HISTORY-MINDED Bendigonians have celebrated an event several decades in the making _ the appointment of the Bendigo Regional Archive Centre as a `place of deposit’.The purpose-built access centre at Bendigo Library will be able to legally store government records outside the Public Records Office facility in Melbourne, allowing the local community to care for their own records of public importance.‘‘The main significance of this is getting the screening room and centre up and running,’’ Goldfields Library Corporation chief executive officer Carolyn Macvean said.‘‘It will be operating in the near future, so people can come in and see the public records they have been waiting for. ‘‘This has been an initiative that has been around for a long time - probably something like 30 years. It has been a real community push and we finally got it seriously happening last year.‘‘There’s going to be a huge success with this, and the people of Bendigo have been wanting this for a long time - it’s very exciting.’’Before presenting a certificate acknowledging BRAC’s new status to Ms Macvean, Member for Bendigo East Jacinta Allan said the documents were a treasure too long kept from the public.’‘The centre is expected to officially open early in 2009, and I think we will see that this will bring more people to use this facility.‘‘For people who are interested in their own personal journey it will be a great educational resource _ not just for students and young people in Bendigo, but other people that are undertaking different forms of research, and also for other historical societies.‘‘It has been a long journey that started some years ago with the initial push to establish the archive centre in Bendigo.‘‘But it is a rewarding journey because we are building on it every step of the way.’’