ATTACHMENTS TO VARIOUS REPORTS COMMUNITY & CULTURAL COMMITTEE MONDAY 16 NOVEMBER 2015 ATTACHMENT TO CCC 6A – 11/2015 UIVER COLLECTION SIGNIFICANCE ASSESSMENT ATTACHMENT 1 Uiver Collection Significance Assessment UIVER COLLECTION SIGNIFICANCE ASSESSMENT Albury LibraryMuseum 1 November 2015 Prepared for Albury City Council Context Pty Ltd 2015 Project Team: Dr Georgia Melville, Project Manager Chris Johnston, Director Catherine McLay, Heritage Consultant Report Register This report register documents the development and issue of the report entitled Uiver Collection Significance Assessment undertaken by Context Pty Ltd in accordance with our internal quality management system. Project Issue Notes/description Issue Date Issued to No. No. 2051 1 Draft report 20 Oct 2015 Carina Clement 2051 2 Final report 1 Nov 2015 Carina Clement Context Pty Ltd 22 Merri Street, Brunswick VIC 3056 Phone 03 9380 6933 Facsimile 03 9380 4066 Email [email protected] Web www.contextpl.com.au ii CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY IV 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Background 1 1.2 Scope 1 1.3 Assessment framework 2 1.4 Acknowledgements 2 2 METHODOLOGY 3 2.1 Assessment methodology 3 3 HISTORICAL OUTLINE 5 3.1 Historical themes represented 5 3.2 Contextual history 5 4 DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION 12 4.1 Collection description 12 4.2 Condition and archaeological potential 13 4.3 Integrity and intactness 13 4.4 Collection provenance and modifications 14 4.5 Uses: research and interpretation 14 5 COMMUNITY ASSOCIATIONS 15 5.1 Evidence of community connections 15 5.2 Associated individuals and groups 20 5.3 ‘Uiver’ communities 21 5.4 Community survey 21 6 SELECTED INDIVIDUAL COLLECTION ITEMS 23 7 COMPARATIVE ASSESSMENT 32 8 SIGNIFICANCE ASSESSMENT 34 8.1 NSW State Level Assessment 34 8.2 Australian National level assessment 39 9 RECOMMENDATIONS 44 REFERENCES 45 APPENDIX A: COMMUNITY SURVEY RESULTS 47 APPENDIX B: RECORD OF CONSULTATION AND RESEARCH 48 APPENDIX C: COMPARATIVE ASSESSMENT RESEARCH DATA 51 APPENDIX D: ITEMISED COLLECTION LIST 67 iii UIVER COLLECTION EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This collection significance assessment was commissioned by the Albury LibraryMuseum to determine whether or not the Uiver Collection meets the threshold for State Heritage List nomination, according to the NSW Heritage Council criteria and thresholds; as well as to assess the collection’s standing against the Collections Council of Australia’s Significance 2.0 criteria and thresholds at a National level. This report will allow Albury City Council to consider nomination of the Uiver Collection to the NSW State Heritage Register (SHR); and on receipt of this nomination, the SHR Committee will then undertake its own detailed research and analysis in consideration for SHR listing. The Heritage Division of the Office of Environment and Heritage have advised that at this early stage in the process, it is appropriate to flag a range of possible areas of heritage significance for their consideration. There are 286 archive, audio-visual and object-based heritage items in the Uiver Collection. The collection is managed and stored to national best practice standards by a team of museum professionals at the Albury LibraryMuseum. The ‘Uiver Story’ is central to the Uiver Collection. The Dutch KLM Douglas DC-2 ‘Uiver’ airliner competed in the London to Melbourne MacRobertson International Centenary Air Race of 1934. Bad weather forced Uiver to make an emergency night landing on the Albury racecourse with considerable difficulty, only executed safely as a result of fast-thinking members of the Albury community. After spending a night stationary, Uiver was pushed out of the makeshift runway by their Albury comrades, re-joining the race to Melbourne in daylight, placing second overall and winning the Handicap Prize as a passenger liner. Uiver’s journey had a lasting effect, including continuing pride within the Albury (NSW) community, with visits and gifts being exchanged between people in and between the Netherlands, Netherlands East Indies and in Australia, creating ongoing international ties, and even technological advances in the aviation industry. It is understood that the Uiver Collection of the Albury LibraryMuseum embodies at least some of these associations established during and in the wake of the 1934 Air Race, which continue to be felt by the Albury and wider Australian community. The Uiver Collection was found to hold historical, associative, aesthetic, social, research, rarity and representativeness heritage significance to the State of NSW when assessed against the Heritage Council of NSW’s Criteria for Listing on the State Heritage Register. While the Collection was found to hold historical, aesthetic, research and social significance to a National level according to the Collections Council of Australia’s Significance 2.0 - A Guide to Assessing the Significance of Collections (which also takes into account the comparative criteria of provenance, rarity/representativeness, condition/completeness and interpretative capacity). Based on this assessment, it is recommended that the Albury City Council nominate the Uiver Collection to the State Heritage Register of NSW for consideration, and to apply for the National Library of Australia’s Community Heritage Grant program. It is also recommended that Albury City Council continue to manage the collection to best practice national museum standards, supported by internal mechanisms as well as externally sought funding. iv COLLECTION SIGNIFICANCE ASSESSMENT 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background The Dutch KLM Douglas DC-2 ‘Uiver’ airliner competed in the London to Melbourne MacRobertson International Centenary Air Race of 1934. With the world watching on through the global broadcast of the event, bad weather forced Uiver to make an emergency night landing on the Albury racecourse with considerable difficulty, only executed safely as a result of fast-thinking members of the Albury community. After spending a night stationary, Uiver was pushed out of the makeshift runway by their Albury comrades, re-joining the race to Melbourne in daylight, placing second overall and winning the Handicap Prize as a passenger liner. Uiver’s journey had a lasting effect, including continuing pride within the Albury (NSW) community, with visits and gifts being exchanged between people in and between the Netherlands, Netherlands East Indies and Australia, the creation of ongoing international ties, and even technological advances in the aviation industry. The ‘Uiver Story’ occurred in the exciting context of early aviation development. The first air flight occurred in 1903. During these early decades, scientists, explorers and daredevils took to the skies – the focus of the time was often on these charismatic individuals. The 1930s saw the modernisation of metal aircrafts, taking over from timber, of which Uiver played a key role. Soon aircrafts were produced in mass for war. From WWII, we witnessed the increase of often sacred stories linked to amazing aircraft and their military feats. In these early times, it was very common for people watched aircraft arrive and depart - ‘Big Event’ flights were popular. As part of this, the Uiver Story is a rarity – there is no other similar incident, and community participation was a large part of it. It is understood that the Uiver Collection of the Albury LibraryMuseum embodies at least some of these associations established during and in the wake of the 1934 Air Race, which continue to be felt by the Albury and wider Australian community. There are 286 items in this collection and the collection has been well documented. 1.2 Scope This collection significance assessment was commissioned by the Albury LibraryMuseum to determine whether or not the Uiver Collection meets the threshold for State Heritage List nomination, according to the NSW Heritage Council criteria and thresholds; as well as to assess the collection’s standing against the Collections Council of Australia’s Significance 2.0 criteria and thresholds at a National level. This report will allow Albury City Council to consider nomination of the Uiver Collection to the NSW State Heritage Register (SHR); and on receipt of this nomination, the SHR Committee will then undertake its own detailed research and analysis in consideration for SHR listing. The Heritage Division of the Office of Environment and Heritage have advised that at this early stage in the process, it is appropriate to flag a range of possible areas of heritage significance for their consideration. While the assessment against Significance 2.0 criteria will also support the LibraryMuseum in any future application to the Community Heritage Grant program of the National Library of Australia for the Uiver Collection. There is a copious amount of information available in the public domain about the Uiver Story, the Uiver Memorial, the Uiver Collection, and communities’ connections to them. However, given timeframe and resourcing parameters for this particular project, this assessment focuses only on the required content to meet with the central aims of the project. There is future scope to draw from the many primary resources available and to analyse the raw community research data in greater detail. 1 UIVER COLLECTION 1.3 Assessment framework This collection significance assessment follows the NSW Heritage Office’s Assessing Heritage Significance Guidelines, 2001. These guidelines recommend an overarching three step approach to heritage management: 1) Investigate Significance 2) Assess Significance 3) Manage Significance.