My name is Robert Baker, I’m a volunteer for the Kew Historical Society and for about the last three years I've been archivist to the society. The Kew Historical Society was founded in 1958 and it's the second oldest suburban historical society in Melbourne.

Now, the Villa Alba Museum was part of the planning right from the beginning because it's a fantastic environment to display costumes, and it also allows us to display the costumes in an environment of the period.

We found that there was a supplier in Sydney of what are called museum mannequins, so we applied for a grant from the City of Boroondara to purchase a number of these wire mannequins.

Plus also have a training program and a capacity-building program developed during the year which would support the exhibit of those costumes. In the past we had to lay them on a sheet on the floor and you could never get a sense of the volume and the measurements of that costume.

So the grant has enabled the group to really work to better understand Victorian era fashion and to develop the skills and capabilities to allow us to manage that.

So it's bringing in new volunteers, it's building relationships and finding new sources of material.

So we're really grateful to the Rotary Club of Balwyn and the City of Boroondara for providing us with the support during this year-long program.