970s, following its establishment of the ...

. The Heritage Council of Western Australia noted that "early settlers played an important and successful role in the development and growth of the Carnamah district" and that "the place has a particular structural interest, with its high walls and steeply pitched roof and bush rafters".

Virtual existence

Website

The society began a website in 2003"Musing magazine: Carnamah's dot com". Carnamah Historical Society's Blog
Retrieved 31 March 2012. and meets many of its organisational objectives online. While its museum collection relates primarily to the Carnamah district, the society has taken a more regional approach online which has been attributed with putting Carnamah into better historical context. Online content includes an expansive

biographical dictionary A biographical dictionary is a type of encyclopedic dictionary limited to biographical information. Many attempt to cover the major personalities of a country (with limitations, such as living persons only, in ''Who's Who'', or deceased people onl ...

virtual museum A virtual museum is a digital entity that draws on the characteristics of a museum, in order to complement, enhance, or augment the museum experience through personalization, interactivity, and richness of content. Virtual museums can perform as t ...

, historical photographs, cemetery records, local histories and

Australian Curriculum The Australian Curriculum is a national curriculum for all primary and secondary schools in Australia under progressive development, review, and implementation. The curriculum is developed and reviewed by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment ...

resources. On the recommendation of the

State Library of Western Australia The State Library of Western Australia is a research, education, reference and public lending library located in the Perth Cultural Centre in Perth, Western Australia. It is a portfolio agency of the Western Australia Department of Culture and t ...

the society's website has been periodically archived for posterity since 2004 under the Preserving and Accessing Networked Documentary Resources of Australia (PANDORA) program.

Social media

In January 2010 the society entered the realm of social media by joining

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...

."Carnamah Historical Society & Museum". Facebook
Retrieved 31 March 2012. It has also joined and attracted a following on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

Flickr Flickr ( ; ) is an American image hosting and video hosting service, as well as an online community, founded in Canada and headquartered in the United States. It was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and was a popular way for amateur and profession ...

Google+ Google+ (pronounced and sometimes written as Google Plus; sometimes called G+) was a social network owned and operated by Google. The network was launched on June 28, 2011, in an attempt to challenge other social networks, linking other Google p ...

Pinterest Pinterest is an American image sharing and social media service designed to enable saving and discovery of information (specifically "ideas") on the internet using images, and on a smaller scale, animated GIFs and videos, in the form of pinboard ...

, Instagram and

LinkedIn LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented online service that operates via websites and mobile apps. Launched on May 5, 2003, the platform is primarily used for professional networking and career development, and allows job se ...

. The society uses social media to engage and interact with online followers about Carnamah's history, its museum and online content. As a result of exposure on social media the society and its activities were profiled in a two-page spread in the Nov-Dec 2011 issue of ''Inside History'' magazine and in the spring 2011 edition of ''Musing'', the publication of Museums Australia WA. The society was invited to contribute as a guest author to the

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order s ...

of Collections Australia Network (CAN). The invitation was accepted however CAN ceased its operations a few weeks after four posts had been written. The society instead started its own blog in May 2011 and began blogging on a regular basis after publishing the posts intended for CAN. Blog posts cover a broad range of topics including museum happenings, website additions, historical pieces and featured photographs. The society's blog was named in ''Inside History'' magazine's Top 50 Blogs in 2012 and 2014 and contributed to ''The Busy Archivist's Blogging Tool Kit'' in 2012 by providing insight into blogging and how it can be used by small archives and societies.

Biographical Dictionary

The society, in collaboration with the North Midlands Project, produces the online ''Biographical Dictionary of Coorow, Carnamah and Three Springs''. The dictionary contains referenced biographical and local information on thousands of people with a connection to the shires of Coorow, Carnamah or Three Springs. It is a merged and improved version of the society’s former Coorow-Waddy, Carnamah-Winchester and Three Springs databases. The rationale behind this model is to tell the history of the district "one person at a time".

Virtual museum

The society added a

to its website in August 2011 to share its collection with a broader audience."Carnamah to Online: Virtual Ticket to Our Collection". Carnamah Historical Society's Blog
Retrieved 6 July 2012. It began with three virtual exhibitions, but was later expanded to a total of nine with support from the

Department of Culture and the Arts The Department of Culture and the Arts was part of the Government of Western Australia. Preceding authorities The earlier governmental agencies or authorities concerning the arts were advisory boards or councils; it was not until 1986 that the ...

(DCA). An image from Carnamah's virtual museum was the cover of the July–August 2013 edition of ''Inside History'' magazine. In 2013 the society began rolling out Australian Curriculum resources to accompany its virtual exhibitions with backing from the Western Australian History Foundation and DCA. In May 2014 the society's ''Virtual Museum: to be known and distinguished as Carnamah'' was the Level 1 winner of the Permanent Exhibition category at the Museums and Galleries National Awards (MAGNA), which are conducted annually by Museums Australia. The MAGNA judges summarised the work as an innovative solution that was "very creative with excellent production values and interpretative images and narratives". The following year, in 2015, the accompanying education resources received a Highly Commended in the Level 1 Interpretation, Learning and Audience Engagement category of the same awards. The judges commented that they were "beautifully designed and comprehensive" and were "an exemplar for all local historical society/museums". To commemorate the centenary of the Gallipoli landings, the society created an additional virtual exhibition on the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

in 2015.

Virtual volunteering

In May 2012 the society launched a

virtual volunteering Virtual volunteering refers to volunteer activities completed, in whole or in part, using the Internet and a home, school, telecenter, or work computer or other Internet-connected device, such as a smartphone or a tablet. Virtual volunteering is al ...

pilot to index

electoral roll An electoral roll (variously called an electoral register, voters roll, poll book or other description) is a compilation that lists persons who are entitled to vote for particular elections in a particular jurisdiction. The list is usually broke ...

s, with the work contributing to its databases. "The aims of the program are to increase the output of the society, improve social inclusion and provide additional volunteering opportunities.""Local history - Social Innovation Grant - Carnamah Historical Society". Federation of Australian Historical Societies e-Bulletin No. 108
Retrieved 21 August 2013. In January 2013 the society received a $100,000

social innovation Social innovations are new social practices that aim to meet social needs in a better way than the existing solutions,Howaldt, J./ Schwarz, M"Social Innovation: Concepts, research fields and international trends" IMO international monitoring, 201 ...

grant from the Government of Western Australia for the further development of its program. The funding, over a two-year period, covered research, development, trials, refinement and the sharing of structure and outcomes with other community sector organisations. The society received a Highly Commended for Virtual Volunteering in the Innovation category of the 2015 Museums and Galleries National Awards. It was hailed as a "great socially inclusive project which addresses the needs of both the museum and the volunteer".

Publications

As part of the Australian Bicentenary in 1988, the society published ''Westward to the Sea: Reminiscences & History of the Carnamah District 1861-1987''. The book was compiled and written by P. R. Heydon, O.A.M. In 2013 the society was a partner with

Rail Heritage WA Rail Heritage WA is the local trading name of the Australian Railway Historical Society (Western Australian Division) Inc. History The Western Australian branch of the Australian Railway Historical Society was formed in February 1959. In the 19 ...

in gathering and providing content for the book ''Memories of the Midland Railway Co. of Western Australia''. The book, written by Philippa Rogers, was launched in 2014 to commemorate 50 years since the railway was taken over by

Western Australian Government Railways Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) was the operator of railway services in the state of Western Australia between October 1890 and June 2003. Owned by the state government, it was renamed a number of times to reflect extra responsi ...

Carnamah at the National Museum of Australia

One of the notable derivatives from the society's work is Carnamah's inclusion in the permanent exhibition ''Landmarks: People and Places across Australia'' at the

(NMA) in Canberra. A curator at the NMA wanted to include Carnamah after discovering the society's website from an internet search on soldier settlement. Within one of the ten themes, ''Extending the Farmlands'', is Carnamah's First World War soldier settlement. The section, with accompanying objects, includes the stories of five soldier settlers and their families with interpretative detail being largely sourced from the Carnamah-Winchester Database on the society's website. In 2013 the NMA published a book on the exhibition, titled ''Landmarks: A History of Australia in 33 Places'', with Carnamah being featured as one of the 33."A History of Australia in 33 Places = Carnamah + 32 others!". Carnamah Historical Society's Blog
Retrieved 22 August 2013

References

External links

*
Virtual Volunteering
{{Authority control Historical societies of Australia 1983 establishments in Australia Local museums in Australia Museum organizations Museums in Western Australia Museums established in 1992 Mid West (Western Australia)