Hawkesbury Voices now online

11 November 2021

Have you been hearing voices? Perhaps you’re not alone! Hawkesbury Library Service invites you to explore Hawkesbury Voices and hear the first interviews from the collection online at https://amplify.gov.au/hawkesbury

Hawkesbury Voices captures the social and cultural history of the Hawkesbury through local stories and Hawkesbury Library Service is calling for digital volunteers from all over Australia to help transcribe them.

Using the innovative online tool called Amplify, developed by the State Library of NSW, anyone from anywhere can now search, listen to and transcribe some of digitised audio oral history interviews. A selection of the digitised oral history collection has been placed on the platform with a copy of the interview, as interpreted by a machine. Volunteers can assist by listening to the interviews and then correcting the transcription to help make them more accessible.

The first interviews available on Amplify were conducted in the mid 1980s. They document life in the Hawkesbury including stories about living through the Depression of the 1930s, various floods, riverboats, schooling, entertainment, agricultural practises and more. Some memories even date before World War I, with some interviewees born in the 1890s or early 1900s. The interviews were recorded from a wide range of community members who were willing to share their stories. The interviewees include residents, both men and women, with occupations ranging from farmers, teachers and business managers to Royal Australian Air Force pilots and politicians.

Hawkesbury Library Service is asking for transcribing volunteers so that more people can learn about the amazing stories contained in the Hawkesbury Voices Collections. If this is something that you would like to do, please get in touch.

To search Amplify, go to https://amplify.gov.au/hawkesbury and select an interview. There are instructions, tutorials and Frequently Asked Questions on the site. For more information about Hawkesbury Voices and Oral history see

hawkesbury.nsw.gov.au/library/services/local-and-family-history-resources/hawkesbury-voices

For any enquiries including information about the transcribing project, contact the Local History Librarian history@hawkesbury.nsw.gov.au