Royal Historical Society of Victoria

Trivia-au-go-go
2020-05-29 18:00 - 21:30 (Australia/Melbourne) | RHSV, Gallery Downstairs, 239 A'Beckett Street, Melbourne, VIC, 3000, Australia
This event has been cancelled for the forseeable future due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Hopefully it will be rescheduled later in the year.
Andrew Lemon is once again putting us to the test. Join us for some hysterical historical trivia. Time to get competitive and pit yourself against all the other history buffs at the RHSV’s world-famous Trivia-au-go-go.
Put together a table of friends or come along by yourself and join an RHSV table.
There are some great prizes and you will be fundraising for the RHSV at the same time.
It is a cash bar but you are more than welcome to bring your own food.
This event will be held in our Gallery Downstairs which is wheelchair accessible.
A table will hold 6 – 8.
Table members can book individually – you do not have to book a table all at once. During the booking process you’ll be asked which table you want to join so, at that point, just give us an individual’s name or organisation (or table name if you have already dreamt one up).

Be a virtual explorer with Eltham District Historical Society
2020-05-30 | VIC
Eltham & District’s latest Touchstone eBulletin has arrived and, as always, is full of good ideas and links to “How to” articles.
We have received some interesting stories about living with COVID-19 for our collection. Thank
you to the members who organised these. You are encouraged to keep a journal about your day
to day experiences, which can be the basis for a future written or oral history piece. Yarra Plenty
Regional Library has some helpful information. Recording these times
• State Library Victoria has recently launched their Memory Bank Project to archive what everyday
life in Victoria is actually like now, during this time of collective isolation. Memory Bank is a longterm
collecting project that invites you to share your everyday observations of pivotal moments
in time. Extraordinary moments, and ordinary ones too, can easily be lost in the day’s blur or
forgotten in a week’s time. More information and suggestions
• Nillumbik U3A is providing a weekly online newsletter full of news, fun, stories and competitions:
They also have a number of online videos about activities you may wish to investigate
• In our first edition we suggested that now was a good time to go through your family photos.
The National Archives of Australia has some good advice on how to look after your family archive
• Yarra Plenty Regional Library is extending their book valet service to include movies and TV
shows. A recommended reading list will be sent to you, curated by librarians. The library is also
co-ordinating a project with the City of Banyule, asking crafters to knit squares for a community
blanket
• Our Street Library remains open so if you are out walking, please drop in at the Local History
Centre, 728 Main Road, Eltham.
• Happy Mother’s Day to our mothers for Sunday May 10th. In 1968 The Australian Women’s
Weekly asked readers to send in responses to “Which gift pleased you most”. The resulting
article includes many ideas (or adaptions of), which are relevant today.
Are you or your family connected to Eltham District? Whilst COVID19 keeps us at home you can be a virtual explorer of Eltham and its history.
• Eltham District Historical Society’s Victorian Collection pages
Here you can explore over 10,000 catalogued items, the majority of which are images, there due to
the activities of our dedicated Collections Team who continue to work behind the scenes.
• You can visit our website
Here you can read various stories and also catch up on past newsletters.
• You can visit our Facebook pages
Here you can explore a range of local history stories and information, including Throwback
Thursday and On This Day features.
• You can visit the Wikinorthia website
Here you can see an extensive range of local history stories about the northern suburbs.

During this down time perhaps consider writing your memories and stories of living and working
in Eltham and District for our archives.
You could go through your photos and share your memories with family members. Consider
donating archives, including photos relating to Eltham and District to EDHS. We can also arrange
to digitise these.

St Kilda Historical Society activities
2020-05-31 | VIC
St Kilda Historical Society are not taking COVID19 lying down. They are starting some on-line Zoom sessions on researching your family directed to those living in the St Kilda area where SKHS has the massive benefit of the Vardy Maps.
They are also going to continue, over winter, their Fireside chats with some of key St Kilda historians. They also have some great podcasts on their website (under Publications) and some great DIY Walk Notes (under News & Events).

To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the St Kilda Historical Society is holding a short story competition. You may write on any theme, in any genre and in any time period, providing that the story is inspired by or set in St Kilda. There are two categories – open and junior. So, start writing and make sure your entry is in by 7 August, 2020.

Keep an eye out on their website for these events.

Walking Port Melbourne
2020-05-31 | Port Melbourne, Port Melbourne, VIC, 3207, Australia
There are many ways, real and virtual, to reflect on Anzac Day in Port Melbourne.

Explore our Port Melbourne First World War Centenary site. Find out who enlisted from any Port street by typing the name of the street in the search box, or read the interesting research under the stories tab.
Use the City of Port Phillip’s On the Home Front self guided walking tour to visit the many sites of significance in Port Melbourne and surrounds from Princes Pier to the Gallipoli Lemnos Memorial.

Through focusing on just one street, Heath St, Christine Griffiths and Barb Mullen have given a deep insight on the impact of the war on one Port Melbourne street. Their Heath St Anzac Day booklet can be accessed here.
The War Memorial around which we usually gather wasn’t Port Melbourne’s first war memorial. That distinction goes to the Women’s Welcome Home Band Rotunda, gifted by the women welcomers to the City of Port Melbourne on 6 November 1918. Read more about the Rotunda here.
Following an energetic campaign and fundraising, the Port Melbourne Council made the Excelsior Hall (cnr Bridge, Princes and Station Sts) available as a gathering place for returned soldiers and sailors in 1919. The full story is here.
The siting and form of a fitting war memorial was the subject of debate over many years. Cr Crichton favoured the site outside the Fountain Inn (now the Cornerstone) whereas Cr Sinclair thought the newly reclaimed Edwards Park would be more suitable. In the end, the pull of locating the Memorial within sight of the piers from which the troops embarked was agreed.
In an ironic twist, the only Port Melbourne councillor to have a bust erected in his honour, Cr Walter, argued that Council funds should be used to support the more pressing needs of the living than a memorial. His view did not prevail.
The memorial appears to have been first used for a service in 1928. Read the foundation story of the Port Melbourne War Memorial here.

AMaGA Workshop: Caring for Collections: Storage
2020-06-04 13:00 - 16:30 | RMIT Design Archive, 154 Victoria St, Carlton, VIC, 3053, Australia
This workshop will guide participants through space maximising, cost effective, logistical and practical tips to help re-organise their collection store. Includes a tour of the store at the RMIT Design Archive.
Members $50
Non-members $80

Zoom Bookclub: Richard Broome's Aboriginal Victorians
2020-06-09 17:30 - 19:00 | RHSV, Gordon Moffatt Room, 239 A'Beckett St, Melbourne, VIC, 3000, Australia
Although our book club is very new we have set an extremely high bar in that we’ve had great discussions with the authors every time. And June will be no different. Our choice for June is Richard Broome’s Aboriginal Victorians and we are delighted that Richard has agreed to join us. It is hard to predict what will be happening COVID-wise in 4 weeks but I think we can safely say that the meeting will be conducted by ZOOM. We are allowed to meet in small numbers so members of the book-club are more than welcome to come to the RHSV and share a glass of wine, and others can join too by Zoom.
This book is a fascinating and sometimes horrifying story of Aborigines in Victoria since white settlement, from one of Australia’s leading historians. Early settlers saw Victoria and its rolling grasslands as Australia felix happy south land a prize left for Englishmen by God. However, for its original inhabitants this country was home and life, not to be relinquished without a fierce struggle.
Richard Broome tells the story of the impact of European ideas, guns, killer microbes and a pastoral economy on the networks of kinship, trade and cultures that various Aboriginal peoples of Victoria had developed over millennia. From first settlement to the present, he shows how Aboriginal families have coped with ongoing disruption and displacement, and how individuals and groups have challenged the system. With painful stories of personal loss as well as many successes, Broome outlines how Aboriginal Victorians survived near decimation to become a vibrant community today.
The first history of black-white interaction in Victoria to the present, Aboriginal Victorians traces the story of Aboriginal people through consultation and interviews with Aboriginal communities and families and rich historical research, to produce a compelling and even-handed epic. It won the NSW Premier’s History Awards Australian History Prize (2006) and the Victorian Community History Awards Best Print Publication Award (2007), and was short-listed for the Human Rights Awards Non-Fiction Award (2005).
‘Richard Broome is to be congratulated for writing this history in a style that is easy to read, very informative and brings the past to the present.’ – Jim Berg, JP, Gunditjmara man, founder and director of the Koorie Heritage Trust
‘This finely crafted and wonderfully compassionate book deepens our understanding of the history of colonialism.’ – Bain Attwood, Adjunct Professor, Centre for Cross-Cultural Research, Australian National University

The Zoom log-in details which you’ll need are:
Topic: Richard Broome Author Event / Bookclub
Time: Jun 9, 2020 17:30 Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89342478771?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 893 4247 8771
Password: [REDACTED]

THE BOOK CHOSEN FOR JULY IS BRENDA NIALL’S Friends and Rivals: Four Great Australian Writers: Barbara Baynton, Ethel Turner, Nettie Palmer, Henry Handel Richardson

Seminar: Managing Volunteers
2020-06-23 13:00 - 16:30 | Museo Italiano, 199 Faraday Street, Carlton, Victoria, 3053, Australia
From attracting younger volunteers to succession planning this seminar will cover how to recruit volunteers, how to train them, how to manage, and how to keep them. Learn from those with successful volunteer programs, who will share strategies for managing volunteers of all ages and abilities.
Members $45 Non-members $60

A Legal Zoom into St Kilda Cemetery
2020-06-30 | ZOOM, Join from anywhere in the world
For those who missed this event you can watch it on-line here: https://vimeo.com/422294272

Sir Archibald Michie was one of the barristers who defended the Eureka rebels and was Victoria’s first Queen’s Counsel.
Learn about some famous legal entities, including Sir Archibald and Alfred Deakin, former PM, and James Liddell Purves, an ardent Australian federalist, who are buried in St Kilda cemetery and have an opportunity to quiz the barrister presenters about the legal luminaries interred there.
This event is part of Law Week and is brought to you by the Victorian Bar and The Friends of St Kilda Cemetery and moderated by Rob Heath QC.

Workshop: Victorian Collections
2020-07-07 10:00 - 15:00, 2020-10-27 10:00 - 15:00 | Melbourne Museum, 11 Nicholson St, Carlton, VIC, 3053, Australia
This hands-on workshop will guide you through the process of cataloguing on the Victorian Collections system and cover basic principles of collection management, object handling and digitisation.

RHSV AGM: resumption following an adjournment
2020-07-14 17:00 - 17:30 | RHSV ZOOM by Invitation, Australia
For those who attended our AGM on Tuesday 26 May you will know that our meeting was adjourned as the audited financial reports were found to have some errors. Those errors have now been corrected and the updated financial reports can be found in our 2019 Annual Report here. Or you can find the Annual Report on our website under Publications > Annual Reports.
The resumption of our AGM will be brief and will be held on Tuesday 14 July at 5pm. An invitation to join the meeting by Zoom is included below. All our members and friends are invited to join us to complete this unfinished business.
RHSV RECONVENED AGM
Time: Jul 14, 2020 17:00 Melbourne,
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85401723653?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 854 0172 3653
Password: [REDACTED]

RHSV Reconvened Annual General Meeting
110th ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING RECONVENED
AGENDA
Tuesday 14 July 2020 at 5:00pm
To be held as an online live meeting with attendance by Zoom
Prior to the AGM held on 26 May 2020 errors were found in the circulated financial reports for 2019 so they were not presented to the members for approval. After all other agenda items (except appointing an auditor for 2020) had been dealt with the AGM was adjourned to a later date when the amended financial reports for 2019 could be presented to the members.

Attendance and apologies
To receive and consider the Financial Statement for the year ended 31 December 2019
To appoint the Auditor for 2020.

There are two Zoom events immediately following the RHSV Resumed AGM in which members and friends will be, I’m sure, interested (click on the bold titles):

RHSV Bookclub: we are discussing Brenda Niall’s Friends & Rivals. Four Great Australian Writers Barbara Baynton, Ethel Turner, Nettie Palmer, Henry Handel Richardson. 5:30pm

The History Council of Victoria has a panel discussion on Public Monuments – Contested Histories 5pm

Public Monuments - Contested Histories
2020-07-14 17:00 - 18:30 | ZOOM, Join from anywhere in the world
Societies have always used statues and other monuments as ways of both recognising and contesting power and eminence. In Australia, as everywhere else, there is public debate over whether and which statues should be removed, who should make the decision, and what should be the fate of the statues themselves. Should new monuments be commissioned alongside or to replace them? Recent actions in Australia to remove, replace or protect statues and other public markers have historical precedents which have much to tell us. Speakers at this webinar will present insights and case studies from Australia, Europe, and elsewhere.

The topics and their presenters are:
Revolutions and ‘patrimonial panics’ in France
Peter McPhee AM is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Melbourne and Chair of the History Council of Victoria.
Contextualising relocated monuments: lessons from three post-Soviet statue parks
Claire Baxter holds a Master of Conflict Archaeology & Heritage from the University of Glasgow.

First Peoples’ perspectives in contextualising contested histories
John Patten is a Bundjalung-Yorta Yorta man on his father’s side, and a descendant of First Fleet convicts, Irish rebels and the Saami people of Lapland via his mother. He is Manager, Diversity and Belonging, Museums Victoria, and a Board member of the History Council of Victoria.
Missing monuments: imagining the future of Australian public memorialisation
Dr Yves Rees is a lecturer in History at La Trobe University, a regular contributor to ABC Radio Melbourne and a Board member of the History Council of Victoria.
Professor Al Thomson, Monash University, will facilitate the discussion.
For more information or to register and receive a Zoom link a few days before the event, please click here.

ZOOM BOOKCLUB: Brenda Niall's Friends and Rivals: Four Great Australian Writers: Barbara Baynton, Ethel Turner, Nettie Palmer, Henry Handel Richardson
2020-07-14 17:30 - 19:00 | RHSV, Gordon Moffatt Room, 239 A'Beckett St, Melbourne, VIC, 3000, Australia
Join respected biographer, Brenda Niall, in talking about four Australian women writing in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries—a time when stories of bush heroism and mateship abounded, a time when a writing career might be an elusive thing for a woman.
Our bookclub is thrilled to have Brenda join our discussion. It is a rare opportunity to learn so much more about the work and research behind the biography and to meet an author who has spent a lifetime researching men and women who have shaped Melbourne and our wider world.
Friends and Rivals is a vivid and engaging account of the intersecting and entwined lives of Ethel Turner, author of the much loved Seven Little Australians, Barbara Baynton, who wrote of the harshness of bush life, Nettie Palmer, essayist and critic, and Henry Handel Richardson, of The Getting of Wisdom and The Fortunes of Richard Mahoney fame.
Brenda Niall illuminates a fascinating time in Australia’s literary history and brings to life the remarkable women who made it so.

Our bookclub has flourished through times of COVID and we’ve been thrilled to welcome the authors of the books chosen to join our discussions. We will be able to have a few people join us in real life, not just by Zoom, so if you hanker after a bit of company, a glass of wine and some cheese do join me at the RHSV and the others can Zoom in.
If you’d like to buy a copy of Friends and Rivals it is available in our bookshop: https://www.historyvictoria.org.au/product/friends-rivals-by-brenda-niall/

The Zoom details you need:
Book Club: Brenda Niall
Time: Jul 14, 2020 17:30 Melbourne
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82515572588?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 825 1557 2588
Password: [REDACTED]

Victorian Museums and Galleries Awards
2020-08-04 18:00 - 20:30 | State Library of Victoria, Entry 3, Village Roadshow Theatre, La Trobe Street, Melbourne, VIC, 3000, Australia
Celebrate the amazing achievements of the Victorian museum and gallery sector with friends and colleagues. Generously supported by the State Library of Victoria and hosted in their Conversation Quarter, which recently opened as part of the Library’s Vision2020 redevelopment project. Includes drinks and canapes.

Book Club with Robyn Annear. Nothing New.
2020-08-10 17:30 - 19:00 | ZOOM, Join from anywhere in the world
“I have a double-barrelled gun, silver mounted and in excellent order. I want, in exchange, a double perambulator.” Exchange and Mart, 1869.
Upholders, Shoddy mills, Petticoat Lane, fripperers – Nothing New opens up a wonderful world that, despite our love-affair with op-shops, is all but hidden from us in today’s world of consumerism and obsolescence.

Join the splendid Robyn Annear when she talks about Nothing New, her latest book, which chronicles the history of second-hand trade across the world and down the ages (Jesus’ clothes would have been divided up among the soldiers guarding the crosses as their perquisite, or ‘perk’ as we’d say today).
We are asking those that join bookclub to bring their own favourite story of an op-shop find or hand-me-down (I can remember the joy of growing taller than my elder sister so I would never have a hand-me-down again).
Robyn Annear is author of five books of history, including Bearbrass: Imagining Early Melbourne, winner of a Victorian Premier’s Literary Award in 1995 and still in print today. Her other books are: Nothing But Gold: The diggers of 1852, The Man Who Lost Himself, Fly a Rebel Flag, and A City Lost & Found: Whelan the Wrecker’s Melbourne.
As a curator, Robyn has explored aspects of Melbourne and Victoria’s history in exhibitions at the State Library of Victoria and the City Gallery (‘Up’, ‘Royal Melbourne’, & ‘Special’), besides writing exhibition text for the blockbuster A Day in Pompeii show at Melbourne Museum in 2009, and for the Museum’s permanent exhibition, The Melbourne Story.
Robyn has appeared on TV, talking about goldfields history, in Victoria Wood’s BBC documentary series, Victoria’s Empire (Episode 3), and on Tony Robinson Explores Australia (Episode 4: Eureka). In 2014, storyteller Jan Wositzky interviewed Robyn about pre-Eureka strife on the goldfields in his video series on the 1851 Monster Meeting at Forest Creek. Her most recent TV appearance was in The Crown and Us, a two-part series which aired on ABC-TV in March 2019.
Robyn won the Civic Choice award in the 2015 Melbourne Prize for Literature with her essay, ‘Places Without Poetry’. She is a past member of the Library Board of Victoria and was one of the State Library’s inaugural Creative Fellows.
In 2018, Robyn launched her monthly podcast, Nothing on TV, in which she ransacks Trove Newspapers, the National Library of Australia’s digital repository of historical newsprint, to present stories from a time when there was, literally, nothing on TV. If you have never listened to Robyn’s podcast – don’t waste another minute and start listening now. They are a delight.

ZOOM details for joining this bookclub
Topic: Bookclub: Robyn Annear
Time: MONDAY AUG 10, 2020 5:30PM , Melbourne,
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84101029542?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 841 0102 9542
Password: [REDACTED]

ZOOM CATALOGUING CLINIC
2020-08-13 11:00 - 12:00 | ZOOM, Join from anywhere in the world
Calling all historical societies across Victoria.
Our inaugural clinic was very well attended with people zooming in from across Victoria and Darwin.
The clinics will be held monthly and they are a relaxed forum in which to raise your queries about any aspect of cataloguing. They are managed and led by Jillian Hiscock, our RHSV Collections Manager. We will be having guest speakers at future clinics and if you have an issue which you’d like discussed you can always email the details to Jillian beforehand. Or just connect up on the day and pose your question then and give Jillian a surprise!
Jillian Hiscock, our RHSV Collections Manager and a very experienced librarian, will be available through Zoom to answer any queries you might have about cataloguing – or, indeed any other aspect of your collection.
This is a monthly clinic so you can use it as a forum whenever you want. You might want to just listen in for the hour and learn from other’s questions – or maybe you have the answers too. It will be a place for historical societies to get together and talk cataloguing and collections.

Invitation to join Zoom Cataloguing Clinic
Topic: Cataloguing Clinic
Time: Aug 13, 2020 11:00AM Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84099540791?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 840 9954 0791
Password: [REDACTED]

Webinar: Sources of Income
2020-08-18 14:30 - 16:00 | webinar
Beyond grants: this webinar will share tips for securing funding; relationship building, fundraising, corporate partnerships and securing in kind services and donations.

Sector Event: Victorian Collections Day
2020-09-08 10:00 - 16:00 | TBA
A full day of information and workshops aimed at the community collecting sector to help you achieve the best care for your collection.
Hear from museum and gallery industry experts on topics including collection management, conservation and exhibition skills. Talks will cover ways to approach these topics with small budgets in mostly volunteer organisations, ideal for the small-medium groups who use VC to catalogue their collections.

CATALOGUING CLINIC
2020-09-10 11:00 - 12:00 | ZOOM, Join from anywhere in the world
Calling all historical societies across Victoria.
We are launching a new initiative – a Cataloguing Clinic conducted through Zoom. Jillian Hiscock, our RHSV Collections Manager and a very experienced librarian, will be available through Zoom to answer any queries you might have about cataloguing – or, indeed any other aspect of your collection.
If you want, you can email Jillian beforehand with your questions as sometimes it is easier to put something in writing. Or just connect up on the day and pose your question then and give Jillian a surprise! (collections@historyvictoria.org.au)
Jillian will open with some basic cataloguing tips and we’ll take it from there.
We plan to make this a monthly clinic so you can use it as a forum whenever you want. You might want to just listen in for the hour and learn from other’s questions – or maybe you have the answers too. It will be a place for historical societies to get together and talk cataloguing and collections.
Invitation to join Zoom Cataloguing Clinic
The Zoom details you need are: Topic: Cataloguing Clinic
Time: Sep 10, 2020 11:00 Melbourne,
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83526142927?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 835 2614 2927
Password: [REDACTED]

The Shelf Life of Zora Cross a presentation by Cathy Perkins
2020-09-22 16:45 - 18:30 | ZOOM, Join from anywhere in the world
The Shelf Life of Zora Cross – a presentation by Cathy Perkins
Tuesday, 22 September 2020 4.45 pm for 5 pm
via Zoom (link will be sent on booking)
Please book numbers are limited
Event ran by the Camberwell Historical Society
George Fernand- enquiries@chs.org.au
Australian poet and journalist Zora Cross caused a sensation in 1917 with her book Songs of Love and Life. Here was a demure-looking young woman, celebrating sexual passion in a provocative series of sonnets. She was hailed as a genius, and many expected her to endure as a household name. While Cross’s fame didn’t last, she kept writing through financial hardship, personal tragedies and two world wars, producing an impressive body of work. Her verse, prose and correspondence with the likes of Ethel Turner, George Robertson (of Angus & Robertson) and Mary Gilmore place Zora Cross among the key personalities of Australia’s literary world in the early twentieth century.
Cathy Perkins’ biography The Shelf Life of Zora Cross, published in November 2019, has received outstanding reviews and was recently shortlisted for a NSW Premier’s History Award. Cathy will talk about her discovery of Zora Cross in the archives of the State Library of NSW, where she works as an editor, and the many pleasures and challenges in writing her life story.

Ross McMullin – ‘Turning Disaster into Victory: The Battle of Polygon Wood’
2020-09-22 18:30 - 20:00 | RHSV Officers’ Mess Upstairs, 239 A'Beckett Street, Melbourne, VIC, 3000, Australia
The battle of Polygon Wood in September 1917 is one of the AIF’s most iconic but least understood victories.
It has usually been depicted as a relatively straightforward affair — the Australians advanced behind an irresistible barrage that resembled a Gippsland bushfire, and there were inevitable casualties but no major hiccups. This interpretation is fundamentally flawed.
There was indeed a major hiccup that complicated the operation. The Germans, sensing what was coming, launched a ferocious pre-emptive attack against the AIF’s right. The 58th Battalion, then holding the front line, held firm despite severe casualties, while the British unit alongside was driven back. AIF units earmarked for the following day’s operation were sent forward to retrieve the situation, and further heavy losses resulted.
With enemy forces occupying the adjacent British sector, General Pompey Elliott recommended that the operation be postponed. His superiors insisted that the attack had to proceed. Elliott had to overhaul the arrangements in great haste. He remained sceptical about assurances he was given that the plight on the right would be fixed before zero hour. It wasn’t. Even so, men under his command attained the Australian objectives in their sector and ensured that the British objectives on their right were attained as well.
When the real story is understood, the extent of the AIF achievement at Polygon Wood can be properly appreciated. Dr Ross McMullin, the award-winning biographer of Pompey Elliott, will tell the story of the battle in a vivid and illuminating illustrated presentation.
Date: 22 September 2020
Time: Doors open 6:30 PM. Speaker 7:00 PM-8:00 PM. Refreshments to 8.30 PM.
Where: The Royal Historical Society, 239 A’Beckett Street, Melbourne.
MHHV Members $10, General Public $15.
Strict Social Distancing regulations will apply.
It is necessary that all audience members pre-book their ticket so that we can organise the venue appropriately for your safety.
Book your ticket here

Dr Ross McMullin is an acclaimed biographer and historian, and a lively and entertaining speaker. His biography Pompey Elliott won awards for biography and literature. Farewell, Dear People: Biographies of Australia’s Lost Generation was awarded the Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History and the National Cultural Award. His latest book is Pompey Elliott at War: In His Own Words. His biography of Australia’s first official war artist, Will Dyson: Australia’s Radical Genius, was highly commended by the judges of the National Biography Award. Other previous books include the ALP centenary history The Light on the Hill: The Australian Labor Party 1891-1991, and another political history So Monstrous a Travesty: Chris Watson and The World’s First National Labour Government.

The West Gate Bridge Collapse: 50 Years On
2020-10-06 18:30 - 19:30 | Online
50 years ago, the partially-constructed West Gate Bridge collapsed, killing 35 workers and injuring 18 more. The disaster remains Australia’s worst industrial accident to this day.
Join us in conversation with Tommy Watson and Danny Gardiner of the West Gate Bridge Memorial Committee to learn about that fateful day, their work on the bridge, and their ongoing battle for workplace safety.
This will be an online event. A link will be emailed to registrants the day before the event along with instructions on how to participate.
If you need any help you can contact us by phone 1300 462 542 between 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday, via email at library@hobsonsbay.vic.gov.au, or via Instagram DM or Facebook Message.
Image source: John T Collins courtesy of State Library Victoria

Mallee Country: Land People History. A discussion
2020-10-09 17:30 - 19:00 | ZOOM, Join from anywhere in the world
This is a free online Zoom event presented by Western Victorian Association of Historical Societies for History Month.
The speakers are: Richard Broome, Katie Holmes and Charles Fahey
‘We often hear the phrase, “the Mallee breeds em tough.” This book not only supports that but also gives a silent tip of the hat to the men and women over thousands of years who have called the Mallee home. It is a must read for every Australian.’ Kara Taylor, Agora
Our three speakers will discuss their co-authored book, Mallee Country, which tells the powerful history of mallee lands and people across southern Australia from Deep Time to the present. Carefully shaped and managed by Aboriginal people for over 50,000 years, mallee country was dramatically transformed by settlers, first with sheep and rabbits, then by flattening and burning the mallee to make way for wheat. Government backed settlement schemes devastated lives and country, but some farmers learnt how to survive the droughts, dust storms, mice, locusts and salinity – as well as the vagaries of international markets – and became some of Australia’s most resilient agriculturalists. In mallee country, innovation and tenacity have been neighbours to hardship and failure.
Mallee Country is a story of how land and people shape each other. It is the story of how a landscape once derided by settlers as a ‘howling wilderness’ covered in ‘dismal scrub’ became home to citizens who delighted in mallee fauna and flora and fought to conserve it for future generations. And it is the story of the dreams, sweat and sorrows of people who face an uncertain future of depopulation and climate change with creativity and hope.
Click here to buy a copy of the book

A Conversation: Dr Sue Silberberg with Dr Andrew Lemon
2020-10-13 17:30 - 19:00 | ZOOM, Join from anywhere in the world
A History Month event.
Join author, Dr Sue Silberberg in conversation with Dr Andrew Lemon about Sue’s book, A Networked Community (Melbourne University Publishing).
Melbourne’s first colonising expedition was funded by a group of investors including the Jewish emancipist Joseph Solomon. Thus, in Melbourne, as in the settlement of the continent itself, Jews were at the foundation of colonisation. In Victoria, as in the other new Australian colonies, there were no civil or political restrictions on the Jewish community. As with other Jewish communities in the large centres of the world, they responded to the freedoms of an emancipated society, while the political and social environment of a new city such as Melbourne provided a unique set of opportunities.
Unlike in other cities where Jewish property ownership was restricted, here Jews could live and work where they chose, becoming, from the first land sales, investors in property. Subsequently as the city expanded, as developers and builders they influenced the formation of the urban fabric, while their intellectual and economic connections brought new political and intellectual ideas and networks to the colonial experience.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88081476362?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 880 8147 6362
Passcode: [REDACTED]
If you are unfamiliar with Zoom please have a practice run well before the event starts by clicking on the URL above and following the prompts.

Kew Historical Society's Dickinson Lecture
2020-10-14 20:00 - 21:00 | ZOOM, Join from anywhere in the world
We hope that you will join us for this informative and entertaining lecture. To register, please contact Desley Reid on: info@kewhistoricalsociety.org.au, before the event, and you will be sent the Zoom login details.
Kew Historical Society’s Dickinson Lecture, to be given on Wednesday 14 October at 8pm, will be held this year via Zoom. It will be on Victorian cemeteries, and the speaker, Dr. Celestina Sagazio, is an absolute authority on this subject. She is a consultant historian, author and tour guide. She was Historian and Manager of Cultural Heritage of the Southern Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust and previously worked as an historian for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria) for many years. Celestina is a recognised authority on the history and conservation of cemeteries in Victoria. She is the author/editor of a number of publications, including Cemeteries: Our Heritage, Conserving Our Cemeteries, The National Trust Research Manual and Women’s Melbourne. Celestina was also a contributor to the valuable publication In Memoriam, which is a history of public cemeteries in Victoria. Celestina is an experienced tour guide and organiser of the popular night tours of the Melbourne General Cemetery and an informative public speaker.

Victorian Museums and Galleries Forum
2020-10-22 10:00 - 17:00 | Castlemaine
‘Collecting (in) 2020’ will bring together members, professionals, volunteers, students and the wider community to hear museum and gallery professionals from around the world discuss current issues in the sector.

Using technology to bring life to stories from the past
2020-10-26 17:00 - 18:00 | ZOOM, Join from anywhere in the world
Shortlisted for this year’s Victorian Community History Awards, Misadventure in Little Lon is an AR Game that promises to shake up how we interact with History!
Based on a true crime in Melbourne’s notorious red-light district in 1910, Misadventure In Little Lon is the debut game in the series and the world’s first augmented reality true crime mobile game.
To celebrate History Month, the team behind the game will hold a panel event so join the team discussing the story, characters and development process behind Misadventure In Little Lon. The panel will delve into how augmented reality can enhance other historical stories/precincts and appeal to a broader audience.

Carly Godden (chair) – writer, historian, podcaster
Emma Ramsay – Game developer, producer
Andy Yong – Game developer, artist
Michael Shelford – consultant, writer, historian
Jenny Samms – descendent of central characters Maud & Ernest Gunter

Zoom log-in details for this event :
Monday 26 Oct @ 5pm AEDT
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89985230077?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 899 8523 0077
Passcode: [REDACTED]

Zoom events clinic
2020-10-27 09:30 - 10:30 | ZOOM, Join from anywhere in the world
This session is for people new to Zoom who’d like to know how to set up events (including AGMs) in Zoom
Rosemary Cameron will cover:

setting up the event
recording the event
screen sharing
using polls (very useful for AGMs)
sending out invitations

Like our cataloguing clinics – this is a relaxed format where questions and discussion are encouraged.
Printed material will be emailed out to all participants.
Zoom details:
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86175726174?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 861 7572 6174
Passcode: [REDACTED]

Emerging Historians 2020
2020-10-27 17:15 - 18:30 | ZOOM, Join from anywhere in the world
To celebrate History Month join your friends and colleagues from the Professional Historians Association and RHSV to listen to emerging historians present on their research topics.
This is always a fascinating event as we get insights into a wide variety of history research from across the state.
Chaired by Andrew Lemon.

RSVP: https://phavic.wildapricot.org/event-4005885

Cataloguing Clinic: Thu 29 Oct
2020-10-29 11:00 - 12:00 | ZOOM, Join from anywhere in the world
Calling all historical societies across Victoria.
Our next Zoom online Cataloguing Clinic during History Month is the 29th of October.
Jillian Hiscock, our RHSV Collections Manager and a very experienced reference librarian, will be available through Zoom to answer any queries you might have about cataloguing – or, indeed any other aspect of your collection.
If you want, you can email Jillian beforehand with your questions as sometimes it is easier to put something in writing. Or just connect up on the day and pose your question then and give Jillian a surprise! (collections@historyvictoria.org.au)
Jillian will open with some basic cataloguing tips and we’ll take it from there.
These clinics are monthly – so keep an eye out for the one in November. Your participation is entirely up to you – you might want to just listen in for the hour and learn from other’s questions – or maybe you have the answers too. It will be a place for historical societies to get together and talk cataloguing and collections.
These events are free. If you are not familiar with Zoom please, well before the event starts, click on one of the links below and familiarise yourself with the process.
2. Thu 29th Oct, 2020 11:00 Eastern Australian Daylight Time
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84764828806?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 847 6482 8806
Passcode: [REDACTED]
