Royal Historical Society of Victoria

Women’s humanitarian work is never done: Women humanitarians and war child refugees in the 20th century
2024-03-19 17:30 - 19:00 (Australia/Melbourne) | RHSV Gallery Downstairs, 239 A'Beckett St, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000, Australia
We are delighted that Professor Joy Damousi AM FASSA FAHA, one of Australia’s most distinguished historians and humanities thought leaders, will deliver the 2023 Women’s History Month Lecture, part of our Distinguished Lecture series.
Joy is the Immediate Past President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, and a Fellow of both the Australian Academy of the Humanities and the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.
She has also served as Chair of the Australian Research Council’s humanities and creative arts panels for Excellence in Research for Australia and on the College of Experts. She is currently the Director of the Australian Catholic University’s Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, and has held leadership positions as Professor in the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, Head of School, Associate Dean (Research) and Pro-Vice Chancellor (Research) at the University of Melbourne.
She was the 2015 Fred Alexander Fellow in History at the University of Western Australia, and is a holder of the Kathleen Fitzpatrick Fellowship for “outstanding female researchers in humanities, arts and social sciences”.
Joy’s areas of research include Australian social and cultural history, gender history and memory and the history of emotions. Her current research project is a history of child refugees, humanitarianism and internationalism from 1920, for which she was awarded an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship. Key publications include The Labour of Loss: Mourning, Memory and Wartime Bereavement in Australia (1999), Living with the Aftermath: Trauma, Nostalgia and Grief in Post-war Australia (2001), a collection of essays edited with Robert Reynolds, History on the Couch: Essays in History and Psychoanalysis (2003), Freud in the Antipodes: A Cultural History of Psychoanalysis in Australia (2005 – winner of the Ernest Scott Prize), Colonial Voices: A Cultural History of English in Australia 1840-1940 (2010) and Memory and Migration in the Shadow of War: Australia’s Greek Immigrants after World War II and the Greek Civil War (2015). Joy is the co-editor of a four-volume, Cambridge World History of Violence (2020). Her latest publication is The Humanitarians: Child War Refugees and Australian Humanitarianism in a Transnational World, 1919-1975 (Cambridge 2022).

Labassa open day
2024-03-17 10:30 - 16:00 | Labassa, 2 Manor Grove, Caulfield North, Victoria, 3161, Australia
Experience the complex richness of Labassa’s architectural and human history. Although more than 700 people have lived at Labassa, it has miraculously survived with most of its opulent Victorian era decoration intact.
Labassa is open 10:30am to 4pm with last entry at 3:30pm. Pre-purchasing your ticket online is highly recommended.
Guided house tours on the hour from 11am to 3pm and tearoom available. The tower will be open with a limit of 12 people per tour group. Due to the tower’s narrow, steep steps visitors are advised to wear sensible shoes.
Join us for a guided tour or opt for a self-guided tour.
Guided Tour Times:
11am: Interior House Tour
12pm: ‘Who’s been living in this house?’ Tour (Note: this tour goes upstairs)
1pm: Exterior tour
2pm: Interior House Tour
3pm: Interior House Tour
Tower tours: 10:45am, 11.45am, 12.45pm, 1.45pm, 2.45pm, 3.45pm (Limit of 12 people per tour).
Tea room available: 10.30am – 3.30pm.
Please arrive at least 15 minutes before your intended guided tour time. Capacity will be monitored on the day.
Pre-bookings are highly recommended to avoid disappointment. Walk up availability is subject to the numbers already in the house.

PMI Library Book Sale
2024-03-16 10:30 - 15:30 | 39 St Edmonds Road, Prahran, VIC 3181, 39 St Edmonds Road, Prahran, VIC, 3181, Australia
🔖 PMI Victorian History Library Book Sale
Step into a treasure trove of literary delights at our upcoming booksale extravaganza! Get ready to embark on a thrilling exploration through the pages of second-hand classics and unearth hidden gems among our collection of rare books. For all the music aficionados out there, we’re thrilled to introduce a special addition to this year’s sale—vinyl records.
Come along and grab treasures you wont find elsewhere!

2024 McIntyre Lecture
2024-03-13 19:30 - 21:00 | Just Theatre, Kew Court House, 188 High Street, Kew, VIC, 3101, Australia
2024 McIntyre Lecture -Kew Historical Society Inc
FAILED AMBITIONS: A HISTORY OF KEW COTTAGES by Dr Lee-Ann Monk & Dr David Henderson
Opened in 1887, Kew Cottages was Australia’s first purpose built institution for people with intellectual disabilities. Contemporaries considered it a ‘distinct advance on anything yet done for the feebleminded children in Australia’. Five decades later the institution had become the subject of almost universal condemnation. In the words of Rohan Rivett, the cottages had become ‘a hillside of
sadness’, where residents eked out a bare existence in an institution which lacked even the most basic amenities.
The lecture by Lee-Ann Monk and David Henderson follows the release of their groundbreaking history of the Kew Cottages in 2023.
Wednesday 13 March,7.30 for 8.00pm
Just Theatre, Kew Court House
188 High Street, Kew VIC 3101
TICKETS
In person lecture, with refreshments $20.
Tickets at door, online at www.boroondara.vic.gov.au/events/
or by phone 9278 4770

Doris McRae: teacher and activist
2024-03-12 13:00 - 14:00 | Victorian Archives Centre, 99 Shiel Street, North Melbourne, VIC, 3051, Australia
Presented during Women’s History Month in collaboration with the National Archives of Australia.
Two world wars, a global depression and the Cold War transformed the social fabric of Australia. For many teachers with a desire to make a better world for women and children, this meant action beyond the classroom. Presented by Dr Cheryl Griffin, this presentation looks at how prominent Victorian teacher and activist Doris McRae addressed social, industrial and political issues such as equal pay and employment opportunities for women.
Image caption: Doris McRae c. 1947. Courtesy of Dr Cheryl Griffin
Housekeeping
Please note that this event is not held at the RHSV but at the Victorian Archives Centre, 99 Shiel St, North Melbourne 3051.
The event is hybrid so is also available on Zoom. Zoom log-in details will be sent to those who book for Zoom 24 hours before the event.
You will be sent an automatically-generated email confirmation of your booking – if it doesn’t appear in your in-box please check your Junk Mail or Spam Mail folders as often these automatically-generated emails fall foul of ISPs.

History Matters Series: Women of Ballarat 1838-1851
2024-03-08 17:30 - 18:30 | Sovereign Hill Museums Association, 39 Magpie Street, Ballarat, VIC, Australia
Join us for this year’s International Women’s Day as Sovereign Hill Museums Association explores this year’s theme, Count Her In, and look to the past to explore pathways to greater economic inclusion for women and girls everywhere.
When gold was discovered in Victoria in 1851 women flocked to the Ballarat goldfields to try their hands at a new life and to find prosperity. But women had been part of the Ballarat region for much longer, First Nations women for generations. PhD candidate Sharni Brownbridge will share with us the stories of some the women living in the Ballarat area from 1838 and in the first wild days after gold discovery and show how they acted as key members of these societies, acting as farm workers, gold fossickers, business owners and creators of social connection.

Tour of Historical Trades Hall followed by more labour history in the Curtin Hotel
2024-03-07 13:30 - 16:00 | Victorian Trades Hall, 54 Victoria Street, Carlton, Victoria, 3053, Australia
In 2023 we organised a tour of Trades Hall and everyone on the tour said it was exceptional and that Antony Moore, the guide, was worth bottling.
So, in 2024, we’ll be hosting another tour with Antony but with a great addition. From 2pm – 3:30pm you’ll be touring Trades Hall with Antony and then we’ll skip over the road to the Curtin Hotel where so much labour history played out and, over a drink, David Cragg, will enlighten us with this additional labour history.
Our Heritage Committee, under Charles Sowerwine, successfully lobbied to save this historic pub from the threat of redevelopment. There was a great upswelling of community concern, opposition from heritage organisations and concerted trade union action which culminated in a 10-year contract for the management of the John Curtin Hotel so it will continue as a pub and music venue.
During those lost COVID years the Victorian Trades Hall underwent a massive renovation which focused on not just the building but the vital cultural heritage that lives within its walls. Photos and text courtesy of architects, Lovell Chen’s, website: “The Trades Hall, on the corner of Victoria and Lygon streets in Melbourne, is one of the world’s oldest trade union buildings. It has been the home of trade unionism in the state of Victoria since 1874, and is associated with the history of the Australian Labor Party and with events significant to the whole country. In 2016, we completed a condition survey and Conservation Management Plan, considering the whole of the much-expanded complex. A grant application for state funding through the Living Heritage Program was successfully made for implementation of conservation and refurbishment works to key public spaces, the portico and the roof. The Victorian Trades Hall Council also funded works from its own resources (and individual union contributions), which were carried out at the same time.
“The Trades Hall was constructed in ten stages, the most significant of which occurred between 1876 and 1925. It is principally recognisable for its imposing two-storey Classical/Renaissance Revival facade, which has been extended relatively consistently as each new wing has been added. The earliest section (1874) is at the southern end of the site, directly behind the present Victoria Street entry building (1925). The original architects were Joseph Reed (1822-1890) and Frederick Barnes (c.1823-1883), of Reed and Barnes, designers of much of Melbourne’s grand 19th century architectural heritage, including the Royal Exhibition Building.
“Stage 1 of the project was completed in 2019. Stage 2 in 2022. Stage 3 has commenced.
“Victorian Architecture Award 2020 : Heritage Architecture – conservation
Property Council of Australia : Innovation & Excellence Awards 2022 : Best Heritage Development (Stages 1+ 2)”

Your guide will be Antony Moore who is a long-time union official with the Vehicle Division of the AMWU. Unfortunately, with the closing of Australia’s car manufacturing plants, Antony no longer had a role, however, for the past 6 years, from the very start, he has been heavily involved in the renovations at Trades Hall – working alongside archaeologists, conservators and many other experts who have ensured that this important building and its cultural heritage are preserved. Antony is a passionate amateur historian and advocate for the building and its cultural heritage.

And our second guide for the Curtin Hotel is David Cragg, Labour History Melbourne Vice President, former Trades Hall Assistant Secretary, a Life Member of the ALP, a Trustee of the Victorian Trades Hall & Literary Institute and all-round labour history raconteur.
Your ticket money will be donated to the Victorian Trades Hall for their work on stage 3 of the renovation.
You will be sent an automatic confirmation email once you book – if this doesn’t appear in your in-box please check your Spam Mail or Junk Mail folders as automatically-generated emails often go astray.

Because this tour is limited to 20 persons we do limit it to RHSV financial members only. Please be aware that tour participants will be walking up and down flights of stairs – it is not a fully accessible tour. Ticket price includes a drink at the Curtin Hotel.

Oral History Victoria Awards Showcase Event 2024
2024-03-05 17:00 - 18:00 | ZOOM, Join from anywhere in the world
Tuesday 5 March, 5-6pm, online via Zoom
To celebrate the exceptional originality and quality of the entrants to the 2023 Oral History Award (jointly run by the Victorian Community History Awards with Oral History Victoria and the Royal Historical Society of Victoria), this OHV event will showcase the four shortlisted projects that were Highly Commended by the judges. Hosted by Al Thomson, representatives from each project will talk for 10 minutes about their work and share extracts, followed by Q and A.
Daniel Bacchieri on Beyond Bourke Street: Melbourne Buskers in the Digital World (podcast series at https://streetmusicmelbourne.com/podcast-episodes/)
Abigail Belfrage on Our Lives, Our Stories: Geelong Care Leavers talking back to their records (exhibition at the Australian Orphanage Museum, Geelong, at https://aomuseum.com.au/we-lived-in-geelong/)
Martie Lowenstein on Don’t be too polite girls (documentary film at https://vimeo.com/814484001/ec29386ad1)
Way Back When team on Stonnington’s Young Voices of the Pandemic (short film and interview archive at https://www.stonnington.vic.gov.au/Library/Visit-us/Stonnington-History-Centre/Young-Voices-of-the-Pandemic)
All welcome. Further details and the zoom link available via https://oralhistoryvictoria.org.au/events/category/2024-events/

CURATOR'S TOUR OF GARRYOWEN'S MELBOURNE WITH DR LIZ RUSHEN
2024-03-05 14:00 - 15:30 | RHSV Gallery Downstairs, 239 A'Beckett St, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000, Australia
Historian Dr Liz Rushen will take you behind the scenes of our current exhibition, Garryowen’s Melbourne which Liz curated. The exhibition grew out of the research Liz had done for her book, Garryowen Unmasked: The Life of Edmund Finn, which was launched earlier this year and was aided by her deep knowledge of the RHSV collection and its treasures.
The tour will be followed by afternoon tea.
Edmund Finn (1819-98), Irish immigrant, journalist, raconteur and eyewitness to the development of the Port Phillip District, is best known as ‘Garryowen’, author of The Chronicles of Early Melbourne 1835-1852. His lively writing, essential to any appreciation of pre-separation Victoria, brings to life this often-neglected period and place. Yet little has been written about the man himself, his actions or attitudes, or the influences that shaped him.
Finn’s exposure to troubled times in Ireland during his youth was a major influence on his later politics and world view. Migrating to Melbourne in 1841, this well-educated man lived for more than fifty years in colonial Melbourne, passionate about his religion, actively engaged with his community while never forgetting the home he had left behind. This book explores the life of this talented man and the ways in which he contributed to the creation of a new society in Melbourne through his writing, his speeches and his leadership of the St Patrick’s Society.
“An important chronicler of early Melbourne, the Irish journalist Edmund Finn has been unjustly neglected. A detailed study of his life and work is overdue, and therefore Dr Rushen’s book is to be welcomed.” Professor Elizabeth Malcolm, FASSA, FRHistS, University of Melbourne

History Council of Victoria Book+Author - Courting: An Intimate History of Love and the Law
2024-02-29 18:00 - 19:00 | The Wheeler Centre, 176 Little Londsale Street, Melbourne, VIC, 3000, Australia
In the HCV’s first in-person author talk of 2024, Dr Yves Rees will be in-conversation with Dr Alecia Simmonds, award-winning historian and author of Courting: An Intimate History of Love and the Law (La Trobe University Press, 2023).
Courting is a history of love turned sour: the story of jilted lovers who claimed legal compensation for “breach of promise to marry”. In this compelling account of courtroom drama, Simmonds asks big questions about the ethics of love and the role of law in our private lives. Described by Anne Summers as “enthralling and compelling”, Courting follows Simmonds’s debut Wild Man, which won the 2016 Davitt Prize for best nonfiction crime writing.

Nature, Our Medicine: a presentation by Dr Dimity Williams
2024-02-27 19:30 - 20:30 | VIC
Nature, Our Medicine: a presentation by Dr Dimity Williams
Dr Dimity Williams is a mother, nature lover, and family doctor. She has worked as a Family Physician for 25 years in inner Melbourne on Wurundjeri Country, and enjoys looking after the whole person from pre-conception to old age. Dimity has completed additional training in obstetrics, paediatrics and mental health, particularly mindfulness meditation.
Dimity has worked in environmental advocacy with multiple organisations from grassroots community groups to large associations. Dimity is an alumna of the Centre for Sustainability Leadership, a co-founder of the Kids In Nature Network, and founder of Doctors for the Environment Australia’s Biodiversity Special Interest Group. Passionate about integrating nature into healthcare, she has written and spoken about the ‘nature: health interface’ in various forums and delights in issuing nature prescriptions. Nature, Our Medicine is her first book.
Incorporating science, history, stories, and alternative cultural knowledge, Dimity makes the case that caring for nature is essential for our wellbeing. And, for all life on Earth.
WHEN: Tuesday 27 February 2024, 7.30 pm
WHERE: 25 Inglesby Road, Camberwell VIC 3124
RSVP: Phone George Fernando 0448296258 or enquiries@chs.org.au
Hosted by the Camberwell Historical Society

BOOK LAUNCH OF UNIVERSITIES IN TIMES OF CRISIS AND DISRUPTION BY LORRAINE LING AND KAY LIVINGSTON
2024-02-25 14:00 - 16:00 | RHSV Gallery Downstairs, 239 A'Beckett St, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000, Australia
To be launched by Emeritus Professor John Dewar AO, immediate past President and Vice-Chancellor, La Trobe University.
A panel of distinguished academics, Emeritus Professor John Dewar AO, Emeritus Professor Kwong Lee Dow AO, and Professor Marcia Devlin AM, will discuss some of the key concepts from the book and then we will take questions from the audience.
Drinks and light refreshments will be served at the conclusion of the event.
This book examines the role and future of universities in times of chronic disruption and crisis – presented via an original conceptual framework which the authors term ‘Dislocated Complexity’ – and discusses how to move forward in the face of severely disrupted social, political, economic and environment contexts.
Demonstrating how global crises, especially the COVID-19 pandemic, have dramatically dislocated and disrupted all contexts of society, the authors use this framework of Dislocated Complexity to propose a set of characteristics and values that underpin roles for universities, considering the future of universities with regards to teaching and learning, research, management and leadership, workforce change, policy-making and engagement. Novel, innovative concepts and theoretical perspectives are brought to the analysis of futures, roles and activities of universities by the authors, such as ‘Unscripted Agency’, ‘Clashing -ologies’, ‘Emanant Trust’ and ‘Dislocated Complexity Leadership Theory’.
Ultimately calling for a rethink of university futures, this timely book will be of great interest to academics, researchers and post-graduate students in the fields of higher education research and teaching and learning. It will also be of interest to university managers, educational policy makers, and those who are ‘hidden’ or informal educators in the community.

Lorraine Ling is Emeritus Professor at La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia and has worked as an education academic in universities for over 35 years during which time she has fulfilled a range of roles including lecturing, executive Dean of Education, Head of Campus and Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor. Her research interests include education policy, educational administration, sociology of education, values in education and research paradigms and methods. Lorraine has led international educational development projects and has authored and co-authored many journal articles and books. She had received numerous awards in recognition of her contribution to education and teacher education.
Kay Livingston is Professor of Educational Research, Policy and Practice at the School of Education, University of Glasgow, UK. She has worked as an education academic for over 30 years, holding a range of roles in universities including Co-ordinator of International Education, Director of an Education Research Centre, Research Impact Champion and undertaken a secondment to a government agency as Director of International Research and Innovation in an educational policy context. Her work has a strong international focus and she has knowledge and expertise in education systems across Europe. Her main research interests include teacher education, innovation in curriculum, assessment and pedagogy and digital literacies. Kay has lead many international research and development projects. She has authored and co-authored journal articles and books and was editor of the European Journal of Teacher Education for many years and was a co-editor of the Curriculum Journal.

REVIEW
“The University in Dislocated Complexity is a tremendous book, working as it does on several levels and yet with a conversational and highly accessible and inviting style. It is chock-full of ideas and builds on innovative concepts (such as ‘dislocated complexity’ itself, ‘unscripted agency’, ‘emanant trust’), it is full of telling examples, it will have wide resonance across the world, and it is motivated by a sense that universities can even develop their agency amid the maelstroms that they face. The complexity that universities face may be dislocated and, indeed, dislocating but it need not be dispiriting: there is much that can be done. It is a book for our times in higher education.”
– Ronald Barnett, Emeritus Professor of Higher Education, University College London, UK.

Book Launch: The Goldfields Re-Imagined by Marjorie Theobald
2024-02-24 15:00 - 17:00 | Market Building, 44 Mostyn Street, Castlemaine, 44 Mostyn Street, Castlemaine, VIC, 3450, Australia
BOOK LAUNCH
The Goldfields Re-Imagined; militant miners, miscreants and poor Mary Anne By Marjorie Theobald
This is a lively and engaging series of chapters about women, convicts, shysters, aristocrats and politicians in the Castlemaine goldrush. There is a piece about Castlemaine’s remarkable but little known Gold Commissioner (then Warden) Captain John Edward Newell Bull, and his attempts to care for the environment by combating the puddlers. Captain Bull is an unsung hero of the colonial government, with visionary foresight about the environment and society’s future needs.
The book will be available through Stoneman’s Bookroom 54705134
101 Mostyn St, Castlemaine, or a signed copy at the launch.
Everyone is invited to the launch at the fabulous Market Building in Mostyn St. There will be wine and finger food -a free event.
Robyn Annear, our other notable historian, will be our guest speaker and she too has only recently launched a new book.
DETAILS
Saturday February 24th
3-5 PM
Market Building, 44 Mostyn Street, Castlemaine
RSVP: castlemainesociety@gmail.com

CATALOGUING CLINICS 2024
2024-02-22 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.
In 2024’s first Cataloguing Clinic for the year, Jillian will talk about collection management, what you keep or don’t keep, when you catalogue material as an archive or a collection and any issues around the actual collection.
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 2024, however, we do ask you to register each month as this enables Jillian to send you extra material / links etc after each session.
The Cataloguing Clinics in 2024 will be held at

Thu 22 Feb 11am – 12noon (AEDT)
Thu 28 Mar 11am – 12noon (AEDT)
Thu 2 May 11am – 12noon (AEST) * this is a week later than normal because of Anzac Day
Thu 23 May 11am – 12noon (AEST)
Thu 27 Jun 11am – 12noon (AEST)
Thu 25 Jul 11am – 12noon (AEST)
Thu 22 Aug 11am – 12noon (AEST)
Thu 26 Sep 11am – 12noon (AEST)
Thu 24 Oct 11am – 12noon (AEDT)
Thu 28 Nov 11am – 12noon (AEDT)

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Aboriginal Victorians with Richard Broome
2024-02-21 19:00 - 21:00 | Malvern Town Hall, Corner High Street and Glenferrie Road Malvern, Melbourne, 3144, Australia
Emeritus Professor Richard Broome AM, will be talking to Malvern Historical Society members and friends on Wednesday 21 February about the second edition of his double award-winning history, ABORIGINAL VICTORIANS. A HISTORY SINCE 1800. Published by Allen & Unwin.
7pm for 7:30pm, upper foyer, Malvern Town Hall (Corner High St and Glenferrie Rd)

Melbourne’s Great Metropolitan Railways
2024-02-20 18:30 - 19:30 | 39 St Edmonds Road, Prahran, VIC 3181, 39 St Edmonds Road, Prahran, VIC, 3181, Australia
🚇 Melbourne’s Great Metropolitan Railways – With A Nod Over The Border
A little over one hundred years ago, Australia’s first electrified suburban railways commenced operations. Melbourne led the way when electric trains ran between Essendon and Sandringham on 28 May 1919. Sydney followed suit seven years later when its first electric train ran between Central and Oatley on 1 March 1926. Within the year, Sydney’s electric trains also ran into Australia’s first underground railway.
Melbourne’s Great Metropolitan Railways celebrates the birth and development of Melbourne’s electric railways from the Federation of Australia into the new Millennium, through good times and bad, with a nod across the border and elsewhere. It tells how railway electrification was the nation building enterprise of the early 20th Century. It shows how these railways became Melbourne’s public transport backbone.
Bookings are essential with a gold coin for entry.

BILLIBELLARY INDIGENOUS HISTORY LECTURE. The view from here: thinking about Australian Indigenous histories and their future.
2024-02-20 17:30 - 19:00 | RHSV Gallery Downstairs, 239 A'Beckett St, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000, Australia
We are honoured that Professor Lynette Russell AM will deliver the 2024 Billibellary Indigenous History Lecture at the RHSV.
Lynette describes the genesis of her lecture, “Years ago one of my son’s friends assured me that my passion for Australian history was a fool’s errand. ‘Nothing ever happened here, no wars, no famines, no empires, nothing, just nothing’. These views he had formed in part at home but also, notably, at school. After reviewing the texts they were reading, I had to concede that Australian history, as it was being taught, might well be construed as boring. Even in the late 1990s, the most popular textbooks were outdated, divided into a chapter or two on pre-European history, and then wandered through Cook’s ‘discovery’, the first fleet, the rum rebellion, and the rise of squatters, bushrangers, depressions both great and not-so, Federation, railways, wheat, and wool. There was a clear division between Indigenous and non-Indigenous histories; Australian history was celebrated, heroic, masculinist and very, very white. Indigenous or Aboriginal history was to be covered quickly and contained primarily to pre-European times. Subtly, things are changing. There is a new generation of school teachers using new resources, both hard copy and digital. What might we imagine the landscape will look like as we contemplate the future of Indigenous history?”
Professor Lynette Russell AM FASSA FAHA (Sir John Monash Distinguished Professor and ARC Kathleen Fitzpatrick Laureate Professor at Monash University’s Indigenous Studies Centre) is an award-winning historian and Indigenous studies scholar. Her research is broadly anthropological history. Russell has published widely in the areas of theory, Indigenous histories, post-colonialism and representations of race, museum studies and popular culture.
Russell’s Aboriginal ancestors were born on the lands of the Wotjobaluk people, and she is descended from convicts on the other side of her family; she is rather uniquely placed as an historian. All of her work is deeply interdisciplinary and collaborative. Russell has collaborated with scholars in archaeology, anthropology and environmental studies, and worked in various Aboriginal organisations. She holds or has held positions on committees and reference groups pertaining to Melbourne Museum, the State Library of Victoria and the Collections Council of Australia as well as being a former president of the Australian Historical Association. She is an elected member of AIATSIS and, in 2023, she was elected an International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . She is the only Australian scholar to be elected to both the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Anthropological Institute, both in London. In addition, she has held two fellowships at Cambridge University and one at All Souls at Oxford University. Russell believes fervently that every undergraduate should undertake Indigenous studies as an essential part of the curriculum and her passions are community outreach and the dissemination of knowledge, social justice, and the Essendon Football Club.

Box Hill Library - some beginnings.
2024-02-18 14:00 - 16:00 | Box Hill Library, Whitehorse road. Bert Lewis Room, 1040 Whitehorse road, Box Hill, Box Hill, Australia
Prominent literary critic and author Helen Elliott worked in the Box Hill Library from 1964 -19169 when it was a small rectangular building in the middle of Whitehorse road. There were perhaps 20 staff. All female. The Chief Librarian was a man Bert Lewis.
In her recent Memoir, Eleven Letters to You, Elliott devotes two of the eleven letters to people at the library in those years. Helen Garner called Elliott’s book: “A quietly ecstatic work of memory – intense, witty, beautiful.” Biographer Brenda Niall called it “A rare feat of imagination and memory, Louise Adler called it “deeply evocative, with the humanity of Facey’s A Fortunate Life, written on the little piece of ivory favoured by Jane Austen.”.
Elliott has invented a new form of memoir, full of detailed social history and addressed to people she loved and honoured all those years ago. Box Hill, over half a century ago was a world now as lost and seemingly as long ago as the Eighteenth Century. .She will speak in detail about those days, those times, that other world.

Eleven Letters To You
2024-02-18 14:00 - 15:30 | Bert Lewis Room, first floor, Box Hill Library, 1040 Whitehorse Road, Box Hill, Select one, 3128, Australia
Box Hill Historical Society kicks off 2024 with a talk by prominent literary critic, journalist and author Helen Elliott. Helen spent some time working in the Box Hill Library, commencing in 1965. She will speak of her memories of Box Hill. Copies of her memoir, Eleven Letters to You, will be available for sale at the meeting.

Sunday 18 February 2024 @ 2pm
Bert Lewis Room, 1st floor, Box Hill Library, 1040 Whitehorse Rd, Box Hill.
Gold coin donation

“Helen Elliott, well known as a literary critic and journalist, grew up in Boronia in the 1950s and 1960s, a time when it was in transition from countryside to suburbia. Out on the edge of Melbourne and at the very foot of the Dandenongs it was a setting that promised a new post-war life for returned servicemen and their young families as well as migrants. This very different memoir, styled as 11 letters to the neighbours, relatives teachers and friends, brings to life a very different time. Elliott’s recollections are sharp and poignant as she seeks out those parts of her upbringing and education that shaped her at a time of rapid social change.” Review by John Schauble in RHSV’s History News

Helen’s book was entered in the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards and the Victorian Community History Awards.

Published by Text Publishing

Subcultures of Friendship
2024-02-15 18:30 - 19:30 | 39 St Edmonds Road, Prahran, VIC 3181, 39 St Edmonds Road, Prahran, VIC, 3181, Australia
🌈 Subcultures of Friendship, Male Homosexual Lives in Mid-Century Victoria
David and Wayne will guide us through Subcultures of Friendship made in a Mid-Century Melbourne. Wayne Murdoch is going to focus on Melbourne in the 1920s and 30s. His information is based on the research done for his book Kamp Melbourne in the 1920s and ’30s: Trade, Queans and Inverts. Dr David Gould will focus on the 1940s and 50s sharing with us information gathered while researching his book Survivors and Thrivers – Male homosexual lives in postwar Australia.
Dr David Gould founded and is Secretary of Carlton Pride, the official LGBTI+ supporter group of the (AFL) Carlton Football Club. His book ‘Survivors and Thrivers. Male homosexual lives in postwar Australia’ was published in June 2023
Wayne Murdoch has been interested in Australian social history and Queer history for over 30 years. He is the author of Kamp Melbourne in the 1920s and ‘30s.
Bookings are essential with a gold coin for entry.

Panel Discussion: Paulie Stewart, Fred Negro, Fiona Lee Maynard
2024-02-15 18:00 - 19:00 | St Kilda Library, 150 Carlisle Street, St Kilda, VIC, 3182, Australia
Building on the success of the Unplugged in St Kilda podcast series, iconic musicians Paulie Stewart (Painters and Dockers), Fiona Lee Maynard (Have a Nice Day) and Fred Negro (I Piss on Your Gravy) will share musical tales from the St Kilda scene of the 1970s, 80s and 90s.
Facilitated by Sally Moore, host of the Unplugged podcasts, the panel will discuss the rich musical history of St Kilda, sharing insights into their time in the local area and how it shaped their music.
This event is proudly presented in partnership with St Kilda Library and St Kilda Historical Society.
This is a free public event. Booking essential.

Book here: St Kilda Unplugged Panel Discussion Tickets, St Kilda Library, St Kilda | TryBooking Australia

CATALOGUING CLINICS 2023
2024-02-15 11:00 - 12:00 | ZOOM, Join from anywhere in the world
Join Jillian Hiscock, the RHSV Collections Manager, each month is 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. 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 2023, however, we do ask you to register each month as this enables Jillian to send you extra material / links etc after each session.
The Cataloguing Clinics 2023 will be held at

Thu 18 May 11am – 12noon (AEST)
Thu 15 Jun 11am – 12noon (AEST)
Thu 20 Jul 11am – 12noon (AEST)
Thu 17 Aug 11am – 12noon (AEST)
Thu 21 Sep 11am – 12noon (AEST)
Thu 19 Oct 11am – 12noon (AEDT)
Thu 16 Nov 11am – 12noon (AEDT)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86065204468?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 860 6520 4468
Passcode: [REDACTED]
Please download and import the following iCalendar (.ics) files to your calendar system.
Monthly: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/tZItceyqrj8uHNyeZRXkEGbD7ZUBvzw25bH8/ics?icsToken=[REDACTED]

BOOK LAUNCH: ABORIGINAL VICTORIANS. A HISTORY SINCE 1800.
2024-02-13 17:30 - 19:00 | RHSV Gallery Downstairs, 239 A'Beckett St, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000, Australia
Please join us for the launch of the second edition of the double award-winning history by Emeritus Professor Richard Broome AM,
ABORIGINAL VICTORIANS
A HISTORY SINCE 1800
Tuesday, 13 February 2024, 5:30pm – 7pm
Royal Historical Society of Victoria, 239 A’Beckett Street, Melbourne 3000

Music by singer songwriter Butjulla and Gubbi Gubbi man, Gavin Somers.
To be launched by Gunditjmara woman, Jill Gallagher AO, CEO of VACCHO (Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation)
The MC will be La Trobe University’s Indigenous Studies Professor Julie Andrews OAM, a Yorta Yorta and Woiwurrung woman and member of the Dhul-an-yagan family clan of the Ulupna people.

Published by Allen & Unwin

Graeme Davison in Lancefield
2024-02-10 13:30 - 17:00 | Lancefield Mechanics’ Institute, Corner High Street and The Crescent, Lancefield, Victoria, 3435, Australia
A great-aunt’s bequest – a 200-year-old grandfather clock – sends historian Graeme Davison on a journey deep into his father’s family’s past. From their tribal homeland in the Scottish Borders, he follows them to the garrison town of Carlisle, from industrial Birmingham to Edwardian Australia, and from the Great War to his own suburban childhood. This is the story of an ordinary family’s journey from frontier warfare and dispossession through economic turmoil and emigration to modest prosperity. At each step, we are led to reflect on the puzzles of personal identity and the mystery of time. From the family clans in the Border lands to the industrial cities, Graeme traces the history of a family through hundreds of years. As he comments, this type of family history allows us to trace the history of a town, a city or even a country at the same time. Based on a lifetime of creative scholarship, My Grandfather’s Clock: Four Centuries of a British-Australian Family, is a moving testament to the power of family history to illuminate the present.
This event will be held at the Lancefield Mechanics’ Institute, High Street, Lancefield. Doors open at 1.30 pm and Graeme’s talk will begin at 2.00 pm. Cost for the event is $35.00 which includes country style refreshments including tea and coffee, local beers and wines.

Labassa: Twilight House and Garden tours
2024-02-09 18:00 - 20:00 | Labassa, 2 Manor Grove, Caulfield North, Victoria, 3161, Australia
Experience Labassa’s lavish architecture and companion garden at twilight.
Labassa’s garden has undergone many changes in its 160-year history. From pleasure grounds for Marvellous Melbourne’s elite through to a communal garden for resident hippies, Labassa has seen it all.
Although over 700 people have lived at the mansion, its 1890s interiors remain largely intact. See how the setting sun brings a warm glow to its opulent decorative features.
The evening begins with light refreshments followed by guided tours of the house and garden.
Your ticket includes light refreshments; guided tours of the house and garden, and, a copy of the National Trust’s 32-page souvenir booklet: Labassa: a Grand Victorian Mansion.
Please advise any dietary requirements to bookings@nattrust.com.au no later than 4pm Wednesday 7th February.
No refunds from 4pm Thursday 8th February.

CURATOR'S TOUR OF GARRYOWEN'S MELBOURNE WITH DR LIZ RUSHEN
2024-02-06 14:00 - 15:30 | RHSV Gallery Downstairs, 239 A'Beckett St, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000, Australia
This event is booked out however, we have scheduled one last Curator’s Tour on 5th March. You can book here

Historian Dr Liz Rushen will take you behind the scenes of our current exhibition, Garryowen’s Melbourne which Liz curated. The exhibition grew out of the research Liz had done for her book, Garryowen Unmasked: The Life of Edmund Finn, which was launched earlier this year and was aided by her deep knowledge of the RHSV collection and its treasures.
The tour will be followed by afternoon tea.
Edmund Finn (1819-98), Irish immigrant, journalist, raconteur and eyewitness to the development of the Port Phillip District, is best known as ‘Garryowen’, author of The Chronicles of Early Melbourne 1835-1852. His lively writing, essential to any appreciation of pre-separation Victoria, brings to life this often-neglected period and place. Yet little has been written about the man himself, his actions or attitudes, or the influences that shaped him.
Finn’s exposure to troubled times in Ireland during his youth was a major influence on his later politics and world view. Migrating to Melbourne in 1841, this well-educated man lived for more than fifty years in colonial Melbourne, passionate about his religion, actively engaged with his community while never forgetting the home he had left behind. This book explores the life of this talented man and the ways in which he contributed to the creation of a new society in Melbourne through his writing, his speeches and his leadership of the St Patrick’s Society.
“An important chronicler of early Melbourne, the Irish journalist Edmund Finn has been unjustly neglected. A detailed study of his life and work is overdue, and therefore Dr Rushen’s book is to be welcomed.” Professor Elizabeth Malcolm, FASSA, FRHistS, University of Melbourne

St John Ambulance Historical Society quarterly meeting
2024-01-25 11:00 - 12:00 | Williamstown Hall
St John Ambulance began its Search and Rescue Squads after WWII to collaborate with Victoria Police and the Country Fire Authority. It was superseded in the mid-1970s by the government funded State Emergency Service. However, in its heyday, S&R attended many disasters including the Southern Aurora derailment and the Westgate Bridge collapse.
Stewart Grainger, who was a leader in the Footscray Squad, will give a presentation on the history of the service, its training and its attendance at those disasters.
For more information please contact Allan Mawdsley, Hon Secretary of the Victorian branch of the St John Ambulance Historical Society on 04190770 066 | museum@stjohnvic.com.au
Image: Westgate Bridge Collapse
Also on Zoom

People Power: Petitions in the National Archives
2024-01-23 13:00 - 14:00 | Victorian Archives Centre, 99 Shiel Street, North Melbourne, VIC, 3051, Australia
Petitioning government is a fundamental right in Australia’s democracy. This seminar will explore citizen activism through petitions submitted to the Australian Government. The National Archives collection includes a wide range of petitions relating to a number of areas for change including land rights for First Australians, equal voting rights and the internment of enemy aliens. Not all petitions relate to the big issues, with some asking for intervention on more local or personal issues.
Those who attend in person can also visit the National Archives’ Disrupt Persist Invent touring exhibition, which explores the many ways people have achieved social change in Australia. Disrupt Persist Invent is open at the Victorian Archives Centre from 8 December 2023 to 5 April 2024. See Disrupt, persist, invent | naa.gov.au for more details and opening hours.
This lecture is one in a series on which the RHSV and National Archives of Australia partner. It is a hybrid event and free-of-charge – you can attend the lecture and the exhibition at the Victorian Archives Centre in North Melbourne or you can join the lecture on Zoom.
For those attending by Zoom the Zoom log-in details will be sent 24 hours before the event. You will be sent an automatically-generated email confirming your booking – if this doesn’t appear in your in-box please check your Spam or Junk Mail folders.
Citation for photograph: NAA: A6180, 20/11/86/6.

Labassa: Through the Eye of a Lens
2024-01-21 10:30 - 16:00 | Labassa, 2 Manor Grove, Caulfield North, Victoria, 3161, Australia
Labassa’s grand architecture and exquisite decorative features have drawn generations of amateur and professional photographers. From ‘wow’ shot to intimate close up, Labassa has it all. Bring your camera and take a guided tour or explore the mansion on your own. Join the hunt for Labassa’s quirky ‘critters’ and capture them on camera. No tripods, no flash please.

Canberra Resources Immersion Program
2024-01-14 | VIC
RHSV is again partnering with the National Capital Educational Tourism Project and leading Canberra cultural institutions to offer the unique Canberra Resources Immersion Program for present and past VCE Australian History teachers.
Participants pay a highly-subsidised fee of $875 which includes return flights, coach transfers in Canberra, accommodation, breakfasts, lunches and a Welcome Dinner.
Education staff, historians and curators of the Australian War Memorial, Museum of Australian Democracy, National Archives of Australia, National Library of Australia and National Museum of Australia are providing half-day programs and resources tailored to the current VCE Study Design. They will showcase objects and stories unique to their collections that can be used in addition to those in recommended textbooks.
Previous teachers of VCE Australian History are invited to informally share their historical knowledge, the resources they used, their skills and any ‘practical tips’ with Victoria’s current teachers, including some who will be teaching it for the first time in 2024. Victoria is the only jurisdiction offering a dedicated Australian History course at the most senior level of secondary schooling, and this program’s partners are keen to see it not only survive, but thrive.
If interested in attending or you have any questions, email Rosalie Triolo: rosalie.triolo@monash.edu
Expressions of interest must close on Friday 24 November, and payments will be due soon after.
We hope to see you in January, 2024.

VCE Australian History CRIP Teacher Itinerary
Canberra, Sunday 14 – Wednesday 17 January 2024
Managed by National Capital Educational Tourism Project
& Royal Historical Society of Victoria

Sunday 14 January

1.20pm
Approx
Arrive Canberra Airport (flight details TBC)

2.00pm
Free afternoon to explore Canberra Visit Canberra

6.30pm
Welcome dinner – Mercure Hotel, Ainslie Mercure Canberra

Monday 15 January

7.45am
Group Buffet Breakfast

9.00am
Museum of Australian Democracy (3.5 hours)
Contact: Stephanie Smith

12.45pm
Lunch – NAA Café

1.30pm
National Archives of Australia (3.5 hours)
Contact: Jordana Schmidt

5.00pm
Return to hotel

6.00pm
Free evening – dinner at one of Canberra’s restaurant precincts.

Tuesday 16 January

7.45am
Group Buffet Breakfast

9.00am
National Library of Australia (3.5 hours)
Contact: Aaron Minehan

12.45pm
Lunch – Poppy’s Café at AWM

1.30pm
Australian War Memorial (3.5 hours)
Contact: Robyn Siers

5.15pm
Return to hotel

6.00pm
Free evening – dinner at one of Canberra’s restaurant precincts.

Wednesday 17 January

7.45am
Group Buffet Breakfast – CHECK OUT

9.00am
National Museum of Australia (3.5 hours)
Contact: Marissa Beard

12.30pm
Travel to Canberra Airport

2.00pm
Approx
Depart Canberra Airport (flight details TBC)
