Digitizing Australia's History: Sydney Morning Herald's Archives

0:00In Sydney's West, a team is racing to digitize two centuries of Australian history from the Sydney Morning Herald's archives. It's all part of Nine Entertainment's five-year project to create one massive online database ahead of the paper's 200th birthday in 20-31. Photo-expert Harry Hollinsworth is leading the charge in a climate-controlled warehouse scanning millions of images, videos, and articles before they crumble away. The project tackles everything from old film reels and magnetic tapes to microfilm and negative stored in over a dozen formats. Some tapes suffer from sticky shed syndrome, needing a bake and special ovens just to play. Hollinsworth has already saved thousands of at-risk shots, battling toxic vinegar syndrome that destroys acetate film and leaves a nasty smell. Folks are buzzing about the human stories preserved here, like the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, Hollywood stars such as Elizabeth Taylor. Landing in Sydney, or Marine O'Hara, hugging a koala at Taronga Zoo, these weren't just snaps.

1:01They captured Australia's big moments from celebrity visits to protests like the Nazi flag coming down on Anzac Dayan, 1939. Nine CEO highlights how this protects the nation's media legacy, intertwined with our democracy and growth. The archive will hold 150,000 hours of TV from nine news to classic shows, plus pages from the herald, the age, and more, making. It's searchable for anyone. As they push forward, director Stephanie Foreign says a solid pass builds the future, with smart indexing for uses we can't yet picture. This effort ensures generations can dive into our real stories straight from the source. That wraps Sydney news today, brought to you with AI.