HERITAGE LIVING - National Trust of Australia

Heritage Livingnational TRust of South Australiatrust news continuedDecision not to centraliseNational Archives a big winMarcus BeresfordThe announcement by the Federal governmentthat it will not be closing branches of theNational Archives of Australia in Adelaide andcertain other states and territories is a relief formany history lovers and researchers.The National Archives (currently located in aformer hotel on the corner of Chancery Lane andAngas St, Adelaide), holds a range of importanthistorical documents relating to colonial SouthAustralia in the areas of government transferredto the Commonwealth at Federation.National Archive records include, for example,• Plans, specifications and photos of NationalEstate buildings in SA;• Thousands of photos from the former SA PostMuseum dating from 1840;• Records of the Overland Telegraph, TransAustralian Railway, Woomera and Maralinga;• SA immigration passenger lists;• SA colonial naturalisation certificates from 1848;• Registration details of SA ships, and SA portcrew registers from 1852 (including deserters);• Boer War records for the SA contingent of theImperial forces.Relocation of this and other material outside SAwould have been a significant loss for peopleresearching family or SA history.Since only 10% of the National Archive’s recordsare listed on their online catalogue, and only 1% oftheir 80 million items are digitised, trips interstatewould have become necessary to find muchmaterial, and a fee of $16-50 per item paid fordigitisation of many things found.The Federal government is nowplanning to co-locate the NationalArchives with local institutions(presumably State Records of SA atGepps Cross, an excellent facilityfor historians and researchers, ifless conveniently located, althoughthere is a branch office in 26 LeighSt, Adelaide where materials canbe ordered).The Trust congratulates the Federalgovernment on this welcome decision and invitesmembers to write to or email the governmentaccordingly.Left: Wellington Courthouse 22nd Dec 2009.right: Redruth Gaol.Repairing salt damp in our propertiesDavid Finnie ChairmanStrathalbyn National Trust MuseumMany of our properties suffer from the effects ofrising damp in their buildings. The volunteersat Strathalbyn were concerned about the powderingand fretting of mortar in the joints of the outer wallof the old police station and courthouse museum’soriginal cell block. In many cases previous attemptsto fix the problem used a cement based mix whichnot only affected the appearance of the wall butin the long term has the potential to weaken itsstructure as the dampness rises above the repair tocause further damage.An additional, secondary, concern is the conditionof the internal walls. Deteriorated joints in theexternal wall allow moisture to enter and this canhave a noticeable impact on interior surfaces.After the Alexandrina Council’s Heritage Advisorprovided expert advice the project proceeded. Thepowdery and crumbling sections of mortar wereremoved. The damaged material was sometimesup to 40mm into the wall. Joints were rinsed withlow pressure water jet to remove the dust beforere-pointing could begin.The project commenced in June 2009 and by earlyNovember the target area was completed.Properly preparing the lime mortar requiresspecialized knowledge, but after someexperimentation, the product had a very similartexture and colour to the mortar that hadremained undisturbed in the joints. Re-pointing isby its nature an exacting and time consuming taskbut the appearance of the work undertaken to dateis a credit to the volunteers involved. An estimatedtwo hundred hours of work has gone into theproject so far.Other National Trust properties where this sort ofwork has been undertaken include the WellingtonCourthouse and the Redruth Gaol.Above: Photo: June Edwards (from the ASA).page 8