MOUNT Gambier City Council will seek access to Win Television’s extensive archival treasure-trove in a move to digitalise historical content.
Negotiations are set to get under way with the regional broadcaster following a decision by the council this week.
The issue coincides with Win Television requesting “right of way” over the existing access driveway to their property, which is located on a portion of council’s Lake Terrace Cemetery.
A former request for council to grant an easement was rejected by the local government body.
“There are three elements to this negotiation,” City Council chief executive Andrew Meddle told this week’s meeting.
“There is the digitalisation of their archives, the right of way issue as well as financial arrangements all to be discussed within the future.”
While the two parties will have to thrash out these issues, Mount Gambier historian Lynn Lowe has welcomed the potential access to the archives, stating they were “invaluable for community history”.
“It is not just Mount Gambier that will benefit from these archives it is the whole of the South East,” Ms Lowe said.
“There was just such a gap between 1966 and the present time in regards to local history and this will really help fill that.
“To have these will be a major asset to the community.”
Ms Lowe expected all events since station’s beginning were recorded in some form, including major and community events across the region.
“Everything from Ash Wednesday to the Christmas parades would have been recorded in some format,” she said.
“There are all the groups and communities around the city that will greatly benefit from this.”
Advertisements from non-existent businesses are also expected to spark the interests of local historical fans.
“The public will be interested in the archives because nowadays people go through old copies of the newspapers,” Ms Lowe said.
“So to have digital access to film archives will be another great step in preserving history.”
Ms Lowe said the ultimate goal would be for the South East community to access the footage from their phone, saying it would be an extra resource for those studying their family history.
“Imagine being able to watch your child or an ancestor on the local Christmas parades or watching them play a bit of community football,” she said.
“It would add to the family history magic.”
In regards to securing sports footage, Ms Lowe said football grand finals as well as horse racing would be popular among the community.
“There is also anything that may have been covered by the local news as well,” she said.
“We were worried it may have all been lost but now there is potential to put it all together and that would just be amazing.”
With an extraordinary amount of research assets available at the Mount Gambier Library already, Ms Lowe said the collection would “just add to it”.
“There is so much that has happened in Mount Gambier,” she said.
“It will be fantastic to bring this to modern day.”
Meanwhile, Mr Meddle said broadcaster’s request for a “right of way” appeared logical.
“They have come to us because they do need an ongoing right of access should they wish to do something else with the building,” Mr Meddle said.
The entry is still a part of council land as it joins onto the Lake Terrace Cemetery site.
Financial arrangements will also be on the agenda during the future negotiations.
