2025 Community Heritage Grant Recipients

We’re pleased to announce that 50 community organisations are receiving a Community Heritage Grant (CHG) in 2025.

The CHG program is currently in its 31st year of operation and supports community organisations to care for Australian cultural heritage collections of national significance. Find out more about the CHG program.

Organisations receiving a 2025 CHG grant include the Adelaide Repertory Theatre, Cowra Japanese Garden and Cultural Centre, the See Yup Society, the Cloncurry and District Historical and Museum Society, the Royal Society of Tasmania, Kaiela Institute and many others.

View the full list of recipients

Adelaide Repertory Theatre

Adelaide Repertory Theatre exhibition area.

The Adelaide Rep is proud and excited to be a recipient of a Community Heritage Grant to undertake a significance assessment of our collection, in partnership with a professional historian.

Our small but dedicated volunteer team was established in 2024 after we discovered a treasure trove of memorabilia dating back to 1908 crammed into our mini library upstairs at the Arts Theatre – the home of the Rep. We are now on a mission to make sure the collection is properly catalogued, preserved and shared with the public.

Lise Windsor, Honorary Historian of Adelaide Repertory Theatre

The Rep is the oldest repertory company in Australia, and the longest surviving amateur theatre company in the southern hemisphere.

Cowra Japanese Garden and Cultural Centre

A room displaying Japanese art and artefacts on display at the Cultural Centre.

Japanese art and artefacts on display at the Cowra Japanese Garden and Cultural Centre.

Thanks to the Community Heritage Grants, the Cowra Japanese Garden and Cultural Centre has made significant strides in preserving and understanding our cultural collection. Over the past five years, these grants have enabled us to assess our preservation needs, enhance our display and storage facilities, and deepen our knowledge of collection care.

Spokesperson for the Cowra Japanese Garden and Cultural Centre

The Cultural Centre is a not-for-profit organisation representing post Second World War reconciliation between Japan and Australia. Funding in the 2025 Round will support the purchase of a new display case for iconic items in the collection, improving conservation standards and staff access.

The See Yup Society

Two people leaning over and looking at a dragon head.

Michael Lam (President, See Yup Temple Recovery Project) and Dr Sophie Couchman (Project Manager) inspecting the details of the See Yup’s dragon head. Photographer: Robert French, Museums Victoria.

The See Yup Society was devastated by a recent fire at our temple. We are therefore particularly grateful to receive this Community Heritage Grant funding.

This grant will enable us to train our temple caretakers and volunteers to undertake basic treatments of temple items damaged in the recent fire and also give us the tools to professionally care for our objects, in a spiritually and culturally appropriate manner, moving forward. We are particularly pleased to be able to partner and provide experience to emerging conservators with Chinese-language skills from the Grimwade Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation.

Michael Lam, President of the See Yup Temple Recovery Project

The See Yup Temple in Melbourne is the oldest temple in Australia, with its contents dating back to the mid-1850s. The grant will fund a training project for the See Yup Society in partnership with Chinese Australian Family Historians of Victoria and Grimwade Conservation Services (GCS).

About Community Heritage Grants

Since 1994, the CHG program has provided a total of $9.7 million dollars to more than 1,750 projects across Australia.

It is funded by the Australian Government through the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts; National Library of Australia; National Archives of Australia; National Film and Sound Archive; and National Museum of Australia.