Our Ambassador in Melbourne
by Dr. Sanjiva Wijesinha
One of the most interesting gentlemen I used to meet during my years in Melbourne was a man called Victor Melder.
Victor was born in Sri Lanka – in Kandy, where he attended St Sylvester's College. Hailing from a railway family (his father and grandfather before him having been "engine-drivers" for the Ceylon Government Railway), it was natural that Victor himself would follow the family tradition and become a CGR driver.
But in 1968, Victor and his wife Esther decided to migrate with their two Galle-born children to Melbourne – where Victor soon found employment in the public service. Starting life in his new country, Victor was appalled (as most migrants to Australia in those days were) at his co-workers' lack of knowledge about his former home. At first his "educating" of his new friends and neighbours was limited simply to talking to them and correcting some of their misconceptions about our island in the sun- but soon he realized that he needed more information to satisfy the curiosity of all those in Melbourne who wanted to know more.
He gradually started collecting information about Ceylon (as our nation was known in those pre-1972 days) and this collection of newspaper cuttings, magazines, books and journals gradually grew and expanded until it filled a whole room of his house.
As the library grew, so did Victor's reputation – as a walking encyclopaedia about Sri Lanka and matters Sri Lankan – and he was invited to give talks on these subjects to various groups and schools. Initially he illustrated his talks with pictures and posters, progressing later to lantern slides and finally graduating to Powerpoint presentations. His webpage (at http://tormel.brinkster.net) now provides a most user-friendly access to The Victor Melder Sri Lanka Library.
The library itself (which I had the privilege of visiting myself) is housed in an annexe at the back of his house. It has over 4,500 books on Sri Lanka and around two thousand different magazines – including every issue of the journal of the Dutch Burgher Union (DBU) for the past one hundred years.
There is also much material - such as a complete Index to the Baptisms and Marriages Registry of the Wolvendaal Church from 1706 to 1952 – for those who want to research their genealogy. This resource is particularly popular for those Australians descended from our migrant Burgher families who want to trace their original roots. He also has a small collection of Sri Lankan CDs, DVDs and videos – although sadly he has had to give his 35 year collection of Sri Lanka Sunday newspapers which he had, to a researcher who was able to store them.
The library has been utilized by many students from Melbourne's universities who have found it a valuable source of material for their dissertations and theses – and have found Victor a valuable "unofficial" tutor. It has also been used by famous novelists such as Michelle de Kretser to undertake research about our country in the course of writing their popular works of fiction. He even has groups of school children, accompanied by their teachers, visiting his library to collect material for some of their class presentations.
The beauty of Victor's work is that all his services – allowing visitors to use the material in the library, helping them with answers to their questions or finding out from his vast network of contacts where they can get their answers when he cannot provide the answers himself - are FREE. His has been a labour – nay a vocation - of love, sustained by his own efforts and now that he has retired, by donations from the occasional well wisher. "If anyone is able to help me with donations of books" says Victor, "I would appreciate them getting in touch with me on tormel@aardvark.net.au"
"When I am no more" he continues, "the entire contents of the library have been willed to Monash University – who have agreed to maintain it as the Victor Melder Wing of the University library."
Sri Lanka has had many High Commissioners in Canberra – appointed by our government to represent this country in Australia. But I believe it is ordinary citizens like Victor – by their love for Sri Lanka, their painstaking efforts and their person-to-person ambassadorial skills – who have done so much for this country among the Australian people.
Much more, perhaps, than some of our salaried diplomatic representatives.
(From the Island newspaper)
