Emma Pritchard
A private collection consisting of thousands of books, microfilms, microfiche, photographs, maps, newspaper clippings, documents and ephemera on local history and genealogical resources, lovingly assembled and catalogued throughout the past 50 years by Clarence Valley historian and genealogist Nola Mackey, has found a forever home at the Clarence Regional Library in Grafton.
Known as the Mackey Archives, the treasure trove of historical artefacts was kindly gifted to the local organisation by Mrs Mackey, who celebrated the transfer of her collection at an official launch on May 26 in front of a small crowd of family, friends, and representatives from Clarence Valley Council (CVC), alongside an appreciative group of Clarence Regional Library staff.
Describing herself as someone who has always been passionate about history, Mrs Mackey said she felt proud that her extensive collection will be well maintained and preserved for future generations.
Inspired by stories of colourful family characters, goldmines and bushrangers shared with her by her maternal grandmother, Mrs Mackey said the collection first began to expand during the 1960s when she became involved with the Clarence River Historical Society (CRHS) while working as a teacher at Westlawn Public School.
As her desire to learn and uncover more secrets about the region and her family grew, so did the Mackey Archives as she “discovered what an incredible and unique part of the world the Clarence River District is.”
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Mrs Mackey continued her research into the history of the local area and her family ancestry, including her husband Vern’s distant relations.
After undertaking professional studies in family, local and applied histories via distance education at campuses in Sydney and Armidale, Mrs Mackey invested heavily in books, copies of original records, and archives long before the internet and the instant search engine Google appeared.
“This was the beginning of the Mackey Archives,” she revealed.
When her family circumstances changed during the early 1990s, Mrs Mackey said she was fortunate to move into her dream job as a professional historian, and she opened her own business.
She continued to invest in more books, microfilms and CDs as part of her rapidly increasing collection.
“I wrote and published more than 70 publications in book and microfiche formats,” she said.
“Over 40 of these were about the Clarence River District, and three were co-authored with Jean Bultitude, June Keeper and Dr Geoff Burkhardt.
“The aim of my collection was to supplement and complement, not duplicate material held by other private facilities such as historical and family history societies throughout the region.”
When poor health and other issues forced her to close her business in 2012, Mrs Mackey began wondering what to do with her extensive collection.
“Ideally, I wanted it to stay local and be available to both the hobbyist and students starting out on their own tertiary journey,” she explained.
“I always had a great relationship with the Clarence Regional and Grafton Branch Libraries.
“Fast forward to 2018 and I approached library staff about my collection during a visit, and they were very keen, especially when they learned I wished to gift it to the city.
“My hope is that this collection is the core of a community-based collection that is unique, and from time to time is strategically added to by others in the future.
“It is a source of information and inspiration for the next and future generations, so they have the knowledge, confidence and courage to go out into the world and do great things, just as their ancestors did.”
Regional librarian Kathryn Breward graciously thanked Mrs Mackey for gifting her collection to the Clarence Regional Library.
“We were excited by the prospect of having such a collection on hand for people researching family and local history,” she said.
“We’re proud to look after the Mackey Archives.”
The Mackey Archives includes 410 local history books, 789 family history books, 1019 local history maps, 84 data CDs, 260 microfilms, 1137 microfiche folders, 68 document folders and 27000 tagged images of index cards, documents and newspaper clippings.
The public is welcome to view the Mackey Archives for research purposes at the Clarence Regional Library by appointment.
Please call 66 410 100 for further information.