Hazel de Berg (Holland, 1931) MBE Hazel de Berg (Holland, 1931) was the pioneer of oral history in Australia. No one else worked for so long or interviewed so many people of different occupations and backgrounds. An outstanding feature of Hazel’s oral history collection of 1290 recordings is its emphasis on women in Australian society. In 1968 Hazel was awarded an MBE ‘for services to the National Archives’. Hazel Estelle Holland (1931) enrolled at Â鶹ÊÓƵ School in 1928 at the age of 14, completing her Leaving Certificate in 1931. In the same year she was the Captain of the 1st Netball Team and an editor of Excelsior. Hazel’s four sisters, niece and sister-in-law were also students at the School. After completing the Leaving Certificate Hazel trained as a photographer at Paramount Studios, later working in the studio of . In 1957 Hazel offered her services to the Royal Blind Society to record Talking Books for the Blind. She chose to read Dame Mary Gilmore’s Old Days, Old Ways and was taught how to use the reel to reel tape recorder. On 18 March 1957 Hazel visited Dame Mary in her Kings Cross apartment to invite her introduce her book and to say a few words on the tape. The ‘interview’ lasted 1 minute and 21 seconds, and Hazel was hooked! This brief recording marked the beginning of Hazel’s remarkable career as a recorder of life histories. Interviewing on tape was to be her passion for the rest of her life. Hazel travelled to every state and also Britain and the United States interviewing writers, teachers, doctors, broadcasters, judges, architects, librarians, journalists, artists, historians, actors, scientists, academics, musicians, anthropologists and a few politician. Most of her subjects were prominent or rising figures in their fields, but in later years she became interested in local history and carried out interviewing projects in Tamworth, Cowra and Young. As she was a professional photographer she almost always took a picture of her interviewees The National Library of Australia became aware of Hazel’s work in the early 1960s and urged her to preserve her tapes in the Library. She was delighted that the Library would furnish a permanent home for her beloved recordings and would also fund their transcription. Hazel’s recordings (named the ) formed the foundation of the oral history collection in the National Library. In 2006, the Oral History Australia established the Hazel de Berg Award for Excellence in Oral History award to recognise those who have made an outstanding contribution to the cause of oral history in Australia over a considerable period of time. Excellence is what Hazel strived for. She was always interested in the process of interviewing and when asked many times which was her best interview she always replied ‘the next one’. That tells us a great deal about the woman and in addition encourages us all to keep on trying. Although Hazel often spoke of retiring, she continued to make recordings right up to the time of her death. In 27 years, she recorded 1,290 Australians born between 1865 and 1953. The collection is testament to her extraordinary energy, enthusiasm, charm and perseverance.