A Wollongong entrepreneur has launched a new app that’s like YouTube for history videos. 2515 reports.
History app Yesterday Stories was founded in the Illawarra and already features a host of fascinating local histories, from the Coalcliff Cokeworks to the Dreamtime story of Mt Keira.
“It’s an app that enables you to see video histories in locations where history happened,” says documentary filmmaker Sandra Pires, founder and CEO of Yesterday Stories.
Yesterday Stories will use maps, geolocation technology and crowdsourcing to help communities share their histories and help travellers tap into local knowledge. So users can upload videos, or they can watch them.
“What this app does is it gives you a rich connection – so you can hopefully have a better connection to the places you go," Sandra says.
“We’re over the red bus tours. We’re over the little museum that you’ve got to pay to go into and is only open 9 to 5. We’re about self-guided tourism; information when you want it.”
Sandra’s goal is to involve communities around the world. “Instead of using YouTube, use Yesterday Stories to upload your history video.”
The company employs about 10 people, working from a small office on Crown Street in Wollongong. When 2515 drops in, the app has just launched and had more than 1000 downloads.
“It’s pretty exciting,” Sandra says.
About 200 stories are already live on the app. “Everything is on there – there’s Indigenous history, buildings, paranormal, political stories, and there’s personal stories, which are my favourite. There’s a love story in World War Two that I really like.
“The Indigenous stories are amazing. There’s the Whale Cave, which has artwork that’s between five and 15,000 years old in Wollongong – that’s got X-ray art, which is nowhere else apart from Northern Territory.”
The app is for video stories only. “There’s other things like History Pin, where you can put up texts," Sandra says.
"It’s not hard to turn [stories] into a video, if you’ve got a voiceover and lots of pictures, it is easy. All kids know how to make films now. Schools will be a big focus for us.”
Sandra’s idea simmered for 10 years, after germinating during a work trip to Poland. “Get to five o’clock, all the museums were shut. There was nothing in English and we’re standing in front of some of the most beautiful buildings I’ve ever seen. And I could not get any information. That really solidified what I wanted to do.”
Taking part in UOW’s iAccelerate program helped her make the dream “global and scalable”.
“My father was this crazy passionate history person. He’s a stonemason … when I was 21, he gave me a stone that said ‘Remember’.
“I did psychology at UOW and a Bachelor of Arts in Media Production at Charles Sturt [University] in Bathurst.
“It’s funny because I never wanted to do history, but then in 2007 I was asked to look at the history of coal mining by a local group.”
Producing and directing Beneath Black Skies opened Sandra’s eyes to community pride in the Illawarra’s coal-mining history. She went on to make Pig Iron Bob, about the Dalfram dispute at Port Kembla.
“That was an international story about the stopping of pig iron going to Japan. There was an 11-week strike; the whole community supported it. The men were out of work. They were going hungry, to not load the ship because it was going to Japan and Japan was invading China. So the steel was being turned into bullets and bombs.”
Yesterday Stories has received several grants, including from Wollongong City Council, that will fund initial filmmaking by Sandra and her team. She’d love 2515 readers to share their story tips.
“I’ve only got two stories between Bulli and Helensburgh, which is very sad. So please, if you’ve got a story to share, contact us.”
