The 2025 AGM and Dinner will be held on Friday, 15 August from 6.30 pm at the Rendezvous Hotel, Flinders Street, Melbourne.

It is a wonderful opportunity to meet other members and learn about the activities PHA (Vic & Tas) has in store for the next year. We also vote on and farewell Committee Members. 

This year's guest speaker is Professor Alistair Thomson, prominent oral historian. He will be speaking on "Making History through Relationships: The Joys and Challenges of an Oral Historian." Al is an informative and entertaining speaker and we are thrilled he accepted our invitation.

EVENT DETAILS

Date: Friday, 15 August 2025

Time: 6 pm (for a 6.30 pm start) to 9 pm.

Add this event to your calendar

Venue: Rendezvous Hotel, 328 Flinders Street, Melbourne 

If you're not able to attend in person, register here for the Zoom link.

Cost: $70 for a two course meal (main and dessert), drinks at bar prices.

Registration Link

RSVP: Wednesday, 6 August

This is a popular event. Please register early to avoid disappointment. AGM documentation will be distributed closer to the AGM date.

About Al Thomson

Alistair Thomson is a longtime PHA (Vic & Tas) member. He has been teaching and researching with oral history since the early 1980s, and in 2018 received the Award for Teaching Excellence in the Arts and Social Sciences at the Australian Awards for University Teaching. Al is Emeritus Professor of History at Monash University and was previously Professor of Oral History at the University of Sussex, President of Oral History Australia, President of the International Oral History Association and a co-editor of the British Oral History journal.

His books based on oral history interviews include: Anzac Memories: Living with the Legend (1994 and 2013), Ten Pound Poms: Australia’s Invisible Migrants (2005, with Jim Hammerton), Moving Stories: an intimate history of four women across two countries (2011), Australian Lives: An Intimate History (2017, with Anisa Puri), and Fathering: an Australian History (with John Murphy, Kate Murphy, Johnny Bell and Jill Barnard) which will be launched this year on 29 August. Al’s co-edited collections include The Oral History Reader (1998, 2006 and 2015 with Robert Perks), Oral History and Photography (2011, with Alexander Freund), and The Bloomsbury Handbook of Oral History (2026, with Alexander Freund and Erin Jessee).

In our third OSS session for 2025, Helen Penrose discusses the art of history project management.

She writes: "How long should I allow for research and writing? What about the turnaround time for a client to read the drafts? How many days do the indexer and copyeditor need? What about the designer, printing and shipping?"

If you have ever felt nervous about these questions and how to approach project management, this is the session for you! I will outline the manifold benefits of a proper project plan and my step-by-step approach to creating a comprehensive plan. The session will focus on how to do this for a commissioned history project, but my techniques will be applicable to any project undertaken by PHA members.

DATE: Tuesday, 15 July

TIME: 6.30 pm via Zoom

COST: Free to PHA members

NB: If you have registered for a previous OSS session you will need to re-register for the Zoom link. This session will be recorded and made available online at a future date.

Registration will open one month prior to the event.

About Helen

Helen Penrose is a professional historian with HistorySmiths. A PHA (Vic & Tas) member since 1994, she is currently serving as one of the branch delegates to our national peak body Professional Historians Australia. During her three decades working in the field, she has specialised in major commissioned history projects.

This year, we have two venues for our Coffee Catchups on alternate dates. We have also set up a WhatsApp Group for each one so you can stay informed and let us know you’re coming. All you need to do is register through your member account for the event to receive the WhatsApp link. You can register for both if you like.

Coffee with Lucy Bracey: The first Tuesday of the Month at 10 am, Pearson and Murphy’s near the State Library of Victoria. Register here.  

Coffee with Sophie Couchman: The third Monday of the Month at 10 am, Levanter Cafe, Balaclava (St Kilda). Register here.

First session: Monday, 17 February at 10 am.

Register for the Zoom link

Making dollars and sense as a consulting historian

In the second OSS Session for 2025, Katherine Sheedy discusses the business of being a historian.

She writes, "When I started Way Back When with friend and colleague Sarah Rood 20 years ago, we embarked on a journey as small business owners as well as professional historians. In this session, I will use my experience to share some of the critical aspects of being a consultant: business planning and logistics, building your brand, writing a good proposal, pitching your ideas, project and resource management, tendering and costing, the balance of working on the business and working in the business, and juggling jobs and workflow.

Event details

Date: Tuesday, 13 May 2025

Time: 6.30 pm via Zoom

Cost: Free for PHA members

NB: If you have registered for a previous OSS session you will need to re-register for the Zoom link. This session will be recorded and made available online at a future date.

Registration is now open.

About Katherine

Katherine Sheedy is part of Way Back When Consulting Historians, a team of professional historians who work with individuals and groups to produce histories in a variety of forms. Katherine’s work includes commissioned histories, heritage research, exhibition interpretation and oral history projects. She represents PHA (Vic & Tas) on the History Council of Victoria and the Provenance Editorial Board.

More about Way Back When.

PHA (Vic & Tas) and Oral History Victoria are pleased to present this opportunity to learn more about the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Act (2006).

Presenters Maddi Maitri and Anoushka Lenffer from First Peoples State Relations will provide an overview of how the Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006 operates to protect Aboriginal cultural heritage and Aboriginal intangible heritage in Victoria. Our conversation will discuss the role of Heritage Advisors, including historians, and explore ways historians can contribute to the recording and management of Aboriginal cultural heritage.

DATE: Tuesday, 1 April 2025

TIME: 6:30 pm

This session will be hosted via Zoom and is free of charge for PHA (Vic & Tas) and Oral History Victoria members. Please register to be sent the Zoom link before the meeting.

If you are a member of both organisations, please select PHA (Vic & Tas) as this will be recorded in your profile for Professional Development Program purposes.

ABOUT OUR PRESENTERS

Maddy Maitri is a Senior Heritage Project Officer in the Ongoing Protection Declarations program in First Peoples State Relations in the Victorian Government. She has several decades of experience working in the historical and Aboriginal heritage management sectors as a heritage advisor, researcher and educator.

Anoushka Lenffer is a Senior Heritage Policy Officer also in First Peoples State Relations. As well as experience working with the Aboriginal Heritage Act, she has a background in native title research and policy and dispute resolution.

In the first OSS Session for 2025, Judy discusses history publishing in Australia. 

She writes, "Perhaps the most important point about getting your work published is that you really have to believe in your project. Publishing your own book is not difficult – selling it is.  If you think you might find a publisher then it must be the kind that has published other books like yours. Some are easily approachable, some are not. There are vanity publishers to be wary of too. Using social media to sell your book is really important as well as finding organisations and groups that will let you ‘advertise’. I will also discuss using crowd funding to pre-sell books."

About Judy

Dr Judith Buckrich has written sixteen books about Melbourne people and places, as well as works for the theatre, short stories, feature articles and essays. She has published three of her own books and had 13 published, some of which were commissioned, some for which she has found a publisher.

More about Judy and her books.

Date: Tuesday, 11 March 2025

Time: 6:30 - 7:30 pm

Location: Via Zoom

Registration is free to all PHA (Vic & Tas) members but required to obtain the Zoom link. Registration Link

About the session

This session forms part of a quarterly program providing skills sharing sessions to our members.  This session will be recorded. If you do not wish to appear in the recording, you may mute your video/audio options.

Our annual New Year networking event is back for another year! This is a great opportunity to meet other PHA (Vic & Tas) members in a relaxed and central setting. It's free and all you need to do is let us know you're coming.

Drinks at bar prices.

WHEN: Thursday, 6 February from 6 pm

WHERE: Time Out, Federation Square, Melbourne CBD

RSVPs Due:  Monday, 3 February

Attendance at a PHA (Vic & Tas) event awards you 20 points in the Professional Development Program.

It's time to celebrate and reflect on your work this year with other PHA (Vic & Tas) members!

Take this opportunity to:

• tell other historians about your work or show us what you've accomplished

• meet and chat with other members about what they've been up to

• learn from each other’s experiences and debrief on difficult challenges the year has thrown at us all

• talk to members of our Committee about your ideas for PHA (Vic & Tas).

This event is a relaxed and supportive way to round out your professional work for the year!

WHEN: Thursday, 5 December from 6.30 pm

WHERE: The Kathleen Syme Library, 251 Faraday Street, Carlton

COST: $20 (members only)

Please register for catering purposes.

Attendance at this event awards you 20 Professional Development Points.

This annual event is held in collaboration with the Royal Historical Society of Victoria to showcase the work of emerging historians. Join Andrew Lemon and Sophie Couchman for an evening of words and influences of three of our members.

Hannah Viney: Telling a Story: Word Choice, Tone, and Intent in Oral Histories

Mia Martin Hobbs: Little Stories Everywhere

Alexander Potocnik: A remark made way back then…

DATE AND TIME: Tuesday, 22 October, 5.30 - 7.00 pm

Fee: $10 ($20 for non-members)

This event is available in person at RHSV in A’Beckett Street or via Zoom.

Register through RHSV and for more information.

Every two months, on the third Thursday of the month, a PHA (Vic & Tas) member will share their skills and knowledge in a particular area of historical expertise. This is an opportunity for members to learn from each other, including understanding the nitty gritty of making history in the real world.

Register Now

Once you have registered you will receive an automated reminder the day before each online session will run.

Session 3: Planning, archives and the fun (importance) of networking

With Deb Lee-Talbot 

Date: Thursday, 17 October

Time: 6.30 pm - 7.30 pm

Venue: Online (register for the Zoom link)

About this session:

What are the best social channels for a historian to share their work on? How can this time-sucking activity be streamlined? Should we share research in progress or only the polished end product? Above all, what's better for networking, in-person meetings or online gatherings? Join professional historian, Dr Deborah Lee-Talbot, for this PHA online skills sharing session she walks you through the process of planning to share your archive finds online to network with a range of audiences.  

About Deb: Deb is a professional and academic historian fascinated by materiality, religion, gender, archives, libraries and community engagement.

Save the date to join President Sophie Couchman, the PHA (Vic & Tas) Committee and members for an evening of collegial discussion and dinner at our Annual General Meeting and Dinner.

Date: Thursday, 15 August
Time: 6 pm - 9 pm
Venue: Naughtons Hotel, Parkville
Cost: $65 for dinner and dessert

Dr Jill Barnard will be speaking on "Fringe Benefits" - Reflections on the Intangible Rewards of Professional History.

Jill has been a PHA (Vic & Tas) member since 1991. She has pursued a career in professional history predominantly as a consultant in the Living Histories partnership with Sonia Jennings, Mary Sheehan and Karen Twigg. In 2024 she was awarded a PhD from Monash University for her thesis entitled ‘The Family Lives of Forgotten Australians’.

Places are limited so register now to avoid disappointment.

Can’t make it to Naughton’s? Register to attend via Zoom.

Do you want to plan a personal marketing strategy that reflects your career goals? Are you:

• just starting out building a history consultancy?

• an established historian seeking to shift into a new area?

• seeking to establish yourself as an authority on your subject matter?

• wanting to maintain an online presence for your work?

• seeking more public recognition or business opportunities?

• seeking to showcase new skills you have acquired?

If the answer is ‘yes’ to any of the questions, then the ‘Marketing Yourself’ masterclass is for you!

The workshop will be conducted by Trevor Young, an excellent trainer who ‘enjoys working with true professionals who are passionate about their work.’ 

For this Masterclass, Trevor has put together a half-day session focused on professional profile building. You will learn the best ways to promote yourself through owned media, social media and earned media, including where to put your ‘flags in the ground’. The session will be very interactive with time for exercises, discussions and questions. By the end of the session, you will be able to move ahead with clarity and confidence.

PHOTO SESSION

For the second half of the day, we have secured the services of professional photographer, Francine Schaepper. This is a one-off opportunity to have some excellent portrait photos taken to enhance your online presence and personal portfolio.

REGISTRATION FEES

$290 for masterclass and photos

$190 for masterclass only

$120 for photos only

BURSARIES AVAILABLE - Please indicate your interest in receiving one during the registration process.

REGISTRATION LINK: PHA (Vic & Tas) - Marketing Yourself Masterclass and Photo Session (wildapricot.org)

OUT OF THE STRAIGHT JACKET: THE ART OF ANTI-COLONIAL HISTORY

As Dr Rachel Buchanan researched the wild, globetrotting journey of five magnificent 17th century carvings made by ancestors in Taranaki, she also received an education in the art of anti-colonial history. From swamp to chateau to the House of Lords, through wānanga and discussions with the Hon. Mahara Okeroa and other mentors, Rachel will tell how she escaped the straight-jacket of historical facts to write a story that is closer to the truth of ongoing tino rangatiratanga - or sovereignty - for Taranaki.

This event is free to all. Please register to receive the Zoom link.

About Rachel

Dr Rachel Buchanan (Taranaki, Te Ātiawa) is a Māori historian who lives on Bunurong land in the western suburbs of Naarm/Melbourne. Rachel’s most recent book, Te Motunui Epa (2022) was a co-winner of the 2023 Ernest Scott Prize for History for distinguished historical writing that contributes to the history of Australia or New Zealand and the 2023 W.H. Oliver Prize for the best book on any aspect of New Zealand history.  Rachel was also a finalist in the inaugural Māori Literature Trust’s Keri Hulme Award and in the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards (illustrated non-fiction). Rachel has been a member of the Professional Historians Association for more than 15 years.

About the Wilson History Oration

The Wilson History Oration was established in memory of Dr Bill Wilson OAM (1942-2021). After retiring from a career in law enforcement, Bill forged a new career as a historian with an unwavering commitment to the PHA. Every year, PHA invite an eminent historian in their field to present the Wilson History Oration to PHA members across Australia.

Explore and revel in Australia's largest repository of historical materials about the LGBTIQ experience in Australia. 

From its humble origins in a filing cabinet in 1978, the Australian Queer Archives (AQuA) collects, preserves and celebrates material from the lives and experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and gender diverse, intersex, queer, Brotherboy and Sistergirl (LGBTIQ+) Australians.

Hosted by volunteers from the Australian Queer Archives, join us for a tour of this fascinating and unique collection.

ON: Thursday, 23 May at 6.30 pm

COST: $10 to contribute to a donation to the Archives. You are welcome to make an additional donation to the Archive during your visit.

REGISTRATION: Let us know you’re coming.

PUBLIC TRANSPORT AND PARKING: Information on travelling and parking near the Pride Centre. 

PLEASE NOTE: This tour is of the Archive, not the Pride Centre. The Pride Centre does run its own tours. Check here for more information.

DINNER: A casual post-event dinner can be arranged.

On the second Friday of every month at 10 am, why not take a short break and meet other PHA (Vic & Tas) members for coffee?

In May, we are running three Coffee Catchups:

In Balaclava, Coffee with Sophie Couchman at the Levanter Café (back room), 298 Carlisle Street, Balaclava

In Bendigo, Coffee with Jill Bomford at the Bendigo Art Gallery Cafe, 42 View Street, Bendigo

In Croydon, Coffee with Kim Meagher at Miss Lacey Café and Wine Bar, 50 Main Street, Croydon

Register to let us know you’re coming and receive a reminder email.

If you’d like to host a catchup in your area on the same day and time, let us know! Drop us an email with your preferred location and we’ll promote it for you.

Answer the Aboriginal people's call for allies by attending the Koorie Heritage Trust’s Building Aboriginal Cultural Competency Workshop.

This half-day workshop is designed to help you develop and implement awareness of Aboriginal culture and identity in to your historical research and writing. This includes understanding the impact of colonisation and past policy on Aboriginal people today.

Aboriginal history is complex. We encourage all our members to think of cultural competency as an ongoing development process that requires constant refreshment and engagement.  

To reflect our ongoing commitment to the truth-telling process, PHA (Vic & Tas) is pleased to subsidise the fees for this Workshop for members. 

Members Only registration

This event is eligible for our Pay it Forward program. If you wish to apply, please read the Terms and Conditions, fill out the application form and send to Hayley Webster.

On the second Friday of every month at 10 am, why not take a short break and meet other PHA (Vic & Tas) members for coffee?

In April, we are running three Coffee Catchups:

In Balaclava, Coffee with Sophie Couchman at the Levanter Café (back room), 298 Carlisle Street, Balaclava

In Bendigo, Coffee with Janette Bomford at the Bendigo Art Gallery Cafe, 42 View Street, Bendigo

In Croydon, Coffee with Kim Meagher at Miss Lacey Café and Wine Bar, 50 Main Street, Croydon

Register to receive a reminder email.

If you’d like to host a catchup in your area on the same day and time, let us know! Drop us an email with your preferred location and we’ll promote it for you.

This month join PHA (Vic & Tas) in sunny Bendigo for a personalised tour of the Golden Dragon Museum. After the tour we will chat Chinese history and heritage over a cooked meal at the Emperors Dragon restaurant.

The Museum holds artefacts that reflect the history of Chinese in Australia from the 1850s gold-rushes to today. Chinese have continued to be a significant part of Australia, constituting one of the largest non-British migrant groups in both the 1850s and today. This presence has had a large impact on Australia, from our immigration polices to our diplomatic relations in Asia. Bendigo plays a crucial part in this history having drawn migrants over with the promise of gold, to the annual Chinese dragon procession at the Easter Fair - the longest running in Australia!

The Golden Museum aims to tell this diverse history through a large collection of over 30,000 objects, documents, photographs and oral histories. As our own President Sophie Couchman stated in her significance assessment of the museum collection, "the real strength of the collection is the deep insight it provides into the Bendigo Chinese community as a whole. No other single collection in Australia is able to provide the depth of insight into the Chinese community as large as Bendigo's."

The ticket covers the cost of museum entry and a set meal at the Emperors Dragon restaurant. Register here!

On the second Friday of every month at 10 am, why not take a short break and meet other PHA (Vic & Tas) members for coffee?

In April, we are running three Coffee Catchups:

In Balaclava, Coffee with Sophie Couchman at the Levanter Café (back room), 298 Carlisle Street, Balaclava

In Croydon, Coffee with Kim Meagher at Miss Lacey Café and Wine Bar, 50 Main Street, Croydon

If you’d like to host a catchup in your area on the same day and time, let us know! Drop us an email with your preferred location and we’ll promote it for you.

Welcome to 2024!!

To start off the new year PHA (Vic & Tas) is hosting a social event for our members. Come join us at the Riverland Bar on the banks of the Yarra River for an evening of drinks, conversation, and a quiz!

Drinks at bar prices, all you need to do is RSVP! 

Join newCardigan and friends from ALIA Vic, ASA Vic, AMaGA Vic and Professional Historians Australia Tas & Vic for the re-scheduled annual GLAM Victoria Picnic! No RSVPs necessary, just come and enjoy the company of people in our sector.

newCardigan is a social and professional group for people who work in galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAM), other cultural and memory workers, and people who are interested in these professions.

For further details please see newCardigan’s event listing here.

Join us for a drinks and nibbles at the Kathleen Syme Library to celebrate and reflect on your week this year with other PHA (Vic & Tas) members. This is a chance to reflect on our work in a supportive environment with fellow historians. It is an opportunity to learn from each other’s experiences and debrief on any difficult challenges we have faced in 2023. Make sure you don't miss out on this valuable members-only event! 

Register here

Image: Jordan Allen, 1970, State Library of Victoria, filename: jo000337-005

There is more to researching the history of Victorian land than rate books, parish plans and Torrens titles. Sometimes even these aren’t helpful and can be frustrating, especially if time is of the essence.

Sue Walter will share some of her tricks of the trade and knowledge gained from decades of experience in working in land history. Many of tools for research Victorian land history can be found from the comfort of your own home, some for free!

This is a hands-on workshop drawing on real examples, and by the end of the session we hope you will be able to expedite your projects and have expanded your research skills.

Attendees will be asked to complete a brief pre-session questionnaire to assist Susan provide a session that suits your level of experience and expertise. Wifi internet will be available but participants will need to bring their own laptop. Please contact PHA (Vic & Tas) if you have trouble accessing a laptop. Printed workshop notes will be provided on the day.

This is a PHA (Vic & Tas) members only Masterclass. It is worth 20 PD points.

More information coming soon!

Image: Department of Crown Lands Survey. (1916). Bendigo. Courtesy State Library of Victoria.

As part of History Month, we partner with the Royal Historical Society of Victoria to host an event where three historians talk about a moment of amazing coincidence or serendipity in their research – it could be coming across a vital piece of information or finding just the right contact or network, seemingly by chance. It is always a great night to hear from young historians who research a remarkably wide range of subjects.

The hosts for the evening are Andrew Lemon for the RHSV and Sophie Couchman for PHA.

Speaking will be:

Kylie Andrews: Searching for the ABC’s ‘lost’ women producers

Nicole Davis: In Arcadia: Finding the Owners of Nineteenth-Century Arcades in Australia

Miranda Francis: Footscray High School creche - oral histories and archives

Visit the Royal Historical Society of Victoria’s events page to register your attendance.

*** Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond our control we have had to cancel this online skill sharing event. ***

Dr Michele Matthews on Historic Time Capsules: 19th century petitions, letters and report held at the Bendigo Regional Archives Centre (BRAC)

Celebrating forty years in 2023, since she commenced working as an Historian, Dr. Michele Matthews describes herself as a passionate social Historian, who loves nothing more than to delve into the stories encapsulated in primary source documents.  Michele has cultivated a long-term passion for the Petitions, letters and reports, now part of VPRS 16936 City of Sandhurst/Bendigo Council Inwards Correspondence, which she first met in 1983, while undertaking research for her Honours thesis. 

Twenty-five years after that first encounter, Michele was appointed the Archives Officer at the newly-created BRAC, a position she held from 2008-2018.  In a wonderful arc of serendipity, she cared for, continued to catalogue, and educate researchers and the public about that same correspondence series.

When Michele was seeking a project that would both showcase and preserve an aspect of the BRAC collection, she turned to the hundreds of Petitions held within VPRS 16936.  A successful Community History grant application enabled the purchase of a state-of-the-art digital camera.  Armed with this, and a team of dedicated volunteers, Michele (and co-staffer Marg) set up a system for identifying, transcribing and digitising over 500 Petitions.  Issues covered in these primary source “time capsules” included Infrastructure (roads, footpaths, bridges), Lighting, Women’s concerns, occupations, parks and gardens, nuisances, and staff.

Michele will discuss examples from these Petitions, as well as from letters and reports.  Light will be shed on fascinating stories of individuals’ lives, the issues locals were passionate about, the success, or not, of united people power, personal appeals to the Council, and the day-to-day workings of a nineteenth century regional Council.  Reports by Council staff, penned between the 1870s-1890s, span topics as diverse as industries, health, parks and gardens, bye laws, street trees, and racism.

To register for the event, visit our website here.

Dr Adel Yousif and the Impact of Colonialism on Health: Lutriwita and Palestine Compared

This presentation highlights the effect of colonisation on indigenous peoples human rights and access to food, health, shelter and personal safety. We estimate the effect of colonisation on the size of Tasmania’s palawa population in 1800. We detail the ways in which the colonisation of lutruwita impacted upon palawa society and summarise the lessons that can be gleaned from this. We end by illustrating the ongoing effects of colonisation by comparing contemporary health outcomes for First Nation and Palestinian populations living in the state of Israel, Gaza and the occupied west bank of Palestine. 

Dr. Adel Yousif is the first in his extended family to have a nationality/passport "Australian" received in 1995. His father was born in Haifa, Palestine. His family were farmers growing their olives and tending their land and livestock as they had done for generations. In April and May 1948, Zionist militia attacked his father’s village “Ayn Gazal” and members of his father’s family were killed and evicted from the area which is now part of Israel. They have been refugees ever since. His father and grandfather both died without a passport or nationality. He is now married, living in Hobart and working as an academic.

Hamish Maxwell-Stewart is a professor of heritage and digital humanities at the University of New England and CEO of Digital History Tasmania. He specialises in using big data to explore the impacts of colonisation and forced labour on health and social inequality.

Jointly sponsored by the State Library and Archive Service of Tasmania and the Professional Historians Association Vic & Tas, the Libraries Tasmania Talks are a series of monthly public lectures held at the Hobart Library. They can be attended free at the Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts or viewed online via the Webinar.

Professor Greg Lehman is an art historian, an award-winning curator and writer, and a well-known public commentator on Indigenous history, identity and place. In 2017, Greg led the development of First Tasmanians, the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery’s first permanent Indigenous gallery. Together with Tim Bonyhady, he also co-curated The National Picture: the Art of Tasmania’s Black War for the National Gallery of Australia, which won the 2019 Museums and Galleries Australia Award for Travelling Exhibitions. 

To register for the event visit the Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts website.

You can listen to all previous lectures on their Soundcloud website.

Ian Terry: Uninnocent Landscapes: following George Augustus Robinson’s Big River Mission

For more than two years Ian Terry followed the route of George Augustus Robinson’s 1831 Big River Mission, which was credited with ending frontier violence in Van Diemen’s Land. Accompanied by 13 Aboriginal envoys Robinson spent two months walking around central Tasmania before meeting 26 survivors of the Lairmerrener and Paredarerme people west of Lake Echo promising them that if they stopped resisting invasion and agreed to exile they would later be able to return to their Country. They accompanied Robinson to Hobart and after meeting with Governor Arthur were transferred to Flinders Island. They never returned to Country. Ian’s project was to photograph the landscapes the Big River Mission passed through as an act of documentation of change and truth-telling about colonisation and dispossession.

Ian Terry has worked as an outdoor tour guide, heritage officer at the Parks and Wildlife Service, freelance historian and heritage consultant, and, most recently Senior Curator of Cultural Heritage at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. Among the many exhibitions he curated at the museum was Our Land: Parrawa, Parrawa! Go Away! which examined the history of frontier conflict in Tasmania.

Jointly sponsored by the State Library and Archive Service of Tasmania and the Professional Historians Association Vic & Tas, the Libraries Tasmania Talks are a series of monthly public lectures held at the Hobart Library. They can be attended free at the Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts or viewed online via the Webinar.

To register for the event visit the Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts website.

You can listen to all previous lectures on their Soundcloud website.