The Victorian Community History Awards are held annually to recognise the contributions made by Victorians in the preservation of the State's history, and to recognise excellence in historical research.
The effect of the VCHA over the period from 1998 to the present has been the stimulation of community history, the lifting of standards and the fostering of diversity and originality.
[1] The Victorian Community History Awards were established and sponsored in 1997 by Information Victoria.
The judges have always been appointed by the Royal Historical Society of Victoria, and among the first were Professor Weston Bate, Professor A. G. L. Shaw, and senior journalist at The Age, John Lahey.
After 2010 Information Victoria Bookshop withdrew support for the program, but after a vigorous campaign by the RHSV for the continuance of the Awards, the Baillieu government accepted a submission from the Public Record Office Victoria (PROV) to continue the program for a further four-year period.