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Canberra Stories Group was an independent community writing and publishing group established by Mary Hutchison and Annie Bolitho, who were Community Literature Officers with the ACT Library Service, and others including Meryl Hunter. The Group collected, developed and published stories about the people, places and history of Canberra from the 1920s to the early 1990s. The first publication was in 1992, following a festival organised at Manuka Pool by the Arts Council in conjunction with the Library Service. During the festival, people were encouraged to write down their stories, which were then edited by volunteers and published with an Arts Council grant as Stories of the inner south. The book was popular, and the volunteers, now formally called the Canberra Stories Group, began work on the next of the seven books of reminiscences published by the Group, the last in 2008. Annie Bolitho left the Group in 1993 but in 1998 collaborated with Mary Hutchison to write Out of the ordinary, a writing resource book offering ideas for sharing stories, turning them into text, and reaching a wider audience through simple publishing processes in community settings and through group processes. The Group was involved in some of the content, and also published the book. Canberra Stories Group was nominated for an ACT Heritage Award in 1998, and received a Heritage Award in 2001 for its work in recording stories of Canberra’s history from the 1930s to the 1990s. Dr Mary Hutchison’s professional work has included collecting and interpreting personal experiences of history and place in heritage and museum contexts, for community publications and for theatre and radio performance. She has developed and contributed to interpretive public art works in Canberra and Wollongong. Mary teaches for the ANU History Program's ‘researching and writing histories' course. Dr Annie Bolitho is a facilitator interested especially in community participation in society, its institutions and contexts. From about 1991 to 1993 she shared the position of Community Literature Officer with Mary Hutchison. Val Emerton and Meryl Hunter were instrumental in forming Canberra Stories Group. Val is active in the Canberra and District Historical Society. Meryl has also written articles for the Canberra Times, Yass Tribune, and various historical journals in the ACT and Victoria. PublicationsMary Hutchison and Annie Bolitho (compilers). Stories of the inner south, 1992 (ACTHL H 994.71 STOR) Canberra Stories Group. My first home in Canberra: Canberra residents’ memories of their first homes 1920-1990. 1994 (ACTHL H 994.71 MYFI) Val Emerton (compiler). Past images present voices: Kingston and thereabouts through a box brownie. 1996 (ACTHL H 994.71 PAST) Canberra Stories Group, Tracks Through Time: Merv Edlington’s Tuggeranong. 1997 (ACTHL H 994.71 TRAC) Meryl Hunter. Over my shoulder: growing up with Canberra from the 1930's. 1998 (ACTHL H 994.71 HUNT) Mary Hutchison and Annie Bolitho. Out of the ordinary: inventive ways of bringing communities, their stories and audiences to light. 1998 (ACTHL H 808.042 HUTC) Canberra Stories Group, Settlers Stories [1913-1975]: Why they came – and stayed in Canberra. 2000 (ACTHL H 994.71 SETT) Alex Jurkievicz. A little bit Australian: a journey from Kharkov to Canberra: the story of Alex Jurkievicz as told to Carol MacKay. 2008 (ACTHL H 920 JURK) Box ListBOX
NO. | DESCRIPTION | QUANTITY | DATE RANGE | 1 | Settlers’ stories – correspondence and financial documents, mainly relating to printing, launch publicity | 1 wallet | August – December 2000 | 1 | Advertising, brochures, press cuttings – various publications | 1 wallet | 1994 – 2000 | 1 | Over my shoulder – correspondence and financial documents, mainly relating to printing, launch publicity | 1 wallet | September 1998 – January 1999 | 1 | My first home in Canberra – scrapbooks of stories, numbered 1-6 (number 3 missing), and a set of typescript stories | 5 scrapbooks, 1 sleeve | 1993 – 1994 | 1 | My first home in Canberra – papers relating to the submission for an Arts Council of the ACT Community Art Fund grant, and publication of the book; includes typescript of some stories, permission letters from some story tellers, correspondence, brochures | 1 wallet | 1993 - 1994 | 1 | My first home in Canberra – typescript stories | 1 folder | 1993 – 1994 | 1 | A little bit Australian – correspondence and financial documents, mainly relating to printing, launch publicity | 1 sleeve | August – November 2008 | 1 | Settlers’ stories – guideline notes on style and content; launch at Mugga Mugga; blank permission forms for Carol MacKay | 1 sleeve | November 1999 – November 2000 | 1 | Mailing lists for various titles, including one on 3 ¼ inch disk, newscutting of the launch of Stories of the inner south at the Southside Community Festival, invitations to the launch of past images, present voices | 1 sleeve | 1993 – 1997 | 1 | Settlers’ stories – typescript and manuscript stories, photographs, newscuttings, permission forms [includes newscutting for Tracks through time] | 1 file | Ca 2000 | 1 | Canberra Stories Group:
- Annie Bolitho and Mary Hutchison (compilers). Stories told by members of Narrabundah Evergreen Club, Senior Citizens Group and Thursday Walking Group for Memories at Manuka Pool. April 1992
- Correspondence and reminiscences relating to Pialligo from Ken Kerrison of Kerrison’s Orchard, 1993
- notes for meetings, including manuscript minutes, relating to My first home in Canberra and Group activities
- photocopy of poem by J R Rowland ‘True stories (Canberra, 1945-1946)’, Quadrant January-February 1993 pp 14-17
- newsletters December 1992 – July 1993 | 1 folder | 1992 – 1993 | 1 | Stories of Canberra:
- Canberra Stories Group Newsletter no. 4, May 1993, and various undated newsletters ca 1992
- working papers and workshop handouts, mainly relating to small group writing and publishing
- brochures advertising the Group and several of its publications
- working papers relating to Past images, present voices | 1 file | 1992 – 1993 | 1 | Cash books | 3 books | 1994 – 1998 | 1 | My first home in Canberra – cassette tape of stories recorded in Heritage Week 1993 | 1 cassette | April 1993 | 1 | Address list on cards | 1 bundle | | 1 | Brochures and flyers for galleries and exhibitions | 1 packet | 1999 | | | | | 2 | History of the Canberra Stories Group | 1 sleeve | October 2001 | 2 | Correspondence, logo design | 1 sleeve | 1996 – 1997 | 2 | Tracks through time:
- contact lists
- Tour for Teachers; notes and 3.5” disk for a tour demonstrating ways of using the book to explore the local history of Tuggeranong
- correspondence, newscuttings, map of Tuggeranong Homestead 1996, speech notes for the launch of the book
- notes on Matilda House, of the Ngunnawal who lived in the area including the Tuggeranong valley, and her family traced back to her great-great grandparents
- transcript of interview with Merv Edlington on the history of Isabella Plains, ca 1992
- Meryl Hunter’s notes on the early farmers: Macquoid, Lanyon, the Cunninghams
- Peter Dowling. “Aboriginal scarred trees in Tuggeranong and how to identify them” | 1 folder | 1996 – 1997 | 2 | A little bit Australian – correspondence, notes for publication and launch, and first and second drafts | 1 folder | 2008 | 2 | Victorian Federation of Community Writing Groups Newsletter and correspondence, grants 1995-1996 | 1 folder | 1996 | 2 | Out of the ordinary – launch brochures, general Canberra Stories Group brochures and publications lists | 1 folder | 1997 | 2 | Correspondence and documents relating to Over my shoulder, community talks and related activities, ACT Heritage Award 1998 and 2001 | 1 envelope | 1998 – 2001 | 2 | Recycled and reused Canberra; an informal historical guide to what has been reused, re-located, and renamed in Canberra, from about 1913. A working document listing known and wanted information, compiled by the ACT Regional Studies Network | 1 document | 1996 | 2 | Grant application documents relating to Past images, present voices and Tracks through time | 1 folder | 1996 | 2 | Out of the ordinary – newscuttings, artistic report for acquittal of grant, Bulletin of the Queensland Community Arts Network volume 6 number 4 April 1998 and notice of launch of the book | 1 sleeve | 1998 | 2 | Stories of the inner south – brochures for the book and its antecedents ‘Memories at Manuka Pool’ and ‘Writing round the pool’; brochure for Community Literature in the ACT | 1 sleeve | 1992 | 2 | My first home in Canberra – stories, notes; also correspondence and newsletters relating to later activities and publications | 1 folder | 1992 – 2000 | 2 | Over my shoulder – artwork for cover | 1 envelope | 1998 | 2 | Past images, present voices – receipts and expenditure | 1 folder | 1996, 2004 | 2 | Canberra Stories Group minutes | 1 book | March 1995 – November 2000 | 2 | Tracks through time – expenditure and correspondence | 1 folder | 1996 – 1997 | 2 | MG NSW Conference at Sydney University – 7 x 35mm slides, 2 overhead transparencies [one a group photograph] | 1 folder | 2001 | 2 | Past images, present voices – newscuttings, publicity, correspondence | 1 folder | 1996 | 2 | My first home in Canberra – book launch, newscuttings, correspondence | 1 folder | 1994 – 1995 | 2 | ACT Heritage Festival calendar of events | 1 brochure | April 1996 | 2 | Country Festival of Writing, Shepparton, Victoria | 1 brochure | 1999 | 2 | Past Images, Present Voices exhibition: · 36 x 35mm colour slides of the exhibition, 1996 · Photocopies of permission forms to use taped interviews, written stories and photographs · Captions for images – working papers · Correspondence relating to the exhibition | 1 file | 1996, 2003 | 2 | Eastlake photographs from 1920s and 1930s, selected images used in the exhibition | 1 DVD | | 2 | Interviews for ABC 666 radio, Canberra · David Vickers from Smith’s Bookshop interviewed by Rod Quinn about recent publications, including Louise Lyon, Voices of Old Ainslie (starts 8:30) and Val Emerton, Past Images: Present Voices (starts 8:54), 7 August 1996 · Val Emerton interviewed by David Kilby about Past Images, Present Voices (starts 12:28), 25 September 1996 · Val Emerton, Geoff Stokes and Karin Fairfax interviewed on The Pulse, 28 June 1996 · Val Emerton, ‘Reflections on our Region’, 3 episodes, ca 1996 | 4 CDs | 1996 | 2 | ACT Heritage Award to Canberra Stories Group | 1 sleeve | 2001 | 2 | Photographs collected as a record of activities, contributors, editors and others connected with the publications of the Canberra Stories Group | 1 album | 1992 - 2008 | | 2 | Jene Baker's photographs and portrait: 55 images in 1024px-WEB-JPG, 2048px-Print-JPG, and Hi-Res-JPG formats, photographer Sean Davey
Photocopy of the relevant chapter "Fares Please!" by Jene Baker and Sheilah Barrie in Settlers' Stories | 1 compact disk, 1 photocopy | December 2013 | | | | | 3 over size | Poster: Canberra Stories Group, laminated | 2 posters | | 3 over size | Past Images, Present Voices exhibition: 30 photographs and title panels (laminated), layout plan, album of additional photographs with pages for signatures in the back | | 1996 |
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