Correct
Identify a wrong name, material, location, date or status and show the source that supports the change.
The contributor desk
You do not need a finished article to improve the record.
Bring one correction, one source, one photograph, one professional explanation or one question worth investigating. An editor helps turn accepted material into a cited, readable contribution.
Explain
Turn field experience in geology, geochemistry, operations, materials or local history into an accessible note.
Open a collection
Describe family papers, photographs, plans or objects before sharing files. Ownership and permission are agreed first.
Review
Check the technical meaning of a draft in your field. Reviewer credit and conflicts are shown separately from authorship.
A fair exchange
Useful evidence in. Better-organised research back.
For a source or correctionThe review result, a change alert and credit—or anonymity—after moderation.
For a family collectionA simple inventory and provenance receipt, with digital copies and use conditions agreed before publication.
For an expert articleA verified profile, editorial and visual support, technical review and relevant source-pack access. Any honorarium is agreed before work starts.
For a council or societyA locality source audit and precise collection links, without implying endorsement or asking staff for promotional copy.
Access recognition is not investment consideration, a promise of commercial value or payment for a favourable conclusion. Publication depends on sources, rights, consent and editorial review.
Open article and evidence briefs
44 ways inChoose the smallest brief that matches what you know. A catalogue link, name correction or annotated photograph can be as valuable as a long article.
First Finds desk
Test the familiar discovery story against reward claims, newspapers, maps, monuments and family papers.
Good fit: Local historians, archivists, descendants, historical societies and mining historiansClunes: Campbell, Bruhn and Esmond in the same claim ledger
Reconstruct what each person found, reported or later received credit for, and show where the records disagree.
Useful evidence: Reward committee material, 1851 newspapers, maps, correspondence and later heritage studies Working report publishedWarrandyte: discovery, proclamation and the first licences
Separate Louis Michel’s find from the opening and licensing of Anderson’s Creek as a goldfield.
Useful evidence: Government notices, licence records, council interpretation, contemporary press and family material Working report publishedBuninyong and Ballarat: one region, several starting points
Place Thomas Hiscock, John Dunlop and James Regan on a dated evidence sequence without forcing one simplified winner.
Useful evidence: Council heritage studies, contemporary reports, maps, memorial files and personal papers Working report publishedBendigo’s thirteen discovery claimants
Explain why a later rewards committee could not choose one first discoverer and what is securely known about the early Bendigo Creek finds.
Useful evidence: Committee files, Golden Square studies, newspapers, plaques, maps and family records Working report publishedThe women in Bendigo’s first-find record
Build a source-led note around Margaret Kennedy, Mrs Farrell and the limits of the surviving documentary record.
Useful evidence: Council heritage work, newspapers, family research and memorial documentationForest Creek: when a find becomes a rush
Trace how reports from Forest Creek moved through roads, newspapers and neighbouring camps.
Useful evidence: Contemporary press, government notices, maps, diaries and local studiesBeechworth before the water races
Document the opening of the Ovens field and the earliest methods before water infrastructure changed the workings.
Useful evidence: Historical maps, mining survey reports, PROV records and local collectionsWho named the field?
Follow a locality from pastoral run or creek name to goldfield, township and later municipality.
Useful evidence: Survey plans, gazettes, council naming files, maps and newspapersA discovery monument as a historical source
Investigate who commissioned a marker, what wording was chosen and which claims were omitted.
Useful evidence: Council minutes, plaque files, newspapers, photographs and maintenance recordsBefore the famous discovery date
Find earlier colonial rumours, specimens or suppressed reports and classify what they actually establish.
Useful evidence: Newspapers, official correspondence, reward notices and collection cataloguesCouncil records desk
Find the local paperwork that connects a working to roads, rates, permits, buildings, names and civic memory.
Good fit: Council archivists, librarians, heritage advisers, planners, records officers and local societiesWhat the rate book says about a mine or quarry
Show how occupier, owner, valuation, description and address fields can connect a business to a place over time.
Useful evidence: Rate books, valuation records, directories and title referencesThe road built for the quarry
Trace a haul road, bridge, siding or loading place from proposal through maintenance.
Useful evidence: Council minutes, engineering files, contracts, maps and photographsFrom road board to modern council
Explain which historical municipality held a place before amalgamation and where its records moved.
Useful evidence: Municipal directories, PROV agency histories, gazettes and council archivesReading a heritage study as a source map
Show readers how citations, place schedules and thematic histories lead to original records.
Useful evidence: Council heritage studies, heritage overlays, source notes and collection cataloguesLocal building stone in public buildings
Identify the evidence required to connect a town hall, bridge or kerb to a named quarry.
Useful evidence: Specifications, contracts, architects’ files, council minutes and quarry accountsWhat a council archive can and cannot confirm
Distinguish planning, local-history and infrastructure evidence from State work-authority status.
Useful evidence: Published council record guides, regulator registers and archival policiesThe civic collection behind a mining town
Introduce a council-owned collection and five mining or quarrying record types within it.
Useful evidence: Collection catalogue, acquisition notes and rights statementsQuarry names hidden in street and reserve names
Test a local naming story against the naming register and historical evidence.
Useful evidence: Road indexes, naming files, gazettes, maps and oral accountsCouncil minutes search recipe
Demonstrate a repeatable search using names, aliases, material terms and date ranges.
Useful evidence: Digitised minutes, indexes, agendas and correspondence registersA local source audit for one municipality
Publish the best public council, library, archive, map and society sources for one area.
Useful evidence: Official catalogues, council pages, PROV, State Library and society collectionsEast Gippsland mining and quarry source audit
Connect the Bairnsdale Local Studies collection and high-country mining record to 47 dated current-authority records without mixing historical and regulatory status.
Useful evidence: Council catalogue, former-shire records, Heritage Victoria studies, roads, maps and authority references Working report publishedWellington Shire mining and quarry source pack
Use the former Avon, Alberton, Maffra, Rosedale and Sale archive listings to explain one locality, quarry, road or goldfield.
Useful evidence: Rate books, council minutes, heritage citations, maps, photographs and authority references Working report publishedGlenelg limestone and quarry history source audit
Trace one limestone, road-metal, stonemason or council-plant story from the environmental history into original records.
Useful evidence: Heritage-study footnotes, council minutes, contracts, History House catalogues and family material Working report publishedMildura limestone and quarry history source audit
Connect a current limestone authority to a documented property, road, business or family record without assuming production or product quality.
Useful evidence: 1890–1925 rate books, council collection policy, photographs, contracts and authority references Working report publishedField science desk
Turn public geology and geochemistry into explanations that are useful without pretending the map is a reserve or product specification.
Good fit: Geologists, geochemists, engineering geologists, hydrogeologists, surveyors and laboratory specialistsMudstone, siltstone and shale in the field
Explain which observations support each term and when a field name should remain provisional.
Useful evidence: Field criteria, mapped geology, petrography and cited technical referencesBackground is not zero
Explain geochemical background, natural variability and why an anomaly needs scale and context.
Useful evidence: Public geochemical data, sampling method and QA/QC referencesA sample point is not a deposit
Walk through catchment scale, transport, media and uncertainty in a public atlas.
Useful evidence: Dataset methods, coordinates, detection limits and map scaleBlanks, standards and duplicates in plain English
Show what each QA/QC control can reveal—and what it cannot rescue.
Useful evidence: Laboratory method, standards guidance and a worked non-project exampleSource rock versus saleable product
Explain why mapped lithology alone cannot prove durability, grading or compliance.
Useful evidence: Petrography, testing, processing steps and specification contextWeathering changes the quarry question
Describe how profile, joints, moisture and alteration can change material behaviour across a site.
Useful evidence: Engineering-geology observations and published field referencesHow to read GeoVic without overclaiming
Build a screen-by-screen method for geology, authority and report layers.
Useful evidence: Official layer descriptions, scale notes and source metadataThe map point and the actual working
Explain centroids, entrances, occurrences, lease polygons and safe map language.
Useful evidence: Dataset metadata, GIS method and regulator guidanceHistoric assays and false precision
Explain units, preparation, method changes and the limits of comparing old values.
Useful evidence: Original assay record, method notes and modern reporting guidanceA geologist reviews a family specimen label
Show how locality, collector, host rock and uncertainty should be recorded without valuing or authenticating the specimen.
Useful evidence: Label image with rights, provenance statement and collection guidanceFamily & workforce desk
Preserve the names, jobs, objects and everyday systems that formal mine records usually leave out.
Good fit: Families, former workers, retirees, union and workforce historians, photographers and community museumsWhat is written on the back?
Use one photograph’s annotations to identify a place, date, people and chain of custody.
Useful evidence: Front and back images, family account, directory or newspaper corroborationOne pay book, one working life
Explain the dates, jobs, deductions, company names and unresolved abbreviations in a pay record.
Useful evidence: Permissioned pay book, family context, directories and company recordsThe shift roster as social history
Show what a roster reveals about work patterns without publishing private information unnecessarily.
Useful evidence: Permissioned roster, date, site context and review by a former workerTools with a story
Document one tool’s use, maker, owner and path into the family collection.
Useful evidence: Photographs, maker marks, oral history and catalogue comparisonThe contractor missing from the mine history
Reconstruct a drilling, haulage, timber, catering or maintenance business around a known site.
Useful evidence: Invoices, advertisements, directories, photographs and family recordsWomen’s work beyond the formal mine register
Document paid, family, office, service or community work using attributable records.
Useful evidence: Diaries, payroll, newspapers, photographs and oral history with consentThe family map with two names for one place
Resolve annotations, aliases and later official names while preserving uncertainty.
Useful evidence: Map image, handwriting context, gazetteers and government mapsA company picnic, sports team or social club
Use an everyday photograph to recover names and relationships around a working.
Useful evidence: Photograph, program, newspaper, caption list and family reviewFrom migration record to mining town
Trace a person only as far as the sources allow and separate fact from family recollection.
Useful evidence: Immigration, directories, electoral rolls, newspapers and permissioned family papersHow the collection survived
Tell the provenance story of a box, album, diary or map before interpreting its contents.
Useful evidence: Custody timeline, inventory, rights decision and condition notesNot an author?
Seven introductions that can unlock a missing record.
- 01A council librarian or records officer who knows the correct collection or former municipality.
- 02A family custodian with a labelled photograph, diary, map, pay book or assay note.
- 03A retired operator or contractor who can explain names, plant, shifts and local terminology.
- 04A geologist or geochemist who can distinguish observation, interpretation and speculation.
- 05A local historical society with newsletters, indexes and member knowledge not visible in a web search.
- 06A museum, photographer or collector who can identify an object and document image rights.
- 07A student or early-career researcher who can work from a narrow brief with editorial and technical review.
How publication works
One evidence ladder, visible on every article.
Public recordA retrievable authority, archive, catalogue, map or publication.
Professional interpretationA named author or reviewer, relevant experience, citations and disclosed conflicts.
RecollectionAn attributed account with date, consent and corroboration notes.
Lead or disputed claimClearly labelled and kept out of definitive fields until supported.
No invented people or credentials. No sales article disguised as technical guidance. “Expert reviewed” does not mean peer reviewed. Authors approve the edited technical meaning and attributed quotations before publication.
Start with a few lines
Tell the editor what you know—or what you think we should investigate.
A person reads each submission. Do not send original physical material. Start with a description and a public link or small reference image only after rights and privacy are considered.