Students at the Illawarra Institute of TAFE undertaking a Diploma or Advanced Diploma of Screen and Media have been creating documentaries for the Yesterday Stories app with projects to uncover what life was like in a migrant hostel and how the Oxford Tavern influenced Wollongong's music scene, amongst other stories.

Video documentaries can be uploaded to the app with more than 100 available through geolocations around the region, and many more around the country.

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Cristian Yanez, 19, worked on The Divide - Fairy Meadow Hostels with Blake Blackmore, 19, and Justin Patterson-Holder, 24, to depict what it was like to migrate to Australia in the 1970s and "fit in" to the culture.

"My dad always used to talk about when he came to Australia [from Chile] when I was a kid and how things were different," Mr Yanez said.

"My dad was raised in the migrant hostels and I was thinking i'll ... see if he had troubles growing up or it was easy for him.

"I found out that my dad ... when he got married started feeling like he was in with Australian culture, not earlier on or when he made friends, so it was a bit of a shock but interesting to hear."

Mr Blackmore's English mother was also a resident of the Fairy Meadow hostel after migrating to Australia with her father, step-mother and brothers in 1972. He hoped viewers of the short film would gain a better understanding that migrants were from many backgrounds, "not just certain ethnicities".

Mr Blackmore also uncovered quirky facts about his mum like collecting redback spiders and not knowing the dangers, plus being the first female toe win a Surf Life Saving competition against men in Fairy Meadow.

"When she went to get the award they thought they put her name wrong and called her Kevin instead of Karen," he said.

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Logan Sheldrick, 20, Tyrone McCrystal, 20, and Thomas Grace, 20, documented the importance of the old Oxford Hotel in fostering Wollongong's live music scene.

"Everyone had come to appreciate the Oxford as a main hub for music and they were very disappointed to watch it go," Mr McCrystal said.

He said it was interesting to discover many bands of the 1980s and '90s "grew out of the Oxford" and hoped future generations could better understand music was alive and well long before popular venues of today.

TAFE digital media teacher Camille Favaloro said the Yesterday Stories app was great to "reflect the real history of the community and gives people a voice" to tell a diverse range of histories.

"Wollongong may not always be the prettiest of cities, and has even been voted the 'most unprettiest city' at one time, but in actual fact it has such a rich ... cultural history that comes with includes music and the arts," Ms Favaloro said.

Allowing young filmmakers to have a crack at creating documentaries and then uploading them to this type of platform, she said, was a huge confidence boost for students.

"Expanding on their skills in a real situation, I find, gives them a sense of confidence that they need especially working in film and the arts," she said.

Yesterday's Stories will be running workshops over the schools holidays in July, September and January culminating in the production of video histories of our City.

All young people aged 15-25 are welcome to apply - but numbers are limited, while young people from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds, migrant, refugee and unemployed young people are strongly encouraged to register for the video production workshops .

Participants will learn the art of film making and produce completed stories over a five-day workshop, in the hope of producing 25 new stories to add to the growing collection that become part of local heritage trails and enhance local tourism.

The app is the brainchild of Illawarra filmmaker Sandra Pires to democratsie storytelling.

"People can upload their own stories to the platform - whether that be their personal history, their family history, the street , buildings, paranormal, .. Indigenous military history, colonial, migrants - everybody can upload their story and tell it their own way," she said.

People wanting to share their stories, personal and family histories or other unique histories of the Illawarra can send story ideas to info@yesterdaystories.com.au

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