Below left: Hope for All Mankind poster, 1943, by Edith
The Red Cross Heritage Collection
Grieve.
Right: Four uniformed Red Cross workers recruit volunteers
KATIE ISAAC & SUSAN MCDOUGALL, THE AUSTRALIAN RED CROSS
on a display float during the Second World War.
Images courtesy of the Red Cross.
The Australian Red Cross
operates with the assistance of
an enormous number of
volunteers, some of whom are
working with the Heritage
Collection. In the year of their
Centenary, Katie Issac tells us
about the collection and the
significance of volunteer
assistance to the Red Cross.
Part of the world’s largest humanitarian
movement, Red Cross is part of the fabric
of Australian life. It has touched the lives
of most people in some way. In the past
year around one million Australians,
including over 500,000 blood donors,
committed their time, expertise, funds
and support to Red Cross. Without this
commitment, Red Cross simply couldn’t
reach the vulnerable people, families and
communities they help every day.
In 2014 Australian Red Cross is proudly
celebrating 100 years of people helping
people. The Red Cross Centenary is a
story about the extraordinary generosity
and compassion of ordinary Australians.
It is a chance to thank generations of
Australians who have served the nation
during times of war, disaster or personal
crisis and through the blood service.
Red Cross began as the Australian
Branch of the British Red Cross Society
on 13 August 1914 at Government House,
Melbourne, nine days after the outbreak
of World War I. Hundreds of thousands of
volunteers signed up during World War I,
and by World War II Red Cross had
become Australia’s largest charitable
organisation. From a population of seven
million, nearly half a million people were
Red Cross members, most of them
women.
In the post-war period Red Cross
focussed on social welfare, national
emergencies, natural disasters, the blood
bank and first aid programs, which were
sustained by an extensive network of
branches and thousands of volunteers.
With such a long history of service,
Australian Red Cross Heritage
Collections are a treasure trove of
2
May – June 2014
material about Australian society from
1914 to the present day. Each State and
Territory maintains its own regional
Heritage Collection and the national
office and archive is located in
Melbourne. “One of the great joys of
volunteering in the Victorian Heritage
Collection is that you have the opportunity
to work with a wonderful group of
volunteers, are supervised by a kind and
very knowledgeable archivist, and you get
to work with treasures that reflect the
goodness and generosity of people within
the community,” says volunteer archivist
Susan McDougall.
The Heritage Collection in Victoria
includes documents relevant to both
activities at a state and national level.
Included in the collection is memorabilia,
such as uniforms, handmade quilts,
flags, banners, posters, badges and
photographs; branch and service
documentation; manuals and booklets
including uniform codes, cooking for
emergencies, and patterns for knitted
comforts for the troops; paper archives,
such as annual reports and meeting
minutes; and multimedia including
archival footage.
Susan notes that many of the Heritage
Collection volunteers also give their time
and skills in other areas of Red Cross,
from providing assistance to people after
disasters to customer service in Red
Cross retail shops. “This breadth of
volunteering experience and different
understandings of the many roles
undertaken by Red Cross brings a wealth of
knowledge. This allows both a deeper
understanding of, and respect for the
materials we, as volunteers, have the
privilege to work with.”
The Heritage Collection has been a
popular and busy place over the last year
as a result of the Centenary, with many
queries coming from membership
branches, including many that were
formed in 1914 – 88 in total! Heritage
staff and volunteers have been actively
researching for the Centenary and
provided material for the production of
the book The Power of Humanity: 100 Years
of Red Cross in Australia by Melanie
Oppenheimer, which will be released in
August 2014.
The Red Cross movement was founded
in the spirit of volunteerism and this is
strongly reflected in the Heritage
Collection volunteers. Their passion and
dedication to preserving the history of
Red Cross has ensured that the
organisation has a thorough
understanding and respect of its origins
and evolution over 100 years. This puts
Red Cross in good stead to continue its
work into the future, learning from its
past and building on its strength – its
network of volunteers, members, staff
and donors.
For more information about the Red Cross
Centenary, and to view the personal stories about
people’s experience with Red Cross over the last 100
years, visit: redcross.org.au/centenary
For more about the Heritage Collection visit:
www.redcross.org.au/heritage-collection.aspx
Please do not reprint this article without permission
INSITE MAGAZINE www.mavic.asn.au