Female Migration from UK to Australia

Dr Liz Rushen has written several books about the early immigration of women to Australia. Were they the dregs of British society? Liz set out to discover just what sort of women migrated, and discussed what records she used to find her information. It is harder to...

Dr John McNaughton

I was born and raised in Melbourne, left in 1964 at the age of 23, travelled extensively in Europe and the United States, and made my first return visit to Melbourne in 1983, staying at my parents’ house at 16 Adrian Street, Burwood. In the twenty years away I...

Timothy Lane – My Favourite Ancestor

Jill Bant talks about her ancestor, Timothy Lane ( 1810 – 1860 ), and her research experiences:- ( 1 ) Who is your favourite ancestor, or the one you would most like to have known, and why? From reading articles about him in Garryowen’s “Chronicles...

The Port Phillip Games

In the middle of 1850 steps began to be taken for establishing public games in the Port Phillip District similar to the popular Border Games that were held in Scotland. An initial meeting was held on Saturday, 15 June 1850 at the “Governor Arthur” Inn,...

Old Melbourne Newspapers

Miserable Rags or the Resplendent Light of Publicity: The Early Newspapers of Victoria 1838 – 1851 In 1883 Australia was described as the land of newspapers, with the proportion of people subscribing to a newspaper being 10 times that of England. Tim Hogan,...

The Melbourne Story

The Australian History section of the Museum of Victoria was found to be quite unpopular with the public when it opened in 2000. It seemed to have no sense of story or history that people could understand and it was decided that a new approach was needed. Money was...