About Oral History Australia

The aims of Oral History Australia are to:

• promote discussion and training on all aspects of the methodology and ethical practices of oral history as a discipline and a means of gathering and preserving social and cultural history;
• foster preservation, access and use of oral history collections;
• support State and Territory Oral History associations;
• provide a national voice on all aspects of oral history; and
• link Australian oral historians to the international oral history movement.

The Oral History Association of Australia was formed in 1978 and in 2013 was re-named Oral History Australia. It remains a non-profit body whose members practise and promote oral history.

Membership of Oral History Australia is comprised of the independently incorporated State and Territory associations of oral historians. The Northern Territory is affiliated with South Australia and the ACT with New South Wales.

All State Oral History Associations hold regular meetings, seminars and workshops and encourage members to lodge their work with libraries and archives for the benefit of researchers and to ensure preservation.  Some states are able to provide recording equipment at very low rates to members.

The Oral History Australia Journal is published annually and its contents reflects the diversity and vitality of oral history practice in Australia. Items for publication may be accepted from overseas-based contributors.

National conferences are held biennially focusing on current and future oral history projects as well as ongoing and evolving issues such as ethics and copyright. These conferences usually include international speakers.

The Constitution of Oral History Australia can be accessed Here 

President's Report 

Read about our history in Beth Robertson's interesting article
"Long Desperate Hours at the Typewriter: establishing the Oral History Association of Australia"

State Oral History Associations

Oral History New South Wales (incorporating ACT)
Oral History Queensland
Oral History Australia South Australia/Northern Territory
Oral History Tasmania
Oral History Victoria
Oral History Assoc of Australia WA Branch

Image Ribbon Photo Credits:
Gathering of family and friends, Popular Café, Cootamundra, NSW, 1952 Photo courtesy E. Dascarolis,
     from the "In Their Own Image: Greek-Australians" National Project Archives, Macquarie University
Australian War Memorial Collection SHA/65/0327/VN Binh Tuy Province, Vietnam 1965 An unidentified soldier
     records a message which could be heard back in Australia on Christmas Day.
Image No 4 Guitar craftsman Photo Credit David Sweet

Australian soldiers in training, circa 1941. Photo from family collection of Judy Hughes.

OHA Conference 2017, Sydney. Photo credit Judy Hughes