Significance Assessments

Carrying out a Significance Assessment of a specific object within a collection, part of a collection, or a collection in its entirety is a nationally standardised way of assessing the value of an historical object or objects. The report that is produced outlines how the object or collection of objects meet the specified significance criteria and makes a series of recommendations that relate to the object or collection.

Australian National Aviation Museum Significance Assessment
The objective of the Australian National Aviation Museum is to tell the story of the people and machines that contribute to Australia’s rich aviation heritage. This significance assessment involved the analysis of objects in the Museum’s library collection to understand their history and context, to identify their value for the community and to describe the significance of the collection.

Australian Lesbian & Gay Archives Significance Assessment
Way Back When worked with the Australian Lesbian & Gay Archives Association (ALGA) - now known as the Australian Queer Archives - to carry out a significance assessment of their vast collection. The ALGA collection, which began in the 1970s, documents and preserves many different aspects of gay life in Australia both during and after the gay liberation era of the 1970s. Items in the collection include photographs, newspaper clippings, oral histories and scrapbooks.

Berry Street Significance Assessment
Berry Street is one of Victoria’s largest and most respected child and family welfare organisations, with a rich history that dates back to the establishment of the Victorian Infant Asylum in 1877. The Berry Street Heritage Collection is a diverse collection of unique and fascinating material. It documents the emergence, running and organisation of charitable institutions established to care for children, mothers and their wider families often in dire need. In addition, the collection provides invaluable insight into the reality and evolving practices of institutionalised care. Perhaps most powerfully, however, the Berry Street Heritage Collection contains unique and highly personal information about the lives of individual women and children and their wider families who passed through the institutions.