Community
1 August, 2025
Historical society stalwart recognised
CAMPERDOWN and District Historical Society secretary and life member Maree Belyea was recently recognised with a special award from the Royal Historical Society of Victoria (RHSV).
Mrs Belyea was presented with a RHSV award of merit during the Robert Burns Celtic Festival history talks on Saturday, June 28 by RHSV fellow professor Richard Broome.
The Award of Merit is a rare honour given to historical society members who have made substantial contributions to understanding and promoting history in Victoria.
Ms Belyea is the third Camperdown and District Historical Society member to have received the award since Norma Wynd in 1988, and the fourth in the Corangamite Shire.
“I was totally surprised,” she said.
“People in these organisations don’t do the work for awards, but we certainly do appreciate being recognised.
“It’s not just me – it’s for the whole group because we work as a team and I just happened to be the one they nominated.
“I was very appreciative my fellow committee members thought me worthy of being nominated and the Royal Historical Society of Victoria accepted the nomination.”
Ms Belyea joined the society as a regular volunteer in 2007 before being elected to the executive committee in 2013.
She served as president in 2015 before being elected as the secretary in 2016 – a role she has held since.
Ms Belyea was presented with her life membership to the historical society in December 2020.
Among her projects are instating the Camperdown Heritage Signs Trail in 2018, the digitisation of historic newspapers in 2022, securing funding and implementing the reproduction of a historic 1891 map of the Hampden Shire in April this year and her ongoing contribution to the Robert Burns Celtic Festival organising committee.
Ms Belyea said she enjoyed being able to delve into the family histories of local people.
“Everything’s historical as far as the local history’s concerned,” she said.
“I thoroughly enjoy helping people with their family histories and so forth.
“I also enjoy working to keep everything historical around the area recorded and available for the next generations.”
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