Royal Historical Society of Victoria

Reclaim Her Name: An introduction to commemorative naming
2026-02-06 10:00 - 11:00 (Australia/Melbourne) | 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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Menzies Australia: 60 years on
2026-02-27 08:00 - 17:00 | VIC
Our guest speaker, Dr Zachary Gorman will draw on insights from the groundbreaking four volume history of the Menzies era which he edited & directed. He will talk about Sir Robert Menzies: the man, his era and enduring impact, based on five years of meticulous research. He will also explore Sir Robert’s connections to Kew. Dr Gorman is the Historian and Research Manager of the Robert Menzies Institute at the University of Melbourne.
Wednesday 11 March at 7.30 for 8pm
‘Just Theatre’, Kew Court House, 188 High Street, Kew
Tickets available at the door $20

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).
Refreshments (non-alcoholic) will be available from 5:30pm until 6pm when the lecture will commence.

Regional Seminar Event: Country, Gold, and Consequence
2026-03-28 - 2026-03-29 | VIC
The RHSV thanks the East Gippsland Historical Society which is hosting our first Historical Societies Support Committee (HSSC) regional seminar for 2026. Drawing on the expertise of both local and visiting speakers, the seminar will examine how stories of exploration, settlement and the discovery of gold shaped the development and changing face of the region.
Gippsland’s history stretches from First Nations communities through European exploration, settlement and the discovery of gold. The district’s early story is both complex and compelling. Speakers will explore the impact of European arrival, including how the gold discoveries sparked a significant influx of people into the region and accelerated its growth and change.
The destination
The program will be held in Bairnsdale, approximately three and a half hours from Melbourne. We always value the opportunity to gather beyond Melbourne and encourage members of historical societies to take a short break and enjoy engaging history in a beautiful setting near the Gippsland Lakes.
East Gippsland Historical Society
Located at 40 Macarthur Street, Bairnsdale, in the former St Andrew’s College, East Gippsland Historical Society, founded in 1964, has been operating its museum premises since 1972. The Society aims to display and preserve local artefacts pertinent to Bairnsdale and surrounding districts, and endeavours to provide a community resource for local history.
The Seminar
The seminar will be held at East Gippsland Historical Society’s Delvine Hall at 40 Macarthur Street, Bairnsdale on Sunday 29 March 2026.

Weekend Agenda
Saturday 28 March 2026Day 1 Program:
12.00pm – East Gippsland Historical Society Museum.For those arriving on Saturday, we will meet at the Society’s museum, located at 40 Macarthur Street, Bairnsdale. The building, originally designed by A J Kramer and built by the McKnockiter Bros. in 1891-92 for the Presbyterian Church, was used as a college until it closed in 1909. The society took over the building in 1972 and houses an extensive collection of artefacts and memorabilia both within the building and in the grounds.
2.00pm – “The Keeping Place”The Krowathunkooloong “Keeping Place”, Dalmahoy Street, Bairnsdale. This museum is the custodian of the Gunaikurnai First Nations people history and is a place to understand and appreciate the living, vibrant and continuing culture of the Gunaikurnai people of East Gippsland. Admission to Keeping Place $10.00, if attending.
3.30pm – St Mary’s Church.St Mary’s Church in Bairnsdale, Victoria, located on Main Street, Bairnsdale. The church is a prominent Romanesque-style Catholic church, renowned for its extensive, detailed murals painted by Italian migrant labourer and artist Francesco Floreani during the Great Depression (1931–1938).
6.00pm – Dinner – Grand Terminus HotelIn the evening, an optional dinner at own cost will be held in the private dining room of the Grand Terminus Hotel, Bairnsdale.Local historians will present stories on local identities who contributed to the development of the township of Bairnsdale.

Sunday 29 March 2026Day 2 Program
9.30am-9.50am: RegistrationMorning tea and lunch provided in registration fee.
9.50am: Welcome and introductionJacque Hocking, East Gippsland Historical Society
10.00am: Dr Steven Cooke, FRHistS, Executive Director, Royal Historical Society of Victoria.
10.15am: Rob ChristieA Convenient Scapegoat. Angus McMillan and the Gippsland Massacres.Well-known local author and historian Rob Christie has meticulously researched and verified evidence that doesn’t exonerate McMillan entirely, but proves that while involved, he was not the leader and instigator of the atrocities suffered by the Indigenous populations of Gippsland.
11.15am: Morning tea
11.30am: Bill JacksonScotland to Glenaladale 1842. The story of Simon Gillies co-founder of Glenaladale Station.Bill’s presentation follows the life of Simon Gillies who, along with Charles and Angus McLean, took up the Glenaladale Run license in 1845. From the “Hyland Clearances” to the production of wool, beef and crops on the rich Mitchell River flats, Gillies was one of the many who helped develop the area into the food bowl it is today.
12.30: Lunch
1.15: Sherryn VardyCommunity driven heritage: The 1897 Bullumwaal stage curtain.Sherryn’s presentation, Community driven heritage: the 1897 Bullumwaal stage curtain, explores how community collections in regional areas are sometimes difficult to categorise and to manage. Since these objects are not located within an institution, such as a museum or historical collection, their care is often managed by the community, with little or no access to funding and support. The case study of the Bullumwaal stage curtain, painted in 1897 during the Gold Rush for the town’s Mechanics Hall, illustrates how a very small community, passionate about its past, knowledge-rich and wishing to keep their stage curtain in situ, managed to conserve this unique object.
2.15: Dr Jayne Rantall & Erin Fahy-HamptonStories from the archives: Aboriginal children and welfare in Gippsland and East Gippsland in the late twentieth century.Jayne and Erin are Senior Research & Assessment Officers with the Stolen Generations Reparations Unit for the Department of Justice and Community Safety (DJCS). They will present an overview of the research they have been doing into the provision of welfare for Aboriginal children in the 1960s and 1970s in Gippsland and East Gippsland. They will discuss their experiences of traditional archives and how this sits alongside local knowledge and community archives.
3.15: Q & A Session.
3.30pm Thank you and Close

AGL Shaw Lecture: The Port Phillip Aboriginal Protectorate – Compassionate Protection or Temporising Quackery?
2026-04-21 17:30 - 19:00 | RHSV Gallery Downstairs, 239 A'Beckett St, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000, Australia
The Royal Historical Society of Victoria and the CJ La Trobe Society are proud to present the annual AGL Shaw Lecture.
The Port Phillip Aboriginal Protectorate – Compassionate Protection or Temporising Quackery?
Speaker: Dr Frances Thiele
About Dr Thiele
Frances Thiele is a professional historian and senior heritage advisor working in Aboriginal and historic cultural heritage management. In 1997, she was awarded the E.W. Benham Prize for a PhD in British History at the University of Adelaide.
Frances worked as Field Historian at State Library Victoria for seven years, and in 2007, was awarded the La Trobe Society’s inaugural Fellowship. Her research interests include Australian colonial history, especially in the Port Phillip District.
About the AGL Shaw lectures
Alan George Lewers Shaw AO, FAHA, FASSA, FRAHS, FRHSV (1916 – 2012) was an RHSV Councillor from 1965 to 1971 and President from 1987 to 1991. He is also a Benefactor of the Royal Historical Society of Victoria. He was President of the C J La Trobe Society as well and the two organisations, the C J La Trobe Society and the RHSV, have jointly presented the annual AGL Shaw lecture since 2002 as a tribute to a great historian. A list of previous lecturers can be viewed here.
House-keeping
You will be sent an automatic email confirmation once you book – if this email doesn’t appear in your in-box, please check your Spam or Junk Mail folder as these automatically generated emails can go astray.
As at most RHSV events, we will be serving refreshments from 5:30pm to 6pm when the lecture starts. For the AGL Shaw lecture, we also serve refreshments after the event, and we encourage our members and the members of the C J La Trobe Society to stay a little longer and share our hospitality.

RHSV AGM + 2026 Weston Bate Oration: Professor Richard Broome AM
2026-05-26 17:00 - 19:30 | RHSV Gallery Downstairs, 239 A'Beckett St, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000, Australia
AGM: 5pm – 6.10pm
Break: 6.10pm – 6.30pm
Weston Bate Oration: 6.30pm – 7.30pm
The Weston Bate Oration follows the RHSV’s Annual General Meeting. The AGM runs from 5pm until about 6:10pm when we have a short break before resuming for the Oration at 6:30pm. Refreshments will be served in that break.
If you wish to attend the Oration only then there is no need to arrive at the Drill Hall until, say, 6:15pm for 6:30pm.
Both the AGM and the Oration are hybrid and will be available on ZOOM for those who cannot attend in person at the Drill Hall. The same ZOOM log-in will apply to both the AGM and the Oration and those log-in details will be sent to those who RSVP 24 hours before the event. You just need to log-in when you are able to join the meeting/oration.
There is the opportunity below to record your apologies if you cannot attend the AGM in person or via ZOOM.
Members will be sent the papers for the AGM 14 days prior to the AGM.
Non-members are more than welcome to attend the AGM – we just ask members to identify themselves when RSVPing as it makes it easier for us to count votes, etc.
Weston Bate Oration:
Presented by Professor Richard Broome AM, FAHA, FRHSV, FFAHS
In this lecture Richard will explain how he found Aboriginal history in the 1970s and how his practice and methodological approach to this field has changed over five decades. He will reveal how and when he shifted from a position of youthful ignorance; to being interested in and talking about Aboriginal people; to listening to and talking with them; and finally, to deep collaboration with them.
About the presenter:
Emeritus Professor Richard Broome AM taught Australian and Indigenous History at La Trobe University for over three decades. He is a former President of the RHSV and currently co-editor of the Victorian Historical Journal. He is the author of twenty books, including Aboriginal Australians. A history since 1788 (Allen & Unwin 5th ed., 2019) and the multi-prize-winner Aboriginal Victorians. A History since 1800 (Allen & Unwin, 2nd ed., 2024). He co-edited with Ashley Pratt, Analyzing Australian History, a 4 volume VCE text (Cambridge University Press, 2021). Richard has co-authored three books for the RHSV, the latest being The Story of Melbourne’s Lanes (2024).
The Weston Bate Oration is one of the RHSV’s Distinguished Lecture Series.

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

Lives lived and clothes worn: reading Gwen Jones' gowns
2026-07-21 17:30 - 19:00 | RHSV Gallery Downstairs, 239 A'Beckett St, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000, Australia
This lecture honours the life of Gwen Jones, a keen member and generous supporter of the Royal Historical Society of Victoria over many years until her death in 2021, aged 98. The lecture series will promote the vital role of The Jones Collection of the RHSV in documenting and supporting research on these themes.
The Jones Collection was donated to the RHSV by Gwen shortly before she died. Gwen’s creation, stewardship, and generosity surrounding the collection has ensured that future historians have an incredibly rich archive on which to draw.
Lives lived and clothes worn: reading Gwen Jones’ gowns
Clothing is a personal document that records experiences, reflects moments in time and captures aspects of its wearer. In this presentation, Lorinda Cramer delves into three gowns related to Gwen Jones in the collection of the National Trust of Australia (Victoria). As she reads these garments for the lives lived in and through them, she teases apart the social, cultural and fashion history in which these dresses were worn.
About Dr Lorinda Cramer
Dr Lorinda Cramer is a Lecturer in Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies at Deakin University. Her work as a dress historian sits at the intersections of social history, cultural history and material culture studies. She employs an innovative methodology that draws on the materiality of museum objects to deepen insights into clothing’s connections with gender, race and class, to explore consumer preference, and to interrogate fashion as a worn experience.
Housekeeping
This event will be hybrid so presented in person in our rooms and also via ZOOM. Those purchasing ZOOM tickets will be sent the log-in details 24hrs before the event.
An automatically generated confirmation of booking email is sent on booking – please check your Trash or Spam folders if this email does not turn up in your in-box.
As with most of our events, refreshments will be served from 5:30pm – 6pm when the lecture starts (the Zoom session also starts at 6pm). There will be Q&A at the end of the lecture.
