Bruce Pennay saluted; call to help digitise Border Morning Mail

The appeal follows one of those driving the effort, Charles Sturt University historian Bruce Pennay, being given a life membership by the society.

Society president Geoff Romero lauded Dr Pennay, who joined the group in 1984 after moving to the Border from Goulburn, and is the fifth life member.

"He's just been a mainstay of our society for nearly 40 years, fulfilling roles on the committee, including being president," Mr Romero said.

"He's written numerous articles for our bulletin, he's given us a number of talks at our meetings and now he's been the main driver in our great strides to have local newspapers digitised through the National Library of Australia's Trove project."

Previously, the Albury society and its Wodonga counterpart have raised more than $150,000 to digitise pages of the Mail and Albury Banner and now $15,000 to $18,000 is needed to modify an estimated 10,000 pages from 1953-54.

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The society needs to pay $1.54 per page.

Albury society treasurer Simon Burgess said the legacy of having editions on Trove was invaluable.

"It's there forever, this will be there for my kids and their kids I hope," Mr Burgess said.

"Worldwide there's nothing like this where you can access newspapers for free."

Dr Pennay said post 1954, copyright issues related to the control of mastheads meant it was unlikely further digitising would occur without a deal with newspaper owners.

As for his lifetime membership, the author of the book Making a City in the Country on the Albury-Wodonga growth centre plan, is rapt.

"Chuffed is the word, I'm really pleased to have that kind of recognition," Dr Pennay said.

"It's a responsibility ongoing and it's a sign that you've been around for awhile."

In addition to pushing newspaper digitisation, Dr Pennay also wants to see historical recognition be given to Albury's first police hut which sat on above Bungambrawatha Creek overlooking what is now the site of the city's swimming pool.

"We'd like a sign there saying it was a police hut and it was in Wiradjuri country and the place was called Bungambrawatha," he said referring to a joint effort with elder Dr Yalmambirra.

The timber structure was built over 17 days in 1838 and was central to Aboriginal dispossession, Dr Pennay said, noting it was used as a vantage point to monitor movements over the original crossing point.

The hut was later superseded with the crossing switched to its present day site.

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