Category: Recent News

Congratulations to everyone who took part in the 2024 Victorian Community History Awards!

We extend our heartfelt thanks for your invaluable contributions to our collective understanding of Victorian history. We know that the amount of work that goes into the creation of submissions like these. Your efforts ensure that the stories of the past continue to inspire and educate future generations.

Click here to see the full website for all the details of the winners,

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Our two newest staff members will be joining us next week.

Oliver Sperlich, who will be filling a brand new position as Operations/Office Manager, will work Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Oliver brings splendid expertise in IT and technology as well an impressive entrepreneurial ability. Oliver will be looking after our IT, the building and all that entails and the hirers of our space as well as events and projects. Members will get many opportunities to meet Oliver over the coming months.

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The RHSV bookshop is getting more successful every year – in 2024 our sales increased by 50% on 2023 which was already a record year. And it is getting too large for the staff to look after it so we are looking for volunteers to make sure our sales keep on increasing. We have two brilliant volunteers in place but need at least 3 more.

There are a myriad of jobs associated with the bookshop –

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31 March 2025 is the extended deadline for lodging the annual not-for-profit self-review return. Nearly all historical societies, if they are an incorporated association, will need to lodge this return. However, if your society is already a charity it is exempt from lodging a self-review. By lodging this return you are proving to the ATO that your society is exempt from paying income tax. 

This is the link to the page on the ATO website where it outlines the steps you take to lodge the review.

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The latest RHSV article in CBD News has been published and can be read in full here (scroll down to P20). Written by Julie Bevan

 

The man in his coat and stovepipe hat drives his cart away from us down the empty street towards the nothingness at the centre of the image, leaving only the newsboy to stare towards us sentinel-like defending his territory. And defending his territory was a necessary skill.

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An elegant colossus reaches for the sky

” Captured by amateur photographer Pierre Robin in early September 1959, this is one of the last photographs to capture the solid presence of the Colonial Mutual Building on the north-west corner of Collins and Elizabeth streets.

It rises here from a busy urban setting, trams running along the two major thoroughfares, jostling for space with pedestrians and vehicles. In the foreground is an iconic two-toned Holden FE station wagon,

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Congratulations Ruby Louise Oosthuizen!

The annual Don Gibb RHSV Australian History Prize is awarded to the La Trobe University student who gained the highest mark in the third-year subject ‘Making History’ and , in 2024, the prize was presented to Ruby Louise Oosthuizen. Ruby made a podcast: ‘The Whitewashing of Australia’s Ecological History Seen Through the Tale of a Platypus’. Ruby is completing a double degree in Science and Arts. She earned a cash prize and an RHSV membership,

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We hope to be able to make an announcement soon about the launch of the Victorian Community History Awards 2024.

 

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We look forward to welcoming as many members as possible to the RHSV’s Special General Meeting (SGM) and Annual General Meeting (AGM). To register for the SGM and AGM or to record your apologies please click here.  You can use the same link to book for the Weston Bate Oration which follows the AGM (with a short break for refreshments). Non-members too are always welcome.

On Tuesday evening,

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Our 4th podcast, VOICES FROM MELBOURNE’S CHINATOWN, is available for download from Spotify.

 

In this episode of our History Victoria Podcast, Past Lives, Sean Reynolds interviews Mark Wang, CEO of Melbourne’s Chinese Museum to explore the evolving identity and culture of the vibrant Chinese-Australian community. 
 
Mark delves into his family’s deep roots in Victoria, tracing back to his great-great-grandfather who arrived before the gold rush.

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PROV is facing more than just funding cuts at the moment.

A bill was introduced into the Legislative Assembly this week by the Government that would, amongst other things, see the abolishment of the Public Records Advisory Council.  Given the importance of the PRAC in advising the Minister and the Public Records office on the operation and implementation of the relevant Act, and subsequently the storage and archival of public records, we were looking for feedback from the perspective of historical societies,

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The Royal Historical Society of Victoria has written to The Honourable Gabrielle Williams, Minister for Government Services regarding the faltering funding for the Victorian Community History Awards and PROV’s essential grants program, Local History Grants. These two modestly funded program are essential to the ongoing well-being of Victoria’s 350 historical societies which are a much-loved feature in every electorate across Victoria.

Richard Broome, RHSV President, has also written to all our members asking them to lobby the Minister and their local member to ensure that funding is secured for the quadrennial period 2024 –

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