Duneira Estate Winter House Tours with morning tea in the stables
2025-07-23 10:00 - 11:30, 2025-08-13 10:00 - 11:30 (Australia/Melbourne) | Duneira Estate, 1 Officer Lane, Mount Macedon, VIC, 3440, Australia
Duneira is running guided Winter House tours showcasing Stuart Stoneman’s extensive Art Collection. Stoneman was Duneira’s last owner who, upon his death in 2002, bequeathed his estate and his collections to the care of the S.R.Stoneman Foundation.
Duneira is considered to be the ‘jewel in the crown’ of the few remaining grand hill stations left intact on Mt Macedon after the devastating bushfires of 1983. Along with the Stoneman Art Collection, the house features an extensive library, Persian rugs, grand pianos and interesting period furniture.
During this tour our knowledgeable guide will provide fascinating insights into the story of Duneira and its six owners. This tour includes morning tea in the newly stables.
Tickets: https://events.humanitix.com/duneira-winter-house-tours-with-morning-tea-2025

RARE BOOK WEEK: Hoarder or Historian?
2025-07-29 11:00 - 12:00 | RHSV Gallery Downstairs, 239 A'Beckett St, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000, Australia
Is our history in a drawer, a scrapbook, or a curated collection?
Speaker: Mandy Bede
This talk will focus on a selection of ephemera collections, teasing out the theme of how our history is preserved. Join Mandy Bede, President of the Ephemera Society of Australia, as she shows examples of printed Australian ephemeral material from the sublime to the mundane. Regardless of how these items have been collected and preserved, or by whom, or for whatever reason, they form part of the remarkable commonwealth of documents that record our past.
Housekeeping
This event is part of Rare Book Week and, for those attending both the RHSV event at 12:30pm and the earlier Ephemera Society of Australia event at 11am in our venue, we will be serving refreshments between the two events.
These events are in person only – there is no Zoom and nor are the events recorded.
Presented by: Ephemera Society of Australia
at Royal Historical Society of Victoria, 328 A’Beckett Street, Melbourne
Morning tea will be served immediately following this event.

RARE BOOK WEEK: Scapegoats of the Empire
2025-07-29 12:30 - 13:30 | RHSV Gallery Downstairs, 239 A'Beckett St, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000, Australia
Stories that divide us
Recently, the library of esteemed community historian Weston Bate was donated to the RHSV. Amongst the many gems was a rare book, Scapegoats of the Empire, written in Lancefield and published in 1907 about military crimes half a world away in South Africa. The author, George Witton, was the 3rd defendant in the military trial for murder brought against Breaker Morant and Peter Handcock. Morant and Handcock were executed by firing squad and Witton was jailed for life. Less than 3 years later he was released and returned home to Australia to write his dubious memoir.
Join distinguished historian Dr Andrew Lemon AM as he explores not just Scapegoats but looks to the rich literature that is spawned when the truth gets murky.
Andrew Lemon is a multiple award-winning Australian historian, best known for his three volume History of Australian Thoroughbred Racing (joint winner of the 2009 Australian Society for Sports History biennial book prize). He has written biographies, local, company and school histories, and co-authored Poor Souls, They Perished on Australia’s worst shipwreck (1986 FAW Wilke Prize). His book A Great Australian School: Wesley College Examined (2004) was shortlisted for the New South Wales state Premier’s History Award. In 2005 the University of Melbourne awarded him the degree of Doctor of Letters for his published work. In 2012 he was a John H. Daniels research fellow at the National Sporting Library and Museum, in Virginia, USA. Andrew is a former President of the RHSV.
Housekeeping
This event is part of Rare Book Week and, for those attending both the RHSV event at 12:30pm and the earlier Ephemera Society of Australia event at 11am in the same venue, we will be serving refreshments between the two events.
These events are in person only – there is no Zoom and nor are the events recorded.

CATALOGUING CLINICS 2025
2025-07-31 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 (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.
Monthly: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/tZ0pcOiuqjItH9JWUaZk1ZrdaP1uA9d1Yqc1/ics?icsToken=DESnOhi_USXAWOo5GQAALAAAAOsufSxu9e_o1VvEoUWUiVuOT3wUceY4gYwdUjlaNrGDW1VrT1KjyEhE0aD9QHm4eoEg_M9GmHYiFwIZujAwMDAwMQ&meetingMasterEventId=3FhVroEqTuiqU-ygov-0vg
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Biographical Storytelling
2025-08-03 14:00 - 15:00 | Diamond Valley Library
Charlotte Chidell has researched the life of pioneer Katherine Rose Beale (1795-1856) who arrived at Port Phillip in 1839. The Beale family established the St Helena estate. Finding few reliable primary sources, her book, This Still Hearth tells the story of Katherine in a mix of fact and fiction.
In this presentation Charlotte will discuss her research, writing and pathway to publication journey and discuss various styles of storytelling to share your family history research. Books available for sale. Presented by Yarra Plenty Regional Library.
Diamond Valley Library, Civic Drive, Greensborough
Saturday 3 August 2.00pm–3.00pm
Free event – registrations essential.

Rebels and Revolutionaries buried in the Melbourne General Cemetery: Zoom session
2025-08-05 19:30 - 20:30 | ZOOM, Join from anywhere in the world
This presentation by Jeff Atkinson will follow a brief Annual General Meeting of the Carlton Community History Group.
To take part you will need to register, which can be done by emailing jeffann@bigpond.net.au
A Zoom link will be sent to you on the day before the presentation.

Researching your Family History in South Asian Countries
2025-08-11 10:30 - 11:30 | Thomastown Library
Most South Asian family history has been traditionally maintained only within families and has been passed down from generation to generation, with children hearing their stories from their “elders” from early childhood. In this session, Librarian and family historian Smita Biswas will share other basic steps and tips to get more clues about your South Asian countries’ family roots in India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh and provide tips to learn more about your family history. Presented by Yarra Plenty Regional Library.
Monday 11 August 10.30am–11.30am
Thomastown Library, 54 Main Street, Thomastown, Vic. 3074
Free event – registrations essential.

An Evening With Peter Mitchell and Jane Sullivan
2025-08-12 18:30 - 19:30 | Eltham Bookshop, 10 Arthur Stree, Eltham, VIC, 3094, Australia
Peter and Jane will discuss Peter’s new book, “Under the Same Moon”; a powerful World War II story of two brothers, drawn from previously unknown letters and histories of Australia’s Middle East and Java campaigns.
Entry: Single $50 / Couple $65 – includes one copy of the book or a $25 book voucher, plus refreshments
Bookings are essential: 94398700 or https://elthambookshop.com.au/c/our-author-events

Specimens Across Time: A 200th birthday tribute to Baron von Mueller
2025-08-14 18:30 - 20:00 | Mueller Hall, Herbarium, Royal Botanic Gardens, Birdwood Avenue, Melbourne, 3004, Australia
For National Science Week, scientists at Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria will host a free talk about the legacy of the first Gardens director, founder of the National Herbarium of Victoria, and first Government Botanist of Victoria, Baron Ferdinand von Mueller. During the talk, scientists will share their favourite Herbarium specimens from Mueller’s time and discuss their contemporary significance. The talk also celebrates 200 years since Mueller’s birth.
“Baron Ferdinand von Mueller was a botanist, explorer, and patron of science, who founded our collection of plant, algal and fungal specimens through his own collecting, and through a network of collectors and scientists that he established globally,” said Alison Vaughan, Manager Collections at Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria.
Approximately two-thirds of the 1.5 million plant, algae and fungi specimens in the National Herbarium of Victoria today were amassed through Mueller’s endeavours.
Free entry, bookings essential.
Mueller Hall, enter via Oak Lawn Gate.
To book to attend in-person or to register to watch online, go to: https://www.rbg.vic.gov.au/melbourne-gardens/whats-on-melbourne/specimens-across-time/

Farming Families of Whittlesea
2025-08-21 14:00 - 16:00 | Whittlesea Library, 57-61 Laurel Street, Whittlesea, VIC, 3757, Australia
Did you have farming ancestors? Join members of the Whittlesea Historical Society who will present the history of some key pioneer farming families within the City, recognising the history and heritage of the Whittlesea farming community since 1859 when the Agricultural Society was established. Visit display items and share your own stories as part of our family history month program.
Afternoon tea will be provided by students from Whittlesea Secondary College. Presented in partnership by Yarra Plenty Regional Library with Whittlesea Historical Society, Whittlesea Agricultural Society, City of Whittlesea and Whittlesea Secondary College .
Thursday 21 August 2.00pm–4.00pm
Whittlesea Library, 57-61 Laurel Street, Whittlesea, Vic. 3757
Free event – registrations essential.

Farewell and Bon Voyage, Rosemary Cameron
2025-08-21 17:30 - 19:00 | RHSV, Gallery Downstairs, 239 A'Beckett Street, Melbourne, VIC, 3000, Australia
“After eight years and three Presidents, our legendary Executive Officer is retiring from the Royal Historical Society of Victoria.
Please join us to celebrate all that she has done to help the Society become one of Australia’s success stories at a time when the arts and humanities need robust history societies more than ever.
Feel free to add any messages or memories of your involvement with Rosemary when you RSVP”.
Robert Pascoe, President RHSV

Heritage and the new Housing Zones: The Need to Reform the Reforms
2025-08-26 17:30 - 19:30 | RHSV Gallery Downstairs, 239 A'Beckett St, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000, Australia
The National Trust of Australia (Victoria) and the Royal Historical Society of Victoria will hold a public meeting at the Drill Hall, 239 A’Beckett St Melbourne 3000:
Heritage and the new Housing Zones: The Need to Reform the Reforms

Three leading experts will discuss challenges to heritage in the new planning context and ways to address these challenges:

Michael Buxton, Emeritus Professor, Planning and Environment, RMIT University
Nigel Lewis, Leading Melbourne heritage architect since 1976
Scott Walker, Director Urban Living, City of Boroondara

Collette Brennan, CEO of the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), will open the meeting, followed by Charles Sowerwine, Chair, Heritage Committee, Royal Historical Society of Victoria, who will chair proceedings.

The meeting follows on from the NTAV and RHSV joint statement “More Housing and Heritage Must Go Hand in Hand” https://www.nationaltrust.org.au/blog/national-trust-of-australia-victoria-and-royal-historical-society-of-victoria-joint-statement/ and the Charter 29 Report, “Reforming the Reforms” charter29.com

Housekeeping

As with most RHSV events, refreshments will be served from 5:30pm – 6pm when the speakers will commence.
This event is an in person event only.
An automated confirmation email is sent to your email address when you book. If this email doesn’t turn up in your ‘in-box’ please check your Spam or Junk Mail folders. Don’t panic – 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.

CATALOGUING CLINICS 2025
2025-08-28 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 (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.
Monthly: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/tZ0pcOiuqjItH9JWUaZk1ZrdaP1uA9d1Yqc1/ics?icsToken=DESnOhi_USXAWOo5GQAALAAAAOsufSxu9e_o1VvEoUWUiVuOT3wUceY4gYwdUjlaNrGDW1VrT1KjyEhE0aD9QHm4eoEg_M9GmHYiFwIZujAwMDAwMQ&meetingMasterEventId=3FhVroEqTuiqU-ygov-0vg
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89471649756?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 894 7164 9756
Passcode: [REDACTED]
If joining by phone:
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+61871501149,,89471649756#,,,,*[REDACTED]# Australia
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• +61 8 7150 1149 Australia
• +61 2 8015 6011 Australia
• +61 3 7018 2005 Australia
• +61 7 3185 3730 Australia
• +61 8 6119 3900 Australia
Meeting ID: 894 7164 9756
Passcode: [REDACTED]
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kdoUG5MWlO

Book launch and panel discussion, "Fathering: An Australian History"
2025-08-29 15:30 - 19:00 | Royal Historical Society of Victoria, 239 A'Beckett St, Melbourne, VIC, 3000, Australia
You are invited to a book launch and panel discussion for Fathering: An Australian History (bookings essential)

Panel Discussion, 3.30-5.30pm Enjoy three fascinating panels discussing fathering and family life: historical perspectives and contemporary issues, co-presented by the authors and other experts.
Book Launch, 5.30-7pm by Hon. Ged Kearney, MP

Please RSVP below to attend the panel or the launch or both sessions.
Fathering: An Australian History
The 21st-century father is expected to be actively engaged in the everyday care of his children, as epitomised by the celebrated dad of children’s cartoon Bluey, the Blue Heeler Bandit. Fathering: An Australian History explores why fathers often struggle to meet social and cultural expectations. The authors’ groundbreaking research reveals the forces that have shaped Australian family life and fathering since the early twentieth century, and how Australian fathers have managed their evolving role and its responsibilities.
Focusing on lived experience and drawing upon a century of personal accounts, Fathering reveals how the experience of being a father is as much shaped by social class and material wellbeing as it is by race and ethnicity, geography and sexuality, and by family legacy and personal character.

Book Launch
Venue: Downstairs in RHSV exhibition space at 239 A’Beckett Street, Melbourne
5.30pm Drinks and food / canapes + book sales by RHSV
6.00pm Welcome by Prof Alistair Thomson, and Acknowledgement of Country
6.05pm Launch by Hon. Ged Kearney MP (Assistant Minister for Social Services and Assistant Minister for Prevention of Family Violence)
6.20pm Closing Remarks by Prof Michael Roper (Essex University)
Book sales, signing, drinks and food / canapes
7.00pm Finish
Please RSVP to attend.

Panel Conversations / Q and A
Fathering and Family Life: Historical Perspectives and Contemporary Issues
Venue: Upstairs in the RHSV Drill Hall at 239 A’Beckett Street, Melbourne
3.30 Afternoon tea
4.00 Welcome and introductions: Emeritus Prof Alistair Thomson
Panel Moderator: Prof Michelle Arrow (Macquarie University; President of the Australian Historian Association)
Panel 1: Fathering and MotheringFocusing on how expectations about and experiences of fathering – and mothering – have changed across time and varied across culture and circumstance, and how cultural expectations enable and disable men’s ability to be active and effective fathers.

Prof Jacqui McDonald (Deakin University, convenor, Australian Fatherhood Research Consortium)
Associate Prof Richard Fletcher (Principal Investigator, SMS4dads & SMS4DeadlyDads, Fathers and Families Research Program, University of Newcastle)
Dr Johnny Bell (Fathering author)
Emeritus Prof Alistair Thomson (Monash University, Fathering author)

Panel 2: Fathering and WorkFocusing on how men’s paid work and employment policies and practices have impacted fathering, and how fathers and families, and society and policy, can make paid work less of an impediment to active and effective fathering.

Belinda Probert (author of Bill’s Secrets: Love, War and Ambition, formerly Professor at Melbourne and LaTrobe universities)
Prof Sean Scalmer (University of Melbourne, author of A Fair Day’s Work: The Quest to Win Back Time)
Emeritus Prof John Murphy (University of Melbourne, Fathering author)

Panel 3: Fathering and Fractured FamiliesFocusing on the changing experience of fathering in families that have been fractured – by parental illness, death or separation, by war and trauma, by violence or neglect, by child removal – and how fathers, families and Australian society best manage such difficult situations)

Hon. Ged Kearney MP (Assistant Minister for Social Services and Assistant Minister for Prevention of Family Violence)
Associate Prof Catherine Kevin (Flinders University, ARC Strategic Research Initiative, ‘A History of Domestic Violence in Australia 1850-2020’)
Dr Sean Martin, (Program Lead, Ten To Men: The Australian Longitudinal Study on Male Health at the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS))
Dr Kate Murphy (Monash University, Fathering author)
Dr Jill Barnard (author of the PhD ‘The Family Lives of Forgotten Australians)

Please RSVP to attend.

Housekeeping
These events will not be delivered online via Zoom.
If you have questions about the program please contact Jill Barnard on jill.barnard1@monash.edu
If you have questions about the venue please contact the RHSV on office@historyvictoria.org.au | 03 9326 9288

RICHMOND: Pete Smith - GTV 9 Living History
2025-08-31 14:00 - 16:00 | Studio 1, Former Channel 9 Building, 15 Barnett Way, Richmond, Victoria, 3121, Australia
TV Personality, Radio Announcer and Television Voice Over Artist.
Pete’s extensive 60 year career in radio and television has seen the beginnings, the early development and significant changes in the entertainment industry.
Pete will take us on a journey of the magic of television, the personalities and the enjoyment these years of entertainment has brought to the wider community.

Exhibition launch: The Burying of Melbourne
2025-09-04 17:30 - 19:00 | RHSV Gallery Downstairs, 239 A'Beckett St, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000, Australia
Robert Pascoe,
Dean Laureate and Professor Emeritus Victoria University
President of the Royal Historical Society of Victoria,
together with RHSV Councillors
invites you to the launch of our exhibition
The Burying of Melbourne
curated by Dr David Thompson
designed by Susan Fitzgerald

to be launched by Steven Avery,
Executive Director, Heritage Victoria
at 5:30pm on Thursday 4 September, 2025
RHSV Gallery, 239 A’Beckett St, Melbourne 3000
office@historyvictoria.org.au | 03 9326 9288

In the mid-1850s some areas of the Melbourne CBD were buried under a layer of clay at the direction of Melbourne City Council, a rather extraordinary event that until recently had been largely forgotten. It is only in recent years that archaeologists carrying out the excavations required prior to developments in the city have uncovered evidence of the clay layer.
A study commissioned by the Heritage Council of Victoria found that the burying was part of efforts by the City Council to control flooding, caused largely by the original laying out of Melbourne’s street grid without due consideration of the flow of water over the underlying topography.
The depositing of the clay layer, metres thick in some places, had a significant effect on the lives and circumstances of those affected but did result in the sealing off of a layer of archaeology stemming from the earliest days of European settlement.
This exhibition, The Burying of Melbourne, describes events leading up to the burial and looks at some of the archaeology discovered beneath the clay.

Regional Seminar Event: Making Ourselves Useful
2025-09-06 - 2025-09-07 | Vic
Making Ourselves Useful – historical societies in the community
We all would like to think we are valued by our communities, in one way or another.
Representatives from local history groups including Shepparton, Kilmore, Daylesford, Benalla, Jeparit, and Bendigo will present how they define being useful in their community.
Speakers will discuss how being useful is important, and what they have done to win the ‘useful’ tag. The discussion will be illustrated with examples of successes… or failures.
Featuring keynote speaker Fiona Kinsey, Senior Curator, History & Technology Department, Museums Victoria. Fiona has worked with community collection custodians and is familiar with the rich collections held in historical societies.
The seminar will be followed by an afternoon forum led by Simone Ewenson, Heritage Collections Officer, City of Greater Bendigo. Simone will open the discussion up to everyone and provide the opportunity to share usefulness stories with other volunteers.
The seminar is kindly supported by the City of Greater Bendigo who are subsidising the registration cost for volunteers and refreshments during the day.
For those in Bendigo on the afternoon of Saturday 6 September, a city centre walk of Quirky Pall Mall will be offered by Bendigo Historical Society.
Morning tea and lunch provided in registration fee.
Agenda
9.00: Registration
9.30: Welcome and introduction
Euan McGillivray, President Bendigo Historical Society
9.45: Keynote speaker: Fiona Kinsey, Senior Curator, Images & Image Making, Museums Victoria
Fiona has 25 years of experience at Museums Victoria. She currently collects, researches and interprets material culture relating to the history of the Australian photographic industry, the practice of commercial and amateur photography, and the role of the camera in documenting our working lives. Fiona is also researching goldfields history, lives outside Melbourne and is passionate about engaging with the community, especially in regional areas.
10.30: Kym Lovett & Pam Keown, Bendigo Military Museum
Ensuring Bendigo’s rich military past and collections are accessible to both local and global audiences through meaningful education and thorough research.
11.00: Morning tea
11.30: Kristy Rudd, Shepparton Heritage Centre.
Empowering volunteers through community connections — where passion meets purpose by preserving our shared history to inform and inspire future generations in Shepparton.
12.00: Craige Proctor, Wimmera Mallee Pioneer Museum & Jeparit Historical Society
Working within the Jeparit community to resurrect a defunct historical society as well as take a much revered but ‘safe’ museum into uncharted waters.
12.30 Lunch
1.00: Alan Monger, Benalla Historical Society
Heroes and outlaws, clothing and culture – informing Benalla’s citizens of their heritage and history.
1.30: Garry Lawrence, Daylesford Historical Society
Looking sideways – growing confidence and building resilience through community connections and support. Our ongoing journey of transformation in Daylesford.
2.00: Barbara Wilson & Liz Dillon-Hensby, Kilmore Historical Society
Preserving the memories of WWI volunteers of Kilmore and conserving the fabric of our society through the precious textile collections.
2.30 Break to set up for Open Forum Discussion
3.00: Open Forum: Led by Simone Ewenson, Heritage Collections Officer, Bendigo Council.
While Simone manages the City’s Heritage Collection, she also supports a wide range of volunteer history and heritage groups in the wide area of the City of Greater Bendigo. She provides advice and organises specialist workshops for volunteer groups on collection issues such as preservation, storage and disaster preparedness.
4.00 Close
About the Presenters:
Keynote speaker: Fiona Kinsey, Senior Curator, Images & Image Making, Museums Victoria
Fiona has 25 years of experience at Museums Victoria. She currently collects, researches and interprets material culture relating to the history of the Australian photographic industry, the practice of commercial and amateur photography, and the role of the camera in documenting our working lives. Fiona lives outside Melbourne and is passionate about engaging with the community, especially in regional areas.
Panel leader: Simone Ewenson, Heritage Collections Officer, Bendigo Council
While Simone manages the City’s Heritage Collection, she also supports a wide range of volunteer history and heritage groups in the wide area of the City of Greater Bendigo. She organises specialist workshops for volunteer groups on collection issues such as preservation, storage and disaster preparedness – to name few. She is always only a phone call away for advice.

Rapprochement with China
2025-09-09 17:30 - 19:00 | RHSV Gallery Downstairs, 239 A'Beckett St, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000, Australia
We are delighted that eminent historian Marilyn Lake AO will deliver the 2025 Hugh Anderson Lecture.
In National Life and Character: A Forecast (1893), Charles Pearson, noting that China’s population had already surpassed 400 million, wrote presciently that with ‘civilisation equally diffused… the preponderance of China over any rival – even over the United States of America – is likely to be overwhelming’. The future would see China take ‘its inevitable place as one of the great powers of the world’.
Pearson’s influential forecast shaped our foundational policy of White Australia: the ‘great white walls’ were erected to keep the Asiatic threat at bay. From the 1960s, however, Australians began to forge new ties with China, forging wide-ranging cultural, educational, economic and trade relationships. Asian histories and languages began to be taught in universities. Future diplomats were trained in Asian languages. Under the Whitlam government full diplomatic relations were established with Beijing.
By the end of the 1970s, Hugh and Dawn Anderson had embarked on the first of their numerous trips to China. Hosted by the Chinese Writers Association, their deep cultural engagement with Chinese authors and literature was a key feature of Australian rapprochement with China.

Marilyn Lake D.Litt, FAHA, FASSA, AO
Marilyn Lake is an Honorary Professorial Fellow in History at the University of Melbourne, where as an ARC Professorial Fellow between 2013 and 2016 she directed the ‘Australia in the World’ series of seminars, lectures and symposia. Prior to this appointment she was Charles La Trobe Professor in History at La Trobe University. Professor Lake has held visiting appointments at ANU, the University of Sydney, Stockholm University, the University of Maryland and between 2001-2 she held the Chair in Australian Studies at Harvard University. She has published locally and internationally, in academic presses and daily newspapers. Her fifteen books include the prize winning Drawing the Global Colour Line: White Men’s Countries and the International Challenge of Racial Equality (Cambridge University Press, 2008) and Progressive New World: How Settler Colonialism and TransPacific Exchange Shaped American Reform (Harvard University Press, 2019).

Hugh Anderson
“Hugh Anderson (1927-2017) was a scholar of formidable breadth, productivity and versatility. While it is as a folklorist that he is arguably best known both in Australia and abroad, Anderson’s prolific output also included biography, bibliography, history, school textbooks and documentary collections. His range of interests was very wide: Anderson seemed as comfortable in writing about John Pascoe Fawkner as Squizzy Taylor, as at home with an Aboriginal gumleaf player and a Sydney street poet as with the exquisite verse of John Shaw Neilson or the stately poetry of Bernard O’Dowd. This lecture will consider Anderson specifically as a historian and biographer. While it should not be pigeon-holed, Anderson’s historical and biographical writing incorporated many of the materials, perspectives and insights derived from folklore studies, and he treated literary creativity as central to telling the Melbourne, Victorian and Australian stories. Anderson’s boundary-riding between history, biography, folklore and literature was remarkably productive for him, and it was not unusual among writers with his radical-nationalist politics in the middle decades of the twentieth century. I argue in this lecture for the significance of Anderson as a historian and biographer working outside academia and across a diverse cultural domain, at a time when universities were moving toward a sharper focus on specialised research, theory and discipline-based knowledge – in ways that both deepened and limited understandings of Australian history and culture.” by Professor Frank Bongiorno AM

Housekeeping
This event will be offered both in person at the RHSV, 239 A’Beckett St Melbourne 3000, and on Zoom. At the RHSV refreshments are served from 5:30pm – 6pm and the Zoom session will start, as will the lecture, at 6pm.
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.

RICHMOND: From cottages to Colosseums – Clements Langford
2025-09-14 14:00 - 16:00 | Studio 1, Former Channel 9 Building, 15 Barnett Way, Richmond, Victoria, 3121, Australia
Speaker: Peter Beer
Peter has published the book: From cottages to Colosseums – Clements Langford – A Melbourne Master Builder’s Lasting Legacy.
Clements Langford is Peter’s great-great grandfather. Clements, aged 18 moved to Melbourne in 1868 with his family. His father George became a grocer on the corner of Church and Kent Streets, Richmond. Clements became apprenticed to David Mitchell in 1879. While working under Mitchell, Clements would have worked on jobs such as Scots Church in Collins Street (1874) and the Exhibition Buildings in 1880. Clements entered a partnership with Robert and Henry Hutchinson, a Richmond father and son carpentry and building team. Clements made significant progress and established his own business in Bridge Road, Richmond, with the factory extending around to Church Street. He was very involved in the Richmond community, the St Stephen’s Church and was responsible for the construction of many significant Richmond and Melbourne landmarks. Incorporated as Clements Langford Pty Ltd in May 1923, by 1930 it encompassed ‘shop and office fitters, plumbers, painters [and] decorators’, and boasted large joinery, timber-machining and plumbers’ shops.

Book launch: Old North Melbourne
2025-09-23 18:00 - 19:30 | RHSV, Gallery Downstairs, 239 A'Beckett Street, Melbourne, VIC, 3000, Australia
Join us to celebrate the publication of Old North Melbourne, the first comprehensive book on the nineteenth-century history of Hotham/North Melbourne, by Dr Fiona Gatt.
‘Like Janet McCalman’s Struggletown this book is destined to become a classic in the genre of Australian urban social history’ – Associate Professor Seamus O’Hanlon.
This is the story of the first fifty years of today’s much-loved suburb of North Melbourne. When the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung were first developed by European settlers in 1852, there were many barriers to its success. A great expanse of barren land lay between it and Melbourne, a swamp on the west, open sewerage to the east and undeveloped bushland to the south. But of the thousands of immigrants who flocked to Victoria during the gold rush, some settled in North Melbourne, determined to develop an urban town to be proud of. From 1859 to 1887, it was called Hotham. The town’s businessmen had a booming stake in Melbourne’s meat market, metal manufacturing and tanneries. It also harboured an unusually high number of Irish immigrants and some of Melbourne’s most downtrodden residents. This book details the triumphs and struggles of the people of nineteenth-century North Melbourne, revealing fascinating individuals and the collective story of the emergence of this determined working-class community.
Fiona will be introduced by Professor Andrew May, who has described the book as ‘Australian urban history at its best’.
Fiona Gatt works on commissioned histories for significant organisations. She has taught history at Deakin and La Trobe universities. Fiona is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Property History at the University of Sydney and Senior Research Officer at the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation.
This event has received funding from the Centre for Contemporary Histories at Deakin University.
Pre-order the book to collect on the night
Pre-order the book from the RHSV bookshop and choose “Click and Collect” as your shipping method to pick up your copy when you attend the launch.
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 6pm – 6:30pm and the Zoom session will start, as will the lecture, at 6.30pm.
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 email provider. Don’t panic, your name will be at the door if you can’t find your ticket.

The Convent
2025-09-23 18:30 | Prahran Mechanics Institute, 39 St Edmonds Road, Prahran, VIC, 3181, Australia
Have you visited the Abbotsford Convent before? It is a beautiful place, its history, architecture, artistry, and food make it a must visit. The Abbotsford Convent was a haunted place, left to languish for years after the last of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd had gone. In its prime it had been a school, a refuge, a retreat, a workhouse and a prison – the single largest charitable institution in the southern hemisphere. In the late 1990s a proposed high-density development threatened the idyllic riverside location, sparking outrage in the local community and further afield.
Years of protesting, negotiating and fundraising followed and the convent, now on Australia’s National Heritage List, has started a new life as a vibrant centre for art and culture. The Convent: A City Finds its Heart written by Stuart Kells tells the story of the site’s rich history and the efforts to preserve it. It is an uplifting tale of community activism – a tangible reminder that the magic of the past can endure and what people-power can achieve.
Join us at the PMI Victorian History Library for a night of historical storytelling, that you wont want to miss.

CATALOGUING CLINICS 2025
2025-09-25 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.
Monthly: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/tZ0pcOiuqjItH9JWUaZk1ZrdaP1uA9d1Yqc1/ics?icsToken=DESnOhi_USXAWOo5GQAALAAAAOsufSxu9e_o1VvEoUWUiVuOT3wUceY4gYwdUjlaNrGDW1VrT1KjyEhE0aD9QHm4eoEg_M9GmHYiFwIZujAwMDAwMQ&meetingMasterEventId=3FhVroEqTuiqU-ygov-0vg
Join Zoom Meeting
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Meeting ID: 894 7164 9756
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Book Launch: Love, Class and Empire
2025-10-03 18:30 - 20:30 | RHSV Gallery Downstairs, 239 A'Beckett St, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000, Australia
Join us to celebrate the publication of Love, Class and Empire by A. James Hammerton.
Early twentieth-century Persia and the Persian Gulf presented a largely blank slate to the British, best known only as a vital conduit to India and a site of contest – the ‘great game’ – with the Russian Empire.
As oil discoveries and increasing trade brought new attention, the expanding telegraph and river shipping industries attracted resourceful men into junior positions in remote outposts. Love, Class and Empire explores the experiences of two of these men and their families.
Drawing on a wealth of personal letters and diaries, A. James Hammerton examines the complexities of expatriate life in Iran and Iraq, in particular the impact of rapid social mobility on ordinary Britons and their families in the late imperial era. Uniquely, the study blends histories of empire with histories of marriage and family, closely exploring the nature of expatriate love and sexuality. In the process, Hammerton discloses a tender expatriate love story and offers a moving account of transient life in a corner of the informal empire.
Housekeeping
This event will be in-person only.
At the RHSV refreshments are served from 6.30pm.
An automatic confirmation of your RSVP will be sent to you – please check your Spam or Junk Mail folder as these automated emails are often viewed as Junk by your email provider. Don’t panic, your name will be at the door if you can’t find your ticket.

RICHMOND: the half-forgotten world of "the Richmond Irish"
2025-10-05 14:00 - 16:00 | Studio 1, Former Channel 9 Building, 15 Barnett Way, Richmond, Victoria, 3121, Australia
Speakers: Chris McConville and Robert Pascoe
The next talk in their series on Richmond’s villages will take Chris McConville and Robert Pascoe into the half-forgotten world of “the Richmond Irish”. This event will take place on Sunday 5 October. The first Irish in Richmond were the Anglo-Irish who settled Richmond Hill, in streets like The Vaucluse and Erin Street, in the colonial era. They were followed by the working-class Catholic Irish. The Loughnans, the O’Connells, the Cremeans — these clans came to define twentieth-century Richmond. Prominent Richmondites of Irish background also included Francis Bourke, Jack Dyer (on his mother’s side), and Dan Minogue. Our suburb was shaped by their politics, their language, and their outlook on life. They bequeathed Richmond its glorious pubs, its bitter-sweet humour, and its inclusivity. Despite their relatively diminished numbers, the Richmond Irish still make their presence felt in so many ways.

Open Day at the Yarrambat Heritage Museum
2025-10-12 10:00 - 15:00 | Yarrambat Heritage Museum, 742 Yan Yean Road, Yarrambat, Victoria, 3091, Australia
All day you can see:

the only operational Gold Battery in our area
the wool spinners in the “Len Young Woolshed”
the first classroom from the Yarrambat Primary School,
Vintage vehicles and displays of historical interest.

10.30, 11.30 & 1.30 Sheep shearing in the “Len Young Woolshed”
12.30 p.m. Presentation by Watsonia Scottish Pipers
1 p.m. ~ Community Assembly – Welcome to visitors;
Yarrambat Primary School Grade 6 presentations.
Free BBQ provided by the Shire of Nillumbik
and enjoy the on-site Coffee Van.

Enquiries – YHM Secretary – 9436 1356, 0427 546 719
Enter Yarrambat Park via the Yarrambat Golf Course main gate.

Photo caption: Yarrambat’s first classroom being relocated to Yarrambat Park in 2000

The Sound of Music at Port Phillip 1840 to 1842: featuring M. et Mme Gautrot, French stars of the colonial music scene.
2025-10-14 17:30 - 19:30 | RHSV Gallery Downstairs, 239 A'Beckett St, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000, Australia
The La Trobe Society and freelance historian Susan Priestley FRHSV invite you to join them for the lecture, “The Sound of Music at Port Phillip 1840 to 1842: featuring M. et Mme Gautrot, French stars of the colonial music scene”.
This lecture promises to be a lively presentation based on Susan’s original research about music and musicians in Melbourne and beyond in the time of La Trobe.
All welcome to this C J La Trobe Society lecture, hosted at the Royal Historical Society of Victoria
If you have any enquiries, please call on 0427 925 616 or email at events@latrobesociety.org.au

Housekeeping
This event will be in-person only.
Refreshments will be served from 5.30pm.
An automatic confirmation of your RSVP will be sent to you – please check your Spam or Junk Mail folder as these automated emails are often viewed as Junk by your email provider. Don’t panic, your name will be at the door if you can’t find your ticket.

A Monumental Egyptian Tomb In Melbourne
2025-10-14 18:30 | Prahran Mechanics Institute, 39 St Edmonds Road, Prahran, VIC, 3181, Australia
Hidden within a suburban Melbourne cemetery lies a remarkable piece of Egyptian-inspired architecture: the tomb of David Syme, one of the world’s first media tycoons and the influential proprietor of The Age newspaper. Built in 1910—12 years before the discovery of King Tutankhamun’s tomb—this heritage-listed mausoleum is a miniature replica of Trajan’s Kiosk on Philae Island in Egypt. Designed by renowned architects Walter Richmond Butler and Royston Bradshaw, and adorned with copper fittings crafted by artist Mabel Young, the tomb is a masterpiece of Arts and Crafts design.
In this captivating talk, artist-turned-researcher Setken delves into the fascinating history of the Syme tomb, uncovering its architectural brilliance, cultural significance, and the mysterious stories surrounding its creation. From the influence of Egyptology and Theosophy to the role of the Victorian Spiritualist Union and Syme’s connection with Prime Minister Alfred Deakin, Setken reveals how this extraordinary monument reflects Melbourne’s lost history. The presentation also highlights the urgent need for restoration and addresses the curious case of misattributed authorship that nearly erased Butler and Bradshaw’s legacy.
Featuring unpublished research, stunning visuals, and compelling storytelling, this talk is a journey into Melbourne’s hidden past and the life of a complex man whose tomb stands as a testament to an era of spiritual exploration and artistic innovation.

Book Launch: Victoria - Suffering to Statehood by Michael P. Rucker
2025-10-15 17:30 - 19:00 | RHSV Gallery Downstairs, 239 A'Beckett St, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000, Australia
Join us to celebrate the publication of Victoria – Suffering to Statehood by Michael P. Rucker
Victoria – Suffering to Statehood provides intriguing, and occasionally poignant, details of history not generally found in most Australian history books. Every detail of this fascinating book; political, social and economic, is carefully researched and annotated. The author delves into the actions of Victoria’s founders to determine their personalities and motives. Particular emphasis is placed on the pathos of Australia’s first occupants and their unfair, and often brutal history, at the hands of the settlers.
Michael Rucker is a world traveller and historian who became captivated by Australian history while residing in Melbourne. His research into the colourful characters who founded Australia and, in particular Victoria, led to his detailed research for this thoughtful and informative volume. His narrative moves along at a dramatic and exciting pace. He applauds the characters accomplishments and chastises them as appropriate.
Housekeeping
As with most RHSV events, refreshments will be served from 5:30pm – 6pm when the speakers will commence.
This event is an in-person event only.
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.

Can I Help You? Recognising and Improving Artificial Intelligence as History Maker
2025-10-16 18:00 - 19:30 | State Library of Victoria, Entry 3, Village Roadshow Theatre, La Trobe Street, Melbourne, VIC, 3000, Australia
Please join the History Council of Victoria’s Annual Lecture to be delivered by Distinguished Professor Marnie Hughes-Warrington AO.

The evening will also include the presentation of the History Council of Victoria’s major awards:

Jane Hansen Prize for History Advocacy
Lynette Russell Prize for First Peoples’ History in Schools

Can I Help You? Recognising and Improving Artificial Intelligence as History Maker
Distinguished Professor Marnie Hughes-Warrington AO
University of South Australia/Adelaide University
Can I help you? If you use digital devices, you probably receive many offers of help every day. Help with the next word you might want to write in a message, or with generating a document or an image, or suggestions about what you might buy, watch, study or borrow. This oration explains how these offers of help are part of a wider invitation for us to recognise AI as history maker. Using examples, it shows how AI makes meaning from past data to make recommendations for the present and the future. It also argues that seeing AI as history maker is important for making better AI technologies, and histories. Knowing what histories are written about you and others, and knowing how those histories can be made is critical for social and economic health.

Distinguished Professor Marnie Hughes-Warrington AO PFHEA B.Ed (Hons) Tas, DPhil Oxon

A graduate of the Universities of Tasmania and Oxford, Marnie has a global profile as a philosopher and as an historian. She is Provost and Chief Academic Officer and Bradley Distinguished Professor at the University of South Australia. Her current work looks at how AI makes histories, and how histories might be made in future which are efficient, safe, and ethical. Her writing has been translated into five languages, over 26,000 copies of her books have been sold, and her theories are taught across the world. She has led or been an investigator on a total of $18 million in grants. Her most recent books are History from Loss (edited with Daniel Woolf, 2023) and The Routledge Companion to History and the Moving Image (edited with Kim Nelson and Mia Treacey, 2023) and she is co-secretary general of the International Commission for the History and Theory of History. In 2022 she was made an Officer in the Order of Australia for her contribution to higher education governance, leadership, and mentoring.
