Community
11 June, 2026
Archive is our ‘collective memory’
Linda Emery never stood a chance. As a child, her parents took her to old homes, museums and places of historical interest.
Linda Emery never stood a chance.
As a child, her parents took her to old homes, museums and places of historical interest.
She remembers ‘stealing’ a piece of history from the old Hartley Court House when she was just eight years of age.
She took a small fragment of brick to place in her ‘box of treasures’.
The box of treasures has been lost but her passion for history remains as strong as ever and she has been a dedicated member of the Berrima District Historical and Family History Society since moving to the region in the 1980s.
She has been a long-term custodian of the society’s archives and it’s a job that she loves because she describes the archive as a “collective memory of our society”.
“It gives us a sense of place and community and that’s what we need to cling on to,” she said.
Mrs Emery is confident that young people are still interested in history – they are just engaging with it in different ways such as DNA testing through ancestry.com
They don’t want to sit through lengthy meetings or trawl through documents at libraries in Sydney and Melbourne.
They want it at their fingertips.
“You need to keep evolving,” Mrs Emery said.
The Historical and Family History Society relocated last year (out of necessity) from the Mittagong Playhouse to the Moss Vale Civic Centre.
It was a painful process but one that provided the impetus for Mrs Emery to shed back some of the material that had been stored in the archive.
It is a process that is currently taking up much of her time – sorting through the items that are relevant to the Southern Highlands region and those that are not.
She said the move had been a great one for the society.
She said members had already formed some great relationships with councillors and council staff and there had been synergies with the Moss Vale library.
“It has been wonderful,” she said.
Mrs Emery has been busy turning out published material for the society – including the origins of street names in Mittagong and Moss Vale (with Bowral on the way).
She said it was important to know that she is producing material that people want to read.
And if given a couple of months to concentrate a project of her own?
Mrs Emery said the history of her own family (on her mother’s side) had never been captured in full and she would like to get it down on paper.
“I’m the last woman standing,” she told The Southern Wire.
“The stories finish with me unless I write them down.”
Mrs Emery said she was ‘honoured’ to be named an OAM recipient The King’s Birthday 2026 Honours List but said the award was not hers alone.
“I’m just one of a team,” she said.
She said it was proof that her work with the society was valued.
· Mrs Emery was recognised with a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in The King’s Birthday 2026 Honours List.
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