<
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-16/melbourne-box-hill-history-photos-archive/102147004>
'A historical society in Melbourne's east is racing to preserve thousands of
photographs that were almost destroyed in a freak accident.
The Box Hill Historical Society's collection came close to destruction in April
last year, after rewiring works in the town hall building caused a humidifier
to malfunction, increasing the humidity levels within the archive's rooms to
nearly 90 per cent.
Lead archivist Helen Harris had stopped by the archive on a Saturday and found
condensation dripping through the building and paint beginning to melt.
"It's every archivist's worst nightmare, to open a door and find condensation
running down the walls," she said.
"I think I lost 10 years just looking at it.
"We had stuff spread out in other rooms [to dry]. It's an entire archive, it's
too much to take out."
Whitehorse City Council paid for a conservator to review the damage, who
confirmed how close the archive was to being lost.
Had the fault been discovered a day or two later, the delicate documents,
papers and photographs of the archive would have been destroyed beyond repair.'
We used to live in Box Hill.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
