More than two decades of yellowing Marlborough Express newspapers crossed Cook Strait on their way to be digitised in a mammoth National Library project.

Former Marlborough Museum director Steve Austin had picked up the newspapers from the museum archives, stacked them in the back of his car, and personally drove them onto the ferry, making three separate trips during 2023 to get them to the New Zealand Micrographic Services in Wellington.

The National Library of New Zealand, in partnership with the Preserving Local History and Education Trust, has now added the Marlborough Express newspapers from 1929 to 1952 to their online collection, Papers Past. The new issues will be available from 12pm on Wednesday.

“I’ve felt personally committed to the significance of this project,” Austin said.

“I realised that transporting these materials carried risks, and it wasn’t something I was willing to leave to someone else. I wanted to ensure everything went smoothly.”

Transporting the newspapers was “a major undertaking”, Austin said.

“The bonus was getting to visit the facilities, inspect the equipment, and meet some of the amazing people involved in the project.”

The work meant the public would have online access to all Marlborough Express volumes from 1886 until 1952.

The trust’s chairperson, Andy Fenton, called Austin’s dedication to personally delivering the newspapers “nothing short of inspiring”.

“Steve’s story is worth archiving in its own right,” Fenton said.

“As individuals united by a shared passion for preserving history, we’ve all gone to extraordinary lengths to bring this project to fruition.”

The trust was established in 2022 to preserve Aotearoa’s cultural heritage by creating digital records of local and community newspapers, and making them publicly available online.

“Our team is made up of ordinary New Zealanders with an extraordinary mission: to preserve the stories that have shaped our communities and nation, and to make them accessible to both current and future generations,” Fenton said.

The trust funded and arranged for newspapers to be photographed, and the images donated to the National Library’s National Digital Heritage Archive.

National Library director of content services Mark Crookston said partnering with the trust had allowed them to digitise newspapers covering all regions up to 1945. Previously the Marlborough Express was only available on Papers Past up to the 1920s.

“We’re delighted that the partnership with the trust and their work with Marlborough Museum has enabled us to fill this gap.”

Liz Ward, the manager of Heritage Marlborough, the Marlborough District Council’s heritage unit, called it one of the “more significant efforts to preserve Marlborough’s history” since the creation of the Papers Past project.

“This is bringing us forward and bringing us up with the other provincial centres.

“Marlborough was probably a little bit behind other main provincial centres because our papers were only digitised up to 1920. In some centres like Christchurch it’s up into the 80s now.”

Ward encouraged Marlburians to use Papers Past to peek into their community and family history.

“If you have family that were active in the Marlborough area in this time period, get on to Papers Past and put their name in, and have a look and see what your ancestors were up to. You might be surprised.”

This story is written by Marlborough Express LDR reporter Kira Carrington.