Bayside Council has launched its first Historian in Residence program, offering $10,000 for a researcher to produce substantial new work about an under-researched part of the local area’s history.
Applications closed on Friday 18 September 2026. The pilot sits within Council’s expanded 2026 Bayside Local History Awards and Program, which marks 20 years since the former Rockdale City Council established its local history prize.
What the historian will do
The program is open to qualified historians, heritage professionals and people with other relevant qualifications or experience. The successful applicant will research a specific topic selected by Council’s Local History Team and produce a written work that adds new information about Bayside’s past.
Works produced through the residency may later be reproduced, published or used by Bayside Council in print or digital form. Council says the historian will be acknowledged as the author wherever the work is exhibited, published or otherwise made available.
A broader local history program
The residency is one part of a larger overhaul of Bayside’s history awards in 2026. The program also includes the $6,000 Ron Rathbone OAM Major Prize for original research and the new Dr Peter Orlovich Young Historian Award for students in Years 5 to 12.
The Ron Rathbone prize traces its origins to a competition established by Rockdale City Council in 2006. Following the 2016 amalgamation of Rockdale and Botany Bay councils, the competition expanded to cover the wider Bayside local government area.
Why the program matters locally
The residency gives a researcher dedicated time and funding to investigate a part of Bayside history that may not yet be well documented. That can help preserve local stories and source material while adding research that future residents, students and historians can use.
Council’s local history resources include library collections and research databases, while the National Library of Australia’s Trove collection can provide additional historical newspapers, photographs and records.
With applications now closed, the next stage is the selection and research process. Council has proposed an awards ceremony for November 2026 and a later report on the outcome of the awards and pilot residency program.