Party Lines and Trunk Calls – A Curated Objects Exhibition
2025-10-31 09:00 - 2025-11-02 20:30 (Australia/Melbourne) | Old Courthouse, Main Street Natimuk, VIC 3409 Australi, Main Street, Natimuk, Vic, 3409, Australia
Created for the Nati Frinj Biennale 2025, this projected is supported by Arapiles Historical Society.
Focussing on the history of telephones, this exhibition celebrates the work of the women who were employed in the Natimuk Exchange, made trunk calls or used party lines for private communications from local or remoted properties.
Featuring what is now seen as dinosaur technology, the selected objects range from wooden wall phones, 1910 to quirky, telephone-inspired fashion accessories in 2024. A soundscape brings to life snippets of stories that capture observations about early telephones and the work involved in a telephone exchange.
A black and white image of 1950/60 women on an exchange has been reproduced with permission from RHSV, and will be hung in the exhibition. In the image, the photograph is placed temporarily on the remains of the original Natimuk telephone exchange. This magnificent object is a major feature of the exhibition and is a treasured item in the Arapiles Historical Society collection.
Visit https://natifrinj.com/ to kick off a great 3-day event.

Book launch: Black, White + Colour - A biography of Mervyn Bishop, Australia’s First Indigenous Professional Photographer
2025-11-07 18:00 - 19:30 | Avenue Bookstore Elsternwick, 351 Glen Huntly Rd,, Elsternwick, Vic, 3185, Australia
Join us for the launch of the biography of Australia’s first Aboriginal press photographer, Mervyn Bishop.

Mervyn Bishop and Tim Dobbyn discuss Black, White + Colour, in conversation with Stephanie Armstrong OAM.
Born in Brewarrina NSW in 1945, Mervyn Bishop used chance, charm and talent to join the staff of the Sydney Morning Herald at just 17. He won a top news photography award but never received the customary pay increase. Disillusioned, Bishop moved to Canberra as a government photographer and took the iconic photo of Gough Whitlam pouring earth into the hands of traditional owner Vincent Lingiari.
Learn about the man behind the lens at Avenue Bookstore, Elsternwick. This event is free. Bookings essential.

Mervyn Bishop was the first Aboriginal press photographer in Australia. Mervyn’s awards include the Nikon-Walkley Australian Press Photographer of the Year for 1971 and the Australia Council’s Red Ochre Award in 2000.
Tim Dobbyn is a former journalist who started at Australian Associated Press in 1981 before moving to the United States in 1987 to work for Reuters. After taking a break from daily journalism, he worked freelance jobs before starting work on the Mervyn Bishop biography in 2018. He and his family have known Bishop since 1962. He lives near Washington D.C. with his wife Sheila and two impossible dogs.
Stephanie Armstrong OAM s a proud Gamilaraay woman from Gamilaraay/Yuwaalaraay country (north west NSW) and a member of a large extended family. Stephanie knew from a young age she wanted to teach. Her ensuing 40 years as an educator – spanning early childhood, primary and secondary schools, universities, government and not-for-profit organisations – led to her recognition and Medal of the Order of Australia for her service to Indigenous health and education.

Book Launch: Code of Silence by Diana Thorp
2025-11-12 18:00 - 20:00 | RHSV Gallery Downstairs, 239 A'Beckett St, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000, Australia
Please join us to launch the publication of Code of Silence: How Australian Women Helped Win the War, featuring author Diana Thorp in conversation with Professor Clare Wright
Eighty years after the end of World War II, intriguing stories of the crucial contributions of women on the Australian home front are emerging.
As war climbed to a crescendo in the Asia-Pacific, the Australian government called in a new weapon: women. Within this female arsenal was a group so significant that the women who bravely assumed these roles were sworn to secrecy – a vow that was to outlive the war.
As war inched closer to home, they became a secret weapon, intercepting enemy messages and passing intelligence between local networks and allies across the globe, from Bletchley Park to the United States and across the Asia-Pacific. Some information was so sensitive it was burned to ensure its security.
They were among the thousands of women, many still teenagers, who stepped up to join the army, the navy and the air force during the war, taking on unprecedented roles during an international crisis. Victory attained, they demobilised and returned home. Secret work or not, their roles have remained largely untold. Until now.
This is not just an extraordinary war story, but a coming-of-age tale for the nation and its women. It is time to write these remarkable women back into our history, where they belong.
About the author
Diana Thorp has scaled a pyramid, excavated a Bronze Age palace and been threatened by a deadly war spy. She also wrote a thesis on forgotten women that almost included a sealed section, all in pursuit of a good story. A journalist, historian and teacher, Diana has worked for The Australian, including its weekend magazine, and The Times in London. She has studied Australian history, with a focus on gender, at Macquarie University, and ancient Egyptian literature at Monash University. After lecturing in journalism for many years, her passion for history inspired her to become a teacher, and she works at a Melbourne girls’ school. Her work appears widely in Australia and beyond, and her feature article on Australian World War II spy Nancy Wake, whose wartime story was then little known, inspired her interest in this covert field.
Housekeeping
Refreshments will be served from 6pm – 6.30pm when the speakers will commence.
This event can be attended in-person or online via Zoom.
An automated confirmation email is sent to your email address when you book. If this email doesn’t turn up in your inbox please check your Spam or Junk Mail folders. Don’t worry if you cannot find it – there will be a list of names at the door so you will be able to gain entry without your ticket.
The RHSV Gallery Downstairs is an accessible venue.

The Hon Niel Black and his Butter Factory inheritors
2025-11-26 17:30 - 19:00 | RHSV Gallery Downstairs, 239 A'Beckett St, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000, Australia
In 1840, Niel Black ‘took up country’ in the rich lands along Mount Emu Creek at the heart of the Western District. Backed by prominent partners in Scotland, this upstart Scottish farmer survived economic hardship in the 1840s and established a fine sheep and cattle run. During the 1850s, in the partnership’s name, he started buying sections of the vast ‘squatted’ acreage.
In 1858, he won election to the Legislative Council thereby becoming ‘Honourable’, and in 1867 he entertained Prince Alfred at ‘far-famed Glenormiston’, the treasured homestead he built in 1860, but had to leave in 1869 when the partnership’s assets were divided. In 1876 he moved back to the District, into Mount Noorat House, a mansion he described as ‘the crowning folly of my life’. But Black’s astonishing social rise never earned him the title of gentleman. It was his three sons’ destiny – a destiny their father secured with iron determination – to assume fully the role of Western District gentry alongside contemporaries from other pioneer families. Their firm, Black Bros, run by AJ (Ian) and SG (Steuart), set out to re-mould their inheritance, including Glenormiston which they recovered. In 1899, the celebrated beef herd was sold as they proceeded to improve and subdivide land for dairying. Thereafter they promoted rural industrialisation in the form of co-operative Butter Factories and Creameries with conspicuous success. Among the most potent symbols of their wealth was the creation of Dalvui, a homestead of splendours and, ultimately, broken dreams.
About the presenter
Maggie Black is a researcher, writer and editor, whose career was primarily spent working for international United Nations and non-governmental organisations. Among many books and international reports she wrote or edited are histories of Oxfam and UNICEF: A Cause for Our Times: Oxfam the first 50 years, (Oxford University Press, 1992); Children First: The Story of UNICEF, (OUP 1996); and The World Report on Violence Against Children, (United Nations, 2006). Since 2009, she has turned her attention to her great-grandfather’s pioneering life in embryonic Victoria, and his own and his sons’ involvement in the emergence of a new settler society. Her primary source is Niel Black’s voluminous archive in the State Library of Victoria, which is unique in the light it sheds on the process of ‘squatting’, Aboriginal exclusion, the skulduggery required to gain proprietorship over vast acreages, and many other themes of colonial activity in Victoria between 1837-1880.
Housekeeping
This event will be offered both in person at the RHSV, 239 A’Beckett St Melbourne 3000, and online via Zoom.
At the RHSV refreshments are served from 5.30pm – 6:00pm and the Zoom session will start, as will the lecture, at 6.00pm.
An automatic confirmation of your booking will be sent to you – please check your Spam or Junk Mail folder as these automated emails are often viewed as Junk by your ISP. Don’t panic, your name will be at the door if you can’t find your ticket.

CATALOGUING CLINICS 2025
2025-11-27 11:00 - 12:00 | ZOOM, Join from anywhere in the world
Join Jillian Hiscock, the RHSV Collections Manager, each month in this informative and easy-going Zoom forum on all aspects of cataloguing collections for historical societies.
Jillian has a different topic each month and is happy to be guided by those who attend as to what they would like covered in upcoming clinics. Bring your questions (no matter the topic) – this is an interactive space where questions are encouraged. The RHSV does not endorse any particular cataloguing software – we believe it is horses for courses – and Jillian will talk about issues that impact on cataloguing whether you are using cataloguing cards or software.
The one-hour clinics are free and the Zoom log-in below is used every month in 2025, however, we do ask you to register each month as this enables Jillian to send you extra material / links etc after each session.
11am (AEDT) Thu 27 Feb 2025
11am (AEDT) Thu 27 Mar 2025
11am (AEST) Thu 24 Apr 2025
11am (AEST) Thu 29 May 2025
11am (AEST) Thu 26 Jun 2025
11am (AEST) Thu 31 Jul 2025
11am (AEST) Thu 28 Aug 2025
11am (AEST) Thu 25 Sep 2025
11am (AEDT) Thu 30 Oct 2025
11am (AEDT) Thu 27 Nov 2025
Please download and import the following iCalendar (.ics) files to your calendar system.
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Selected Views of the Mount Alexander Goldfields: Public Lecture by Ken McKimmie
2025-11-28 19:30 - 21:30 | The Coolroom at Northern Arts Hotel, 359 Barker Street, Castlemaine, VIC, 3450, Australia
Hosted by Castlemaine Society Inc. (CASSOC)
Local historian, teacher and author Ken McKimmie will present a public lecture on early Castlemaine township history at the Northern Arts Hotel on Friday November 28, 7:00pm for a 7:30pm start. First session on Friday November 21st is SOLD OUT.
Ken McKimmie is an expert of early Mount Alexander township history, and his historical photographs of Castlemaine are regularly featured in the Castlemaine Mail’s ‘Let’s take a look back’ column. Ken is the author of ‘Chewton Then and Now’.
In this lecture a vast trove of early photographs and images are expertly interpreted to demonstrate the development of Castlemaine from the Goldrush through to today. Most photographs will be unknown to the audience. A Q&A session will follow the lecture.
This is a rare opportunity not to be missed!
This lecture was delivered at ‘The Alchemy of Gold’ May 2025 conference to great acclaim, and the Castlemaine Society Inc (CASSOC), is delighted to host a repeat for the public.
All are welcome. Please register for this free event as spaces are limited. A light supper will be provided, with drinks at bar prices. Gold coin donations welcomed.
CASSOC – ‘Conserving the Character of Castlemaine’
To find out more about CASSOC visit the website https://castlemainesociety.org.au

Guided Walking Tour of Historical Flagstaff Gardens
2025-12-08 11:00 - 12:15 | Royal Historical Society of Victoria, 239 A'Beckett St, Melbourne, VIC, 3000, Australia
Join expert tour guides from the Royal Historical Society of Victoria – the historical society for the City of Melbourne – on a guided walk through the beautiful Flagstaff Gardens – the historic heart of the City, every Monday at 11.00am.
Visitors will climb Flagstaff Hill to consider its place in Melbourne’s topography and pre-European history as well as its early role as a burial ground, flagstaff signalling station and magnetic and meteorological observatory.
An absolute “must-do” walk for understanding the history and character of the City.
Meet at reception at the Royal Historical Society of Victoria. Children under 16 are free.

You can book tickets below, by calling RHSV on 9326 9288, via email at office@historyvictoria.org.au, or in person at reception.
Future Mondays are available – if you don’t see your desired date below, give us a call to book in.

Reclaim Her Name: An introduction to commemorative naming
2026-02-06 10:00 - 11:00 | Join via Zoom
Despite making up more than half of the population, there are significantly fewer places named after women than after men.
Kerry Wilson of Put Her Name On It leads this online session as she introduces us to commemorative naming and the need for greater gender equality when it comes to naming our spaces. Learn about the current gender gap in commemorative naming, why representation matters and ways you can be involved.
Housekeeping
This is a Zoom event. The Zoom details will be sent 24 hours before the event to all those who have booked – please check your Spam or Junk Mail folder if you cannot find the email in your inbox.

Reclaim Her Name: An introduction to the Reclaim Her Name toolkit and how to run a research session
2026-02-13 10:00 - 11:00 | Join via Zoom
Despite making up more than half of the population, there are significantly fewer places named after women than after men.
Aimed at historical societies and other community groups in Victoria, this session introduces the Reclaim Her Name toolkit, which helps with:

Auditing existing names to identify gaps in representation.
Accumulating a list or “name bank” of notable local women and gender-diverse individuals who deserve commemoration.
Providing guidelines and case studies for inclusive naming processes.
Offering tools and training for research and sharing diverse local women’s histories.
Facilitating community nominations through campaigns like “Remember a Local, Name a Place”

The session will cover helpful practices and resources to support you in running a workshop in your local area. Ideal for committee members, volunteers, and anyone interested in starting a naming campaign in their community.
Housekeeping
This is a Zoom event. The Zoom details will be sent 24 hours before the event to all those who have booked – please check your Spam or Junk Mail folder if you cannot find the email in your inbox.

2026 Billibellary Indigenous History Lecture presented by Laureate Professor Marcia Langton AO
2026-02-24 17:30 - 19:00 | RHSV Gallery Downstairs, 239 A'Beckett St, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000, Australia
We are delighted to invite our members and friends to join us for the 5th annual Billibellary Indigenous History Lecture to be delivered by Laureate Professor Marcia Langton AO.
2026 Billibellary Indigenous History Lecture: The Yiman diaspora and frontier legacy
Reflecting on colonisation in the upper Dawson Valley in central Queensland, Marcia Langton AO developed a historiographic scepticism. Gordon Stephen Reid wrote about her people in his 1981 book, A Nest of Hornets: The Massacre of the Fraser Family at Hornet Bank Station, Central Queensland, 1857, and related events, in which he relied, necessarily, entirely on colonist records, yet acknowledged of the Fraser family survivors, ‘Their revenge against the Jiman, without prosecution, helped to set the pattern for white attitudes and colonial government policy towards the Aborigines of Queensland for 40 years.’
As David Marr demonstrated in his 2023 account Killing for Country, history has a way of both deceiving and enlightening us. In this lecture, Langton examines the issues that have troubled her about the accounts of violence in her grandfather’s country.
Laureate Professor Marcia Langton AO, FASSA, AFTSE, a Yiman and Bidjara woman, is the Associate Provost, and Foundation Chair of Australian Indigenous Studies at The University of Melbourne. She is also the Director of the Indigenous Studies Unit in Onemda, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health. A prominent advocate for Indigenous rights, her research spans Indigenous health, family violence, and data governance. Widely published, her recent books include co-edited volumes with colleagues and include her chapter contributions: Dhoombak Goobgoowana: A History of Indigenous Australia and the University of Melbourne – Vol 1 Truth (coedited with Ross Jones and James Waghorne, MUP 2024), and 65,000 Years: A Short History of Australian Art (co-edited with Judith Ryan AM, Thames & Hudson, 2024); Indigenous Knowledge. Australian Perspectives (co-edited with Aaron Corn and Sam Curkpatrick, MUP, 2023), Law. The Way of the Ancestors (co-authored with Aaron Corn, Thames & Hudson, 2022).
House-keeping
The Zoom details will be sent 24 hours before the event to all those who have booked – please check your Spam or Junk Mail folder if you cannot find the email in your in-box. The Zoom event will start at 6pm (30 mins later than the in-person event).
Refreshments will be available from 5:30pm until 6pm when the lecture will commence.

Cataloguing Clinics 2026
2026-02-26 11:00 - 12:00, 2026-03-26 11:00 - 12:00, 2026-04-30 11:00 - 12:00, 2026-05-28 11:00 - 12:00 | Join via Zoom
Join Jillian Hiscock, the RHSV Collections Manager, each month in this informative and easy-going Zoom forum on all aspects of cataloguing collections for historical societies.
Jillian has a different topic each month and is happy to be guided by those who attend as to what they would like covered in upcoming clinics. Bring your questions (no matter the topic) – this is an interactive space where questions are encouraged. The RHSV does not endorse any particular cataloguing software – we believe it is horses for courses – and Jillian will talk about issues that impact on cataloguing whether you are using cataloguing cards or software.
The one-hour clinics are free and the Zoom log-in below is used every month in 2026, however, we do ask you to register each month as this enables Jillian to send you extra material / links etc. after each session.
Sessions:
11am (AEDT) Thursday 26 February 2026
11am (AEDT) Thursday 26 March 2026
11am (AEST) Thursday 30 April 2026
11am (AEST) Thursday 28 May 2026
11am (AEST) Thursday 25 June 2026
11am (AEST) Thursday 30 July 2026
11am (AEST) Thursday 27 August 2026
11am (AEST) Thursday 24 September 2026
11am (AEDT) Thursday 29 October 2026
11am (AEDT) Thursday 26 November 2026

Please download and import the following iCalendar (.ics) files to your calendar system.
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Reclaim Her Name: how to research and write about women worth remembering
2026-03-13 10:00 - 12:30 | RHSV, Gallery Downstairs, 239 A'Beckett Street, Melbourne, VIC, 3000, Australia
Aimed at those in Melbourne, this session brings together Kerry Wilson of Put Her Name On It and history researchers from the RHSV to focus on hands-on research into one or more historical women of your choosing. We’ll cover research tools including archives, digitized newspapers, Trove, and other essential resources.
Bring your laptop and your thinking cap as we learn how to research and write the information needed to make your historical woman a candidate to have a place named after her. No prior research experience necessary.
Includes morning tea.

Duneira Estate 150th Celebration Victorian Ball
2026-03-14 19:00 - 23:30 | Duneira Estate, 1 Officer Lane, Mount Macedon, VIC, 3440, Australia
Come along to a Victorian ball with a Scottish twist to celebrate Duneira Estate’s 150th anniversary. It’s going to be a night to remember!
Step back into the 1870s with a horse and carriage taking you around the beautiful garden, a scrumptious supper, drinks flowing, and entertainment that will have you dancing the night away.
Book your tickets now at https://events.humanitix.com/duneira-estate-150th-celebration-grand-ball
We do hope you’ll join us for this unforgettable celebration.

Women’s History Month: Who? Hester Hornbrook and her ladies: Melbourne's first social carers in the 1850s and 1860s
2026-03-17 17:30 - 19:00 | RHSV Gallery Downstairs, 239 A'Beckett St, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000, Australia
Each year, to celebrate Women’s History Month, the RHSV offers our Women’s History lecture, part of our Distinguished Lecture series.
For 2026, we are delighted to have Roslyn Otzen presenting on Hester Hornbrook, whose work in creating 1850s Melbourne’s first social supports saved thousands of people from lives and deaths in misery, and formed the basis of future social support systems in Victoria.
Who? Hester Hornbrook and her ladies: Melbourne’s first social carers in the 1850s and 1860s
Roslyn Otzen completed her PhD on the 1854 origins of the Melbourne City Mission, and its founders, who included a woman named Hester Hornbrook. While researching Hester, and the many other women who worked with her, Roslyn uncovered a trove of unknown information, not only about the women, but the essential work they did in caring for gold-rushing newcomers to Melbourne who were entirely unsupported when they fell on hard times. Together, the women created Melbourne’s first social services. No one has heard of any of them. History has ignored them. Roslyn had to find out why — and introduce them firmly into the story of Melbourne.
About Roslyn Otzen
Roslyn Otzen, an educator and former Principal of Korowa AGS, completed her PhD thesis on the early Melbourne City Mission, and served a term on the MCM Board. She became the inaugural Chair of the Hester Hornbrook Academy Board, and continues as a Director. She still studies the MCM’s early days, and especially the work of its women, whose own lives have been a closed book, until on-line access to records of the past have enabled their recovery. She has published several histories, including a biography of Dr John Singleton, another founder of the MCM. Other publications include Grace and Strength: Calisthenics in Australia (2011) and To Begin The World Anew: How Particular Nobodies Made Australia (2022).
House-keeping
The Zoom log-in details will be sent, 24 hours before the event, to all those who have booked – please check your Spam or Junk Mail folder if you cannot find the email in your in-box. The Zoom event will start at 6pm (30 mins later than the in-person event).
As with all RHSV lectures, refreshments will be available from 5:30pm until 6pm when the lecture will commence.

Save the Date - Supporting Local History 28-29 March
2026-03-28 - 2026-03-29 | Victoria
Mark it in your calendar
The first Historical Society Support Committee event for 2026 will be held at Bairnsdale on the weekend of 28-29 March, hosted by the East Gippsland Historical Society.
More details coming soon – but for now, be sure to save the date.

Cataloguing Clinics 2026
2026-06-25 11:00 - 22:00, 2026-07-30 11:00 - 12:00, 2026-08-27 11:00 - 12:00, 2026-09-24 11:00 - 12:00, 2026-10-29 11:00 - 12:00, 2026-11-26 11:00 - 12:00 | ZOOM, Join from anywhere in the world
