2026 Local History Grants – Recipients Announced

Twenty-two local history projects will receive funding from the 2026 Local History Grants

The recipients of the 2026 Create NSW Local History Grants were announced at the RAHS Affiliated Societies Seminar on Tuesday, 13 October 2026.

This was our most competitive grant round to date, with a record 52 applications and more than $247,000 in funding requested. A total of $65,000 + GST has been awarded to 22 successful projects across New South Wales.

The Local History Grants Program is funded by Create NSW and administered by the Royal Australian Historical Society on behalf of the NSW Government. It supports historical research, publications and projects that help preserve and share local and community history.

This year’s successful projects reflect the wonderful range of historical work happening across New South Wales. More than 80% focus on regional areas, with projects ranging from local history publications and oral histories to digitising archives and creating heritage walking guides.

Congratulations to all our grant recipients! We look forward to sharing more about your projects.

Our thanks to Create NSW for its ongoing support of the program, helping historical societies and community organisations across the state uncover, preserve and share the stories that make up the State’s rich history.

Successful Applicants

Kiama and District Historical Society Inc – Broken Wings: The Untold Story of Kiama’s Military Plane Crashes

The book will provide a valuable dossier of the three local incidents, together with other not-well-known events of World War II that involved the Saddleback Mountain range, including the No 18 Radar Station, and a ‘successful’ flight over the range by a Japanese ace fighter pilot. Awarded: $3,400.

Shoalhaven Historical Society Inc – Cleaning, Archival Housing and Digitisation of Glass Negatives

The project ensures that glass negatives held at Nowra Museum receive treatment to prevent further deterioration. Many of the negatives have been in the possession of Shoalhaven Historical Society for up to 40 years. Awarded: $3,000.

Paterson Historical Society – Gresford to the Upper Allyn: People and Places

The book will record the history along the Allyn River from Gresford to its headwaters, beginning with the valley’s Indigenous Peoples and their displacement during European settlement by landowners, tenant farmers and workers. The book is the third in a series, following Vacy to Gresford and Gresford to Carrabolla. Awarded: $3,000.

Port Macquarie Historical Society – Clarence Street History Walk Brochure

This brochure will provide visitors with an opportunity to self-explore Clarence Street and learn more about Port Macquarie’s history. Most of Port Macquarie’s early built heritage along Clarence Street no longer exists; therefore, the town’s early history is invisible and often overlooked. Awarded: $1,000.

Ballina and District Historical Society – Joseph Check Digitisation Project

Joseph Check was a travelling photographer from the 1880s to 1936. He worked primarily in New South Wales and travelled to remote areas to photograph mine sites, sugar mills, meat-preserving works, coach builders, home interiors, people, buildings, and landscapes. No other photographers visited these remote areas at the time, so these photos are the only ones in existence of Riley’s Hill Quarry, Broadwater Sugar Mill and the Ballina breakwater being built. Awarded: $2,450.

Our Chinese Past Inc – Precious Fragments: Sharing a Chinese Australian Family Collection

The project will produce a book that narrates Chinese Australian history through the collection of Kira Brown, a fifth-generation Chinese Australian who inherited an extensive and highly significant collection of family memorabilia, including objects, photographs, documents, letters and other ephemera. Awarded: $4,000.

Tumbarumba Historical Society – Prisoners of War: Tumbarumba District and Beyond

This illustrated publication will expand upon earlier publications by drawing on little-known archival material to present comprehensive, high-quality research into the memorial’s architecture, heritage, and social significance. Awarded: $3,000.

Casino and District Family History Group – Pioneer Woman of the Casino District

This project will benefit the community by increasing knowledge and understanding of the history of the Casino district through the documentation and publication of the lives of local pioneer women. Awarded: $1,980.

Deniliquin and District Historical Society Inc – History of Deniliquin Hotels

The book will include the history of the people in the hotels, the licensees and the stories associated with them. Awarded: $3,000.

Ashfield and District Historical Society Inc – Liverpool Road, Ashfield: History, Development and Progress, Part 2

The publication will be issue No. 26 in a series titled Ashfield History. This project aims to provide the history of selected houses, buildings, subdivisions and people and events related to the busy section of Liverpool Road between Parramatta Road and Milton Street, Ashfield. Awarded: $3,000.

Adaminaby Snowy Scheme Collection Inc – Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme Workers and their Families: A Selection of Oral Histories

The project will publish oral histories recorded from people who worked on the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme during its construction period (1949–1974), and who lived in temporary ‘camps’ or within a so-called ‘snowy’ town of the Snowy Mountains Region. Awarded: $2,530.

Blue Mountains Association of Cultural Heritage Organisations – Lapstone Hill Tunnel: From Railway Passage to Community Heritage

The Lapstone Hill Tunnel is a significant Blue Mountains state-heritage listed place with a history spanning railway engineering, the development of Glenbrook, artistic representation, wartime use, mushroom growing, closure, and recent conservation efforts. This project will bring these fragmented sources together into a coherent, well-researched and accessible booklet. Awarded: $3,000.

Gunning District Historical Society – Ensuring Access and Value: GDHS Digitising the Collection Project

Active for over 50 years, Gunning District Historical Society has accrued a highly significant collection. However, the collection has not been digitised, and this is critical for ensuring its proper care, preservation, management and access. Awarded: $5,940.

Richmond River Historical Society Inc – Inspired by Lismore: Who Lived Where

The project will produce a booklet identifying 23 individuals for whom Lismore was the setting for a formative period of their life. Awarded: $3,000.

Coonamble Shire Council – Digitisation of the Neville Owen Collection

The project will engage a specialist digitisation provider to work with Council’s Digitisation Collection Manager to identify and prioritise cellulose acetate-based negatives within the extremely rare Neville Owen Collection that are at greatest risk of deterioration. Awarded: $5,170.

Shoalhaven Libraries – Shoalhaven Heritage Newspaper Digitisation Project

The Shoalhaven has a long history of newspaper publication commencing in 1867. The region is distinguished by numerous towns and villages dispersed across a wide geographic area, with each developing its own character, community, milestones and challenges, faithfully reported by the local press. Awarded: $5,940.

Callara Culture and Heritage Aboriginal Corporation – ‘Captured’: NSW Aboriginal Gaol Photos Pre-1930

The publication will document the photos and stories of Aboriginal convicts, bushrangers and prisoners pre-1930. Awarded: $4,950.

Vivability Ltd – Voices from the Station

Voices from the Station is an oral history project that will document and preserve community memories associated with the Bathurst District Ambulance Station through a series of professionally recorded interviews. Awarded: $2,750.

Hurstville Museum and Gallery – Daphne Kingston: Artist & Historian

This project will document and interpret the life and work of Daphne Kingston, a significant but under-recognised local artist, illustrator, and historian whose work preserves the visual history of our built environment. Awarded: $1,980.

Newcastle Family History Society – The Penalty of Poverty: Female Prisoners in Maitland Gaol in the 19th Century

The book follows Dr Pamela Harrison OAM’s earlier publications about the gaol: Life and Death in Maitland Gaol: The first 20 years, 1849 to 1869; and Confined But Free! The Female Staff of Maitland Gaol in the 19th Century. Awarded: $1,000.

Yass and District Historical Society – Discovering Yass: A Digital Heritage Walk

The project aims to help the public appreciate the history of buildings on Comur Street, which became Yass’s main street after its inception in the 1830s. Awarded: $3,110.

Goori-Bugg Birrpai Indigenous Corporation – Lifting the Veil: The History and Impact of the AACo on the Worimi and Birrpai Peoples

Few published histories provide an insight into the complex white and black relationships on what became known as the Port Stephens Estate during the AACo occupation between 1826–1852. These relationships included the Worimi and Birrpai interactions with AACo officials, workers, and convicts. They also give little attention to the impact of the enterprise on the native flora, fauna, birdlife and wider environment. Awarded: $4,000.