Making bushwalking history more accessable

[rimair]

Melbourne Bushwalkers have started making scanned copies of their former journal "Walk" available to anyone interested. Published between 1949 and 1987 it has some fascinating accounts of bushwalking at the time.
http://mbw.org.au/MBW_walk_magazine.php

Does anyone know of other online sources of general bushwalking history?

[tom_brennan]

I'm currently scanning and OCRing past editions of The Sydney Bushwalker, the magazine of SBW (Sydney Bush Walkers). So far I've scanned over 700 issues, most of which are up on the project site. If anyone feels like assisting with fixing up the OCRing, feel free to sign up and jump in. Otherwise you can just look at the issues.
http://ozultimate.com/sbw/wiki/start

There is also The Bushwalker, the magazine of the Confederation of Bushwalking Clubs of NSW
http://www.bushwalkermagazine.org

Sydney Uni Bushwalkers (SUBW) has archives of some material, in particular VSM (their annual publication) and their 40 and 50 year anniversary publications
http://www.subw.org.au/archives/

[DaveNoble]

The NZ Federation of Mountain Cubs has past copies of their bulletin online - via -

http://www.fmc.org.nz/fmc-bulletin/

This links to an archive dating back to 1957. Lots of interesting reading.

Dave

[colinm]

I'm currently scanning and OCRing past editions of The Sydney Bushwalker, the magazine of SBW (Sydney Bush Walkers). So far I've scanned over 700 issues, most of which are up on the project site. If anyone feels like assisting with fixing up the OCRing, feel free to sign up and jump in. Otherwise you can just look at the issues.
http://ozultimate.com/sbw/wiki/start

I just did one, it took about an hour (maybe a little over) and is worthwhile to donate a little time to.

Colin.

[rimair]

Tom, Dave

Great links, thank you. Tom, you will become a legend for the scope and scale of the task you have taken on to re-enter the text of The Sydney Bushwalker. Future historians and genealogists will be forever grateful.

The challenge of making older scanned documents searchable whilst preserving the appearance of the original documents sure tests the limits of the technology. The Melbourne Bushwalkers scans of 'Walk' have embedded OCR which is quite good on the printed fonts. Not 100% accurate, but for a general keyword search that can identify an article of relevance/interest, it does the job.

The same can't be said for scans of older newsletters with broken font face and page discolouation. Patient effort to clean up the scans can make them much more 'human readable', but the OCR technology struggles with the uneven typeface and general background noise. If you use Adobe Acrobat, like me, then the company doesn't help with its cumbersome hidden layer editing capabilities.

[tom_brennan]

Thanks for chipping in Colin - an hour per issue is about what it takes to turn the OCRed magazines into corrected text

The Melbourne ones are certainly high quality, though I'm guessing the fact they only have a few issues up so far means it's a fairly involved process. Something closer to that was my original goal for the SBW Magazines, but the underlying print/paper quality of older magazines is not great, and the sheer number (around 800 issues) makes it a bit impractical. I won't be doing much of the final tidying up of text, that's for sure! Either it will happen by crowdsource, or not at all.

Any tips for good software for tidying up scans welcome. I've used onlineocr.net to do the actual OCRing - I tested a variety of less expensive software, and it was well in front of the others. I'm sure there's better expensive commercial software, but the budget is only a few hundred dollars.

[tom_brennan]

I also have scanned copies of a lot of articles from past Catholic Bushwalking Club journals (The Waysider) and Kameruka Bushwalking Club journals. There's certainly some interesting articles of historic significance. However, I obviously don't have copyright or permission to publish any of them.

[rimair]

The Melbourne ones are certainly high quality, though I'm guessing the fact they only have a few issues up so far means it's a fairly involved process.

With other things on the go, about one per week is the best that can be achieved. Don't hold your breath for the next one though, I'm off to Nepal for 4 weeks

[rimair]

Melbourne Bushwalkers has added Issue 33 (1982) of 'Walk" to the archive copies available for download. Enjoy
http://mbw.org.au/MBW_walk_magazine.php

[cdg]

Trove is an interesting site. Lots of scanned periodicals, but they let people type up better versions of the stories than the OCR they use. Its a good idea.

For the bushwalking newsletters, Id focus on correcting the index pages first before tackling contents.

[bernieq]

Melbourne Bushwalkers have started making scanned copies of their former journal "Walk" available

Speaking of history and Melbourne Bushwalkers, in a 2nd hand book shop recently, I found a copy of “Bushwalking in the Victorian Ranges” by F W Halls (Fred). He was a frequent contributor to 'Walk' and was made a life member of the MB in 1969.

It would seem his favourite Victorian haunts were Howitt/Crosscut/Speculation and the Grampians (which coincides with mine exactly). Prior to the proclaiming of the Alpine National Park, he wrote “If this area should become part of the proposed Alpine National Park, which most bushwalkers hope will be granted soon, this spot – Crosscut Saw – Terrible Hollow – will surely become the focal point of our most important National Park.”

The book is a pleasure to read, evocative of the feelings that are much of the reason we walk.

Attachments

from Crosscut Saw, looking across Terrible Hollow, to Devils Staircase and Mac Springs

[rimair]

Hi bernieq

Thanks for the photo from Fred Halls' book. I have not seen that particular publication. It sounds interesting.

We have just added two more issues of "Walk" to the downloads area of the club web site: Issue 36 (1985) and Issue 37 (1986)
http://mbw.org.au/MBW_walk_magazine.php

There is an article by Fred Halls in Issue 37 on "The first bushwalkers" which you might also enjoy, about the early aboriginal visitors to the Flinders Ranges.

[bernieq]

Issue 36 (1985) and Issue 37 (1986) http://mbw.org.au/MBW_walk_magazine.php

Nice link, thank you.

Thanks for the photo from Fred Halls' book.

BTW : Fred wrote the book – the photo is mine :)

[rimair]

For those who have been saving copies of "Walk" Magazine, Melbourne Bushwalkers has added Issue 32 (1981) of 'Walk" to the archive copies available for download. Enjoy

http://mbw.org.au/MBW_walk_magazine.php

[rimair]

It's been a while but the 1979 and 1984 issues of Walk magazine have now been added to the Melbourne Bushwalkers' downloads area:
http://mbw.org.au/MBW_walk_magazine.php

An interesting article on Paddy Pallin along with topics of general interest to bushwalkers everywhere.

[rimair]

For those who have been downloading copies of Walk magazine the issues for 1969, 1971, 1976, 1977 and 1978 are now available for download.
http://mbw.org.au/MBW_walk_magazine.php

Happy reading

[robertoman]

for any one interested, Berkelouw Books at Hornsby (sydney NSW) has a second hand section and they were just about to add a bunch of old WALK magazines and the like to the shelves. They hadn't been priced but unlikely they would cost much.

[rimair]

Slowly chipping away at the collection. We have now prepared PDF versions from Issue 16 (1965) to Issue 38 (1987) which can be downloaded at http://mbw.org.au/MBW_walk_magazine.php

Enjoy.

Melbourne Bushwalkers
http://mbw.org.au/index.php
https://www.facebook.com/melbournebushwalkers

[pazzar]

I know that the Hobart Walking Club now has backdated editions of the Tramp available on cd. It would be great if these files could be uploaded either for free viewing online, or available to purchase online for a small cost. So much history in these, and some of the earlier editions are very rare these days.

[tom_brennan]

On the Sydney Bush Walkers (SBW) magazine front, I have 13 left to scan (768 out of 781 complete, from 1931-1999 inclusive).

Of those, 89 have been OCRed so far (mostly not by me!!)

http://sbw.ozultimate.com/wiki/magazines

[rimair]

Wow. What a great job you are doing. You and your scanner are working overtime! Future generations of interested walkers will appreciate your efforts.

Cheers

Ian Mair
Melbourne Bushwalkers
http://mbw.org.au
https://www.facebook.com/melbournebushwalkers

[durks]

This kind of thing is important, a great effort, and much appreciated.

Just in case it's of interest to anybody, I'll mention that:

o the Fell & Rock Climbing Club of the English Lake District has put its complete collection of Journals on-line - see http://www.frcc.co.uk/frcc_journals.asp ;

o likewise the (UK) Climbers' Club - see http://www.climbers-club.co.uk/informat ... s-on-line/ ;

o likewise the (UK) Alpine Club (albeit in a different way) - see: http://www.alpinejournal.org.uk/Background/Project.html and http://www.alpinejournal.org.uk/ .

Some good reading in amongst that lot.

I hope - and assume - that other bodies throughout the world are doing likewise; feel free to point us all in the direction of other related sites.

[ofuros]

A lot of time & effort involved...well done to all those who take the time to bring the past into the present.

[peregrinator]

Wow. What a great job you are doing. You and your scanner are working overtime! Future generations of interested walkers will appreciate your efforts.

Cheers

Ian Mair
Melbourne Bushwalkers
http://mbw.org.au
https://www.facebook.com/melbournebushwalkers

And ditto on your work on Walk magazine, Ian. Some interesting articles and information on walks which remains relevant.

[icefest]

Thanks for digitizing them Ian, i was just reading through our clubs copies of Walk from the 60s.

Do you have a copy of editions 1-17? I can see if we have a them if you are missing any.

[Hallu]

Thanks for the suggestions, I love these kinds of books. Do you have books about the history of national parks in Australia ? Because this is a subject matter on which I can't find any book.

[bernieq]

For those who have been downloading copies of Walk magazine the issues for 1969, 1971, 1976, 1977 and 1978 are now available for download.
http://mbw.org.au/MBW_walk_magazine.php

Again, thanks for making these valuable records available.

BTW, Ian, the link to the 1973 edition actually points to 1974 (as does the 1974 link).

[rimair]

Thanks for digitizing them Ian, i was just reading through our clubs copies of Walk from the 60s.

Do you have a copy of editions 1-17? I can see if we have a them if you are missing any.

Hi icefest, sorry for the long delay before responding. I have been walking in Switzerland for much of August .

Many thanks for the offer. The Melbourne Bushwalkers has a complete mint set and a complete working set that we use for scanning etc..

Cheers

Ian Mair
Melbourne Bushwalkers
http://mbw.org.au

[rimair]

For those who have been downloading copies of Walk magazine the issues for 1949, 1963-1987 are now available for download.
http://mbw.org.au/MBW_walk_magazine.php

Cheers
Ian Mair
Melbourne Bushwalkers

[icefest]

I assumed you would, but noticed you were missing a couple at the start.