By Jill Cassidy
Oral History Tasmania had its origins in the celebration of Australia’s Bicentennial in 1988 when staff at the Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery wanted to commemorate Launceston’s history in a way which involved the community. Funded by the Tasmanian Council of the Australian Bicentennial Authority, the Museum’s Oral History project allowed almost forty interviews to be conducted with a wide range of mainly Launceston residents. The emphasis was on hearing the voices of people who had intimate knowledge of the subject in question but whose story was seldom heard.
The topics were carefully selected to provide information about events or aspects which were important in Launceston’s history but about which it was generally hard to find written information. The topics were: technical education in Launceston; nursing at the Launceston General Hospital plus early days in the Cancer Clinic; Chinese migrants; the Launceston railway workshops; women in Launceston’s textile factories; the 1929 floods; the home front in the Second World War; Launceston’s motor vehicle manufacturers; and the Longford motor races.
Jill Cassidy, Research Officer at the Museum, conducted the interviews. She had already recorded one or two people encountered in the course of her research projects but had no particular skill in the area and had to learn quickly with the help of a small booklet put out by the South Australian branch of the Oral History Association of Australia, formed some ten years earlier. Excerpts from the interviews were used as the basis for nine exhibitions at Macquarie House, curated by Elspeth Wishart, and edited transcripts were published in the book, Launceston Talks.
The oral histories were a great success. It was clear that the visitors appreciated reading or listening to the stories of their own locality, told by those who were directly involved. These stories made history live. Moreover, the recordings and transcripts which were kept in the Community History Branch of the Museum provided new information about the city’s history which could then form the basis for further research. Since that time oral histories have been commissioned by the Museum for use in exhibitions, and from 1990 the Friends of the Museum provided financial support to Cassidy to interview significant individuals solely for the benefit of future researchers.
Cassidy received an increasing number of enquiries about oral history, particularly from those wishing to know the techniques of interviewing. Realising the need to discover more, in 1989 Cassidy contacted the Oral History Association of Australia (OHAA) and was pleased to be invited to Perth for the upcoming National conference, with the OHAA offering to pay half the fare. Unfortunately, this coincided with the pilots’ strike and she was unable to attend. In 1990 she attempted to become a member but was reluctant to do so when she found that the only option was to join the Victorian branch. This was the catalyst for a discussion with Wishart at which time it was decided to try to initiate a Tasmanian branch.
The role of the Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery was crucial. In the early 1980s historian Peter Macfie had attempted to start a branch in southern Tasmania but it had not lasted long; the experience in other states shows that institutional backing makes a big difference. With the Museum providing a meeting room, a postal address and other in-kind support, along with some financial support for Cassidy during the initial set-up and the provision of airfares for the launch (see below), the organisation had a good start.
On 19 July 1991 the book Launceston Talks was launched by the well-known Tasmanian journalist Tim Bowden to a packed Museum gallery. By then residing in Sydney, Bowden had a weekly spot on television and his affable personality and wry wit ensured he had many fans, but his main job was with the ABC Social History Unit (now defunct) which used oral history to develop award-winning documentaries. He was the perfect choice to attract as many people as possible to both the book launch and the meeting on Saturday 20 to form the Tasmanian branch, after which he delivered a public lecture to over 100 people on ‘The value and pitfalls of oral history’.
The ‘Meeting of those interested in forming a Tasmanian branch of the Oral History Association of Australia’ was publicised widely and attended by 31 people, with others expressing interest but unable to be present. They came from many fields: those interested in family history, or the history of their community; teachers who wanted to enliven their history classes or university students wishing to find out more for their thesis; tourism operators preparing information for travellers and museum curators wanting livelier exhibitions. In general they all liked the idea of a participant-based narrative rather than a top-down view of history. The motion ‘That a Tasmanian branch of the Oral History Association of Australia be established’ was passed unanimously.
At the branch’s inaugural meeting held the same day, Cassidy was elected president, Jenny Gill secretary and Anne Bartlett treasurer. The other committee members were Macfie, Kaye Williams from Carrick, Norma Hooper from the Beaconsfield Museum, Tess Schramm from the Maria Island National Park, and Faith Layton who had been an enthusiastic supporter of oral history through her role on the Tasmanian Council of the Australian Bicentennial Authority.
The initial hope to have a statewide committee quickly ran into practical difficulties in those years before the internet, and the full committee never met. After Jenny Gill resigned as secretary in October because of other commitments, Pat Mathew from Sheffield took over the role and also served as co-editor of the newsletter. Fortunately the branch was able to use the national constitution for the first few years and gradually the format of the new branch was developed. Cassidy was elected to be the Tasmanian representative on the national committee of the Oral History Association of Australia; she has held that position ever since.
In 1992 several meetings were held with specialists providing essential information. In February Margo Gorman talked in Launceston about her experiences interviewing retired teachers. In April a day-long workshop was held in Hobart. Jim Parish, training officer with the ABC, provided detailed technical hints; Peter Hay who had previously coordinated an oral history project in Warnambool spoke about how to integrate oral histories with other research, and Cassidy followed up with what to do after the interview. In June lawyer Graeme Jones talked about defamation in Launceston and then in August Parry Kostoglou talked in Hobart about his oral histories about the historic timber industry. Finally, in October Cassidy gave a talk on how to use a tape recorder.
The subjects of these talks show what members were especially interested in, but it became clear that regular general meetings could only ever attract a very limited number of people. By March 1993 the decision was taken to limit the annual program to just two events. One is a workshop on how to do oral history held in alternate years in Launceston and Hobart; an early workshop at Burnie failed to attract more than a token number of participants and this experiment was not repeated. The second event held each year has been a seminar with one or more speakers, coinciding every second year with what was initially the Biennial General Meeting. Originally these speakers came from the mainland with airfares and accommodation provided. High profile speakers included Hank Nelson from the Australian National University (1993) with financial support from the University of Tasmania, Dr Janet McCalman and the ABC’s Bill Bunbury. Within a few years, however, the speakers were sourced from within the state as local histories prove of greater interest. On two occasions the seminars were held in conjunction with the Launceston Historical Society.
Also in 1992 the committee determined to replace the one-page news-sheet with a more interesting and informative newsletter with lengthier articles; the new format under the name Real to Reel was first issued in October of that year. From 1994 the newsletter was issued three times a year and usually included one of the seminar papers.
Just two years after forming and following a request from the National President, in 1993 the branch decided on the big commitment of hosting the OHAA’s national biennial conference. The committee felt that it would be unwise to take such a big financial step without the protection of incorporation, so the first activity was to develop a specifically Tasmanian constitution, replacing that suggested by the national OHAA. It was passed at an Extraordinary General Meeting in August 1994 and incorporation followed the next year.
The 1995 conference, Words at Work, was a great success, once again made possible with the financial and other support of the Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery as well as sponsorship from the British Council, the National Committee of the OHAA and local businesses. People from around the country plus four speakers from overseas came to Launceston’s Albert Hall for spirited discussion of all aspects of oral history. The conference helped to publicise the Tasmanian branch and membership increased as a result.
Perhaps more importantly it put the branch on a sound financial footing for the first time and led to the decision to buy a high quality tape recorder and a transcribing machine for hire by members. The hire of equipment has been very popular and of great importance in attracting and retaining members. Following the advent of digital recording the branch successfully applied for a grant from the Tasmanian Community Fund to purchase a high quality digital recorder In 2006. This proved to be a great investment and the recorder is still used by members keen to obtain good quality audio, despite the proliferation of cheaper and very accessible recording devices.
All committee members had worked hard but both Pat Mathew and Anne Bartlett were pivotal in the success of the conference, building on their outstanding work during the establishment and consolidation of the branch. It was therefore a great loss when both declined to seek re-election at the 1996 Biennial General Meeting. Cassidy continued as president until 1998 when the constitution demanded a replacement. For the following two years she was branch secretary while Elizabeth Godfrey-Smith took on the job of president, but in 2000 she returned to the presidency and when no-one else volunteered for the position in 2004 the constitution was changed to allow her to continue past the four years. She has remained president ever since. She also edited Real to Reel, usually alone but occasionally with the help of a co-editor, since the branch’s inception.
Although the primary function of the branch is to educate in the use of oral history through workshops, seminars, newsletters and the national Journal, from time to time its activities have gone further. In 1997 the branch organised an oral history project designed to give members practice in interviewing and transcribing a short interview. The subject of ‘Free Pickings’ led to the documentation of a surprisingly wide variety of items which people in the past have been able to get for free from the roadside or the beach. The success of this undertaking inspired the committee to apply successfully for money from the Tasmanian Office of Multicultural and Ethnic Affairs to interview refugees and displaced persons who had settled in Tasmania. The resulting interviews with twelve people were completed in 1999 and lodged with the Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery.
As part of the ‘It’s About Us 2006’ celebrations for the 200th anniversary of the foundation of Launceston, members interviewed eleven people who were helping to shape the future of the city in, for example, health, the environment, and the Aboriginal community, who could describe the current position and provide their vision for future directions. The interviews for ‘Launceston Now and Tomorrow’, described as an Oral History time capsule of Launceston in 2006, were once again lodged with the Museum.
In 2009 Tasmania again hosted the national conference of the Oral History Association of Australia. Islands of Memory: Navigating Personal and Public History attracted a large and diverse range of participants and once again membership increased. Moreover, at the conference for the first time Tasmanians were elected as the national executive, with Cassidy as president, Margaret Eldridge as secretary and Lana Wall as treasurer. Elaine Crisp had already compiled an index to the 1998–2009 issues of the national Journal and fellow-Tasmanian Terry Whitebeach volunteered to edit the Journal for two years.
In 2012 because of alterations to state legislation, an Annual General Meeting replaced the biennial meeting which had hitherto been held. Then following 2013 changes to the national body, now called Oral History Australia (OHA), the Tasmanian ‘branch’ became a stand-alone organisation in 2014 with the new name of Oral History Tasmania (OHT). OHT then became a member of OHA and a new website was developed.
Oral History Tasmania once again took on the task of organising the biennial national OHA conference in 2021. Unfortunately, just weeks out from the expected opening in October more Covid-related lockdowns resulted in postponement. Oral History in Troubling Times: Opportunities and Challenges finally took place in October 2022 and was a great success, with attenders relishing the opportunity finally to mingle in person with other delegates.
In 2022 the decision was taken to stop the production of Real to Reel, replaced by regular emails to members and in 2025 by an informative blog on the new website developed in collaboration with Oral History Australia. Moreover, the original plan for a statewide committee finally came to fruition with members from around the state able to join meetings through the use of online technology.
Sources: Oral History Tasmania minutes and other documents
