New Newington archivist Julie Daly and departing archivist David Roberts. Farewell and thank you David; welcome Julie Newington College has rich archives, dating from before its foundation in 1863. Information and content from our archives are used for a wide range of information about our past students’ positions and achievements of purposes across the College and its community, including teaching while at school. Our College and community will benefit from his work and learning, legal and governance purposes, building projects, long into the future. development and alumni events, publications and displays. It has been my privilege and pleasure to be Newington’s Archivist over Our Archives program is undergoing a change – not a physical the last 13 years, and I am delighted to be able to hand over the role change, rather a stewardship change. Our long-serving College to such a skilled and experienced professional as Julie. Archivist, David Roberts, who has overseen the archives since 2009, has retired, and Julie Daly has joined us from Abbotsleigh. Julie Daly looks forward to sharing the As we farewell David, we welcome Julie to Newington and look College’s story forward to a continuation of good archival practice and interesting I have been an archivist my whole professional life. Archives are insights into our College’s history. fascinating places, and I have been privileged to work with some David Roberts reflects on his time at the College amazing collections including Sydney University’s Centre for Performance Studies, the National Trust of Australia (NSW), the I was appointed as Newington’s inaugural professional archivist in Australian Museum and Westpac. The most recent collection I worked 2009. I’d worked in the national and NSW State Archives before with was at another independent school, Abbotsleigh, a girls’ school that, including heading the latter for ten years, and school archives with a history and archival collection dating back to 1885. were new to me. But archives are archives and I was able to use all For archivists, independent schools are satisfying places to work. my experience to set up a professionally-based archives program, Collections are diverse, the work always surprising and the students including sustainable systems, policies and practices, and planning and staff inspiring. We become expert in managing the archives and and moving to new facilities. the school’s history, the textile, photographic and object collections, As part of my role, I’ve written a lot about the College’s long history, we give talks, write articles, answer requests, prepare displays and highlighting archival sources where I could, and brought our students visit classrooms. In effect we become the keepers of school memory. into direct contact with our collections through displays and research School archival collections underpin their history, especially when the projects. Most of an archivist’s work is behind the scenes, however, school is Newington with a history spanning 159 years with complex never seen by the community that she or he serves. This is equally roots in the Methodist Church and colonial Sydney. This is a history which the case with our archives volunteers, who have quietly supported has cultural importance beyond the school itself, and as archivists we my work in so many ways over the past 13 years. can place this contextually within educational and social history. I particularly wish to acknowledge the volunteer service of Dr My aim at Newington is to inspire by sharing the archives and Roger Davidson OAM (ON 1940), who has served our College and the school’s history, to achieve what I call fluency in all things community for more than five decades in numerous roles. He was Newington! I am passionate about archival collections in schools instrumental in the College’s decision to establish a professionally- and how they can be used to provide a grounding for current based archives program and has since been the ‘foreman’ our students and a space of memory for alumni. I am looking forward major ongoing volunteer project. Earlier this year, at the age of 98, to becoming embedded in the school, learning its wonderful history he retired from this service, leaving the legacy of a huge database and sharing with the school community. 50 | Service | News Spring 2022 | Alumni, Community and Development