David Thompson will take you behind the scenes of our current exhibition, Melbourne's Storied Laneways which David curated. The exhibition was prompted by the upcoming publication of  The Story of Melbourne’s Lanes: Essential but Unplanned by Weston Bate, Richard Broome, Nicole Davis, Andrew J. May, Helen Stitt  which will be launched on 3rd October 2024. We
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Renovation or Revision: (re)writing Indigenous and Institutional Histories We are thrilled that Dr Ross L Jones will deliver the 3rd Hugh Anderson Lecture in the RHSV's Distinguished Lecture series.  Eric Hobsbawm wrote that national histories comprise ‘anachronism, omission,  decontextualization and, in extreme cases, lies.’ If we substitute ‘nation’ with ‘university’ does the truth hold, especially
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Engineering Heritage Victoria and the RHSV present this event in partnership. Hugh Ralston Crawford (1876 - 1954) consulting engineer, was a pioneer in reinforced concrete work in Australia. He was granted a provisional patent for monolithic reinforced concrete cavity wall construction in 1907, and he later used the system to erect several concrete houses in
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The RHSV wants to bring together the leaders of the many networks of historical societies which exist across Victoria. This event will not be Zoomed as a key aim is for leaders to meet with peers from across Victoria and then to share their findings with their member societies. The conference is free-of-charge to each historical society network and 1-2 others from that network. And there is travel and accommodation assistance for those travelling long distances.

In 1886 gentlemen from Victoria's Royal Society and Geographical Society formed a joint Australian Antarctic Exploration Committee. With the ear of the Premier and his Agent General in London, they energetically pursued a joint whaling and scientific expedition. They came tantalising close to their goal and helped inspire the first landing and the first overwintering on the Antarctic continent. Through both published and unpublished items from the RHSV, join librarian and author Andrew McConville to explore this and other stories of early Antarctic exploration.

Bookings: https://ephemerasociety.org.au/category/whats-on/ Tony Shields has been a stamp and coin dealer since 1970. Every day he handles wonderful pieces of history and art which he researches and loves.  Since childhood, he has been fascinated by the stories of Scott and Mawson in the Antarctic and has sought stamps and other items depicting the experiences of
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The Melbourne Maritime Heritage Network is presenting this fascinating lecture at the RHSV. Speaker: Daryl Karp, Australian National Maritime Museum’s Director and CEO Ms Karp has worked in the broadcast and cultural industries for over 20 years. Prior to her appointment as Director and CEO of ANMM, she  was the Director of the Museum of
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David Thompson will take you behind the scenes of our current exhibition, Melbourne's Storied Laneways which David curated. The exhibition was prompted by the upcoming publication of The Story of Melbourne’s Lanes: Essential but Unplanned by Weston Bate, Richard Broome, Nicole Davis, Andrew J. May, Helen Stitt which will be launched on 3rd October 2024. We
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Passing without fanfare or public ceremony, at midday on Sunday 15 June 1924, electricity from the new Yallourn Power Station first reached Melbourne when the State Electricity Commission switched on the high voltage transmission line linking Morwell and the Yarraville distribution terminal. The event marked the culmination of a five-year project to develop Victoria’s first baseload power station in the Latrobe Valley and the greatest single public infrastructure project the nation had seen. It was proclaimed by the press as “the cessation of Victoria's subservience … to the coal mines of Newcastle”, and would provide the foundation for the State’s industrial, economic and social prosperity over the following decades.

The forgotten class? Shopkeepers of nineteenth-century Melbourne
Shopkeepers played a vital role in the functioning of nineteenth-century Melbourne society. They owned the businesses where residents obtained goods, from basic daily needs to the flights and fancies of an emerging modern consumer culture. Echoes of their presence live on in the shopfronts and main shopping streets. This lecture investigates and compares the shopkeepers who operated in three distinct, representative suburbs of nineteenth-century Melbourne: genteel Malvern, inner urban North Melbourne and industrial Footscray. In doing so it provides a genuine comparative cross-section of the urban retail trade in this period and reveals the subtle differences between these localities in terms of the prestige and identity ascribed to shopkeepers within the socio-economic fabric of these local societies. Yet across all three towns (or suburbs), shopkeepers held an important and unique role, one that cannot be understood through the same lens as the working class or middle class.