Brian Thom initiated the project last year, and after learning of how the town of Mallala used ‘Flickr’ to make its history available, contacted a group of people he identified as interested in Gawler history.

“It started at an Australian Day address regarding educating children on history and how to communicate it through avenues such as social network pages,” Mr Thom said.

“I wanted to find a way to make Gawler history accessible, not only to school children but everyone, and spoke with my close friends Michael Hemphill and Dr David Tucker, then found out about how the Mallala group used Flickr.

“In September last year I called a meeting and had a good response, and started working on various areas with volunteers helping with different aspects for the project, which became ‘Gawler Now and Then.’”

Areas of interest ranged from Church Hill, Murray Street, the rivers and bridges, heritage buildings, sport, local association and groups of Gawler.

With monthly meetings, held on the first Thursday of each month and chaired by Mr Thom, the group was able to focus on various areas, with targets set, resulting in thousand of photographs being uploaded and prepared for the launch.

The goal of the team is to have Gawler history available and accessible to all, with avenues for anyone interested to contribute.

Gawler will celebrate history month through May, with the final event on the 27th, in the Gawler Institute, which will feature the library’s guest speaker Dean Jaensch at 1pm, followed at 2.15pm with the Flickr launch.

The beauty of the initiative is it is an on-going project, which can be added to and modified as needed to create and maintain the best record of history in Gawler, from the 19th and 20th centuries through to the current time.

“For me the most important thing is we will be preserving history and making it accessible for today’s youth and future generations,” Mr Thom said.

Respected former Gawler Mayor and MP Bruce Eastick AM will give an address at the launch and officially open the ‘Gawler Now and Then’ project.