September 7-15 is History Week. This year’s theme is 'Marking Time'. In this article, we celebrate History Week by looking at how and why SDN established our formal archives and history room.

According to the NSW History Council

The History Week 2024 theme 'Marking Time ' is an opportunity for members to consider how we commemorate. What people, events and histories do we – or don’t we – celebrate or remember? How do we mark time? From the personal marking of time in photographs to state commemorations of pageantry, the ways we remember the past are varied: sometimes grand, sometimes fleeting, sometimes conflicting.

Caption: Left - Members of the History Committee in 2002 (pictured in the History Room at SDN Woolloomooloo). From Left: Adrienne Miles, Ann Mitchell, Jan Harvey Sutton and Caroline Levine. Right -  The new Archive Room at our Greek Street Hub in Glebe m while under construction in 2022.

According to Effie Bland, a person who more than any other is responsible for the establishment of our archives, says in her oral history interview of 2007 that it all began in 1995. 

Effie said In 1995, which was ten years prior to the centenary, I saw the memo in the Archive, Tonia Godhard the CEO at the time sent a memo around and said: 'Look were ten years away from the centenary I think we should start thinking about it'."

It was always recognised that the primary reason for the establishment of the archives was to aid in the publishing of a book telling our story to coincide with our centenary. The writing by historian Leone Huntsman didn’t get under way until 2004 when the archives were well established.

The History Committee was formed in 1995 and a Federation Grant in 2000 enabled SDN to engage Siller Systems to list our historical documents which were held with Ausdoc.

A further two grants from the Royal Australian Historical Society helped with the establishing of the archives which was housed initially at SDN Woolloomooloo Child and Family Learning Centre. A grant from Board member Ruth Armytage also assisted with equipment.

Since then, the Archive has collected SDN’s institutional records and reports as opposed to centre administration records which must be kept by law for several years. These are held with Iron Mountain.

The Archive, managed today by archivist Ben Woods, collects our annual reports, executive meeting minutes, general reports and marketing material, as well as newsletters, photographs, oral histories, historical objects and more. Find the Archive Collection Protocol here if you’re interested in a detailed run down.

With the centenary celebrations completed and For the little ones the best – SDN Children’s Services 1905-2005 published', the hardest work of the History Committee was done, and it was subsequently disbanded in 2010.

There has also been the recording of our history in such books as Children, a life interest: Biography of Joan Fry OBE and The Nursery School Teacher’s College both also by Leone Huntsman.

Other than the ongoing collecting, our SDN archivist assists our Communications, Marketing and Property teams as well as external researchers and members of the public.

Caption: The scales and sewing machine are examples of historical objects that the SDN Archive collects. The baby scales are from circa 1930 and were used to weigh infants at SDN's Forest Lodge, which closed in 2007. The sewing machine, also from the Forest Lodge centre, were used by staff and the community in the 1950s.