Monash Health was awarded ‘most valuable transfer’ for its project to transfer significant records from the Queen Victoria Hospital to Public Record Office Victoria (PROV), ensuring ongoing preservation of records of women’s 19th and 20th century history.
The biennial Awards were announced last week at Victorian Archives Centre to recognise projects that reflect excellence, innovation and dedication to best practice recordkeeping and preservation of records of permanent value.
The Awards are an initiative of the Public Records Advisory Council and Victoria’s State and local government archive PROV, and are named after former Premier Sir Rupert Hamer.
Project lead Kim Minett thanked the volunteers and employees who had worked to preserve Monash Health’s history over many decades.
“To successfully find and identify these records required the help of many people, particularly Therese Crivelli from HIS, Honorary Curator Dr Monica Lausch, Archivist Brian McInerney, our partners Blue Lion – all with great support from Abbas Khambati, Project Director and Director for Business Partnering.
“The Queen Vic was a hospital ‘for women, by women’ founded by Dr Constance Stone, the first female doctor in Australia, and the first 11 women to graduate in medicine in Australia.”
“The Queen Vic also had a long association with the Hamer family – the Deputy President over many decades was Sir Rupert’s mother Nancy Hamer, and his sister-in-law Margaret served as the last President, prior to amalgamation.”
The Director and Keeper of Public Records Justine Heazlewood said: “Good records management is integral to the efficiency and integrity of Government and the preservation of vital records for future individual, community and government use.”
Approved by Anna Laird, Director, Capital and Infrastructure, and Rachelle Anstey, Executive Director, Financial Services
Image: Archivist Brian McInerney (L) and Project lead Kim Minett (R)