HELEN Stevens was presented with the Royal Historical Society of Victoria’s award of merit on Saturday.
The former long-time Pyramid Hill Historical Society secretary received the honour from chair of the RHSV’s society support committee Craige Proctor.
Mr Proctor, who is also president of the Western Victorian Association of Historical Societies, was in Pyramid Hill for the regional group’s north-central zone meeting.
The Pyramid Hill society nominated Mrs Stevens for the award that recognises her contributions as a member and leader over the last 40 years.
Current secretary Cheryl McKinnon said Mrs Stevens’ love of history had seen her a dedicated member with roles in administration, hosting tours of the museum, researching families history and writing local history publications.
“Helen’s attention to detail is evidenced in the cataloguing and archiving systems that she has instigated over the years to enable the entire collection to be readily accessible and items easily identified,” Mrs McKinnon said in the nomination.
“Helen also has a strong interest in local Aboriginal history and has sourced and created an impressive display of local artefacts, working under the guidance of Paul Haw from the Balug Balug Keeping Place.
Mrs Stevens has represented the Pyramid Hill society at district and zone level for many years.
“While she loves delving into the past, Helen is always focused on the future, eager to bring back her learnings and apply new technologies,” Mrs McKinnon said,
“Early on she initiated the Talking History collection which started with MP3 voice recordings, then progressed to video recordings of Helen’s interviews with a range of local identities.
“Helen has also made a video documentary of our museum and machinery collections which is a valuable resource for archiving, research and induction of new volunteers.”
Mrs McKinnon said the nomination for an award of merit for Mrs Stevens was to acknowledge “someone who has selflessly given up so much of time to record and preserve the history of our district”.