RHSV Council

President Robert Pascoe

Robert Pascoe is Dean Laureate and Emeritus Professor at Victoria University, having served 17 years as that university’s foundation dean of arts. He holds a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Australian Historical Association in recognition of his contribution to the discipline of history. He has written or edited three dozen books and technical reports in the fields of social history, world history and educational management. With Dr Chris McConville he is working on a series entitled Streets Beneath Our Feet, comprising historical walking tours of some of the world’s more interesting urban neighbourhoods. At a time when ‘fake news’ and Artificial Intelligence are threatening to distort our understanding of the past, he regards the Royal Historical Society of Victoria as a place of critical engagement with our shared heritage.

Vice-President: ​Paul Fearon, FCPA, FAICD, FIPAA (VIC)

Paul joined RHSV as a Councillor in 2022 and is currently the chair of RHSV’s Governance & Finance Committee. Paul is also the Chairman and President of the charity Ryder Cheshire Australia and Honorary Treasurer and Public Officer for The Ryder Cheshire Foundation Victoria. Now retired, Paul was formerly Victoria’s statutory safety and technical regulator for the electricity, gas, and pipeline industries, CEO of Energy Safe Victoria, and CEO of the Victorian Essential Services Commission. Paul has completed post-graduate qualifications in History and is a PhD candidate in History at the University of Melbourne.

Treasurer: Mary Jones

Mary Jones is a Chartered Accountant and partner of Allmand Jones & Partners, Chartered Accountants, where she has been with the firm since its establishment in February 1974. Mary obtained her formal accounting qualifications from RMIT and is a member of The Institute of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, CPA Australia, and The Taxation Institute. She is also a registered Tax Agent with the Australian Taxation Office. In 2003, Mary established her own private charitable foundation, which continues to support those in the community who need assistance.

Hon Secretary: Cathy Butcher

Cathy Butcher worked in the Commonwealth Public Service from 1983-89 delivering the Hawke Government’s policies for worker participation, industrial democracy and equal employment opportunities into Australian government factories. In 1989 Cathy became an Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) trainer then Manager at the Trades and Labour Council in the ACT From 2000 Cathy worked as OH&S coordinator for the Victorian Trades Hall Council representing workers on numerous Worksafe Victoria stakeholder groups. In 2013 the Victorian WorkCover Authority presented Cathy with the award: ‘Outstanding Leadership and Contribution to Health and Safety’. Cathy retired in 2015 but was appointed as a member of The Independent Occupational Health and Safety Compliance and Enforcement Review by the Minister for Finance, Robin Scott, established to make recommendations to improve health and safety outcomes for Victorian workers. All the recommendations of the panel were accepted by the Victorian Government

Margaret Anderson

​Margaret Anderson joined the Council of the RHSV in 2016. Margaret researches and writes on women’s history, the history and demography of the family and on aspects of public history and museums. She has held senior positions as a public historian in South Australia, Western Australia and Victoria, and is currently Director of the Old Treasury Building, Melbourne. She is a Fellow of the Federation of Australian Historical Societies and a member of the Board of the History Council of Victoria.

Judith Smart AM, FRHSV

Judith co-edits the Victorian Historical Journal. She is honorary associate professor at RMIT University and has published on Australian women’s organisations, women and political protest, beauty contests, venereal disease, and the Australian home front during World War I. She is a member of the Australian Dictionary of Biography Victorian Working Party and is on the RHSV Publications and Heritage Committees, as well as representing the society on the History Council of Victoria.

Michael Tonta

A graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a career governance professional, my passion for community history stretches back to secondary school. With post graduate qualifications in business information technology and information management as well as museum studies, I am currently a Board Member and Board Secretary of PMI Victorian History Library, Deputy Chair of the Heritage Committee of the Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria and a committee member of the Art Deco and Modernism Society of Australian Inc. I have recently retired from full time work but continue to support good governance in local government through ongoing part time employment and contract work. In my previous senior management and executive roles, I have been responsible for functions including risk management, insurance and governance responsibilities such as statutory compliance and the conduct of meetings as well as corporate planning, performance and reporting. I am excited to have an opportunity to contribute to community history in Victoria through my role as a Councillor on the RHSV and as a member of the Governance and Risk Committee.

Aaron Magro

Aaron Magro is a historian and President of Keilor Historical Society Inc. in Melbourne’s North-
West. He is a member of Brimbank City Council’s Heritage Advisory Committee. Aaron was
elected to the RHSV Council in 2025.

Aaron has a Bachelor of Arts with majors in History and Archaeology, with Honours in History from
La Trobe University. He undertook a doctorate at the University of Melbourne in the Melbourne
School of Design, in the Department of Architecture, Building and Planning, where he also taught
urban history.

His research focuses on Melbourne’s planning history and Melbourne’s urban past – specifically
the cultural impacts of Melbourne’s rail and motorways that remain in the imagination.

Dr Rosalie Triolo
Chair Historical Societies Support Committee

Rosalie is an adjunct senior lecturer and publishes and presents widely for different audiences in History education and Australian history, especially history of Australian education and WWI.

She has worked in History education for over 40 years. For 25 years, she helped facilitate the development of specialist teachers of History at Monash University for Australian and overseas schools, retiring at the end of 2021. She is a Fellow and currently the Vice-President of the Royal Historical Society of Victoria, as well as Chair of its Historical Societies Support Committee. She has served on the RHSV Council since 2014 and is currently one of two delegates to the Federation of Australian Historical Societies (2020- ). She is a past President of the History Teachers’ Association of Victoria (6 years), a past Board member of it (further 24 years) and a Life Member. She is Victoria’s representative on the Council of the Australian National Museum of Education (2015- ), is a past Vice-President of the History Teachers’ Association of Australia, formerly being its delegate to the Australian Historical Association (2010-20), and has received many awards for her work.

Steven Campbell-Wright

Carole Woods OAM FRHSV

Carole is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society of Victoria and has been the RHSV hon. secretary for twelve years and a member of its Publications Committee since 1989. She currently chairs the RHSV Fellowship Committee. A strong advocate for community history, Carole was a judge of the Victorian Community History Awards for twenty years, and chaired the judging panels for 7 years. In 2014, assisted by Jenny Coates and Australian Red Cross Archivist Moira Drew, Carole curated the exhibition ‘The Australian Red Cross in the Great War’.  In 2018 she curated the exhibition ‘Vera Deakin’s World of Humanity’ at RHSV. She was formerly a librarian and bibliographer. Carole’s publications include Beechworth: A Titan’s Field, Vision Fugitive and a history of the Fitzroy Library and most recently, Vera Deakin and the Red Cross. She also belongs to the Camberwell, Fitzroy and Hotham historical societies. (updated May 2021)

Peter Yule

Peter Yule studied and taught history at the University of Melbourne before moving to Warrnambool where he worked in a family business while also writing histories of Warrnambool, Koroit and the Shire of Minhamite. Since 1996 he has worked as a freelance historian, publishing over twenty books including histories of Australian National Airways, the Collins class submarine project, and Vietnam veterans since the war, and biographies of W L Baillieu and Sir Ian Potter. His histories of the Royal Children’s Hospital and Carlton won best print/publication and best collaborative work categories respectively in the Victorian Community History Awards. He is a Fellow of the RHSV, an honorary history fellow at the University of Melbourne and a member of the Warrnambool, Koroit, Port Fairy and Mortlake Historical Societies.