Yesterday, I encountered a special little bookshop in the country town of St Arnaud. Jane, the proprietor, only sells Australian books. New, and second hand. I picked up a copy of Brian Matthews book Louisa.
It was at linux.conf.au 2011 in Brisbane where I started the campaign to digitise the dawn. Crowdfunding cash to donate to the National Library of Australia to scan the pages of Louisa Lawson’s journal.
I often wonder about the impact of that effort. A couple of people have let me know how valuable it’s been for them I’m hopeful there are countless others who’ve appreciated having easier access to this slice of history too.
The Dawn is online at Trove
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/title/252
and once a day, an article from those pages is posted on Mastodon.
https://ausglam.space/@digitisethedawn
Find more at https://digitisethedawn.org