AGM – Mon 22 August 2016, 7.00pm for 7.30pm
The Guest Speaker is Associate Professor Don Garden OAM, President of the Royal Historical Society of Victoria (RHSV) and also President of the national umbrella group, the Federation of Australian Historical Societies FAHS. An author/historian with particular interest in the environment, he will speak on Melbourne Wetlands and Water: a taste of environmental history.
Like any human settlement, Melbourne has been shaped by its environment, including water – both its presence and absence. A large open bay, many ecologically rich wetlands and a single significant drainage system – these elements have played a major role in the history of Melbourne and Port Melbourne.
Don Garden OAM
Don is not only a Fellow of the RHSV but also of the Federation of Australian Historical Societies. Don has served as President of the FAHS from 1996 to 2000, from 2008 to 2012 and again since 2014. He is widely known as a prolific author, beginning with his local history Heidelberg: the land and its people (1972). His Victoria: a History (1984) was the first single-author history of this state since H G Turner’s two volumes of 1904. Don lectured in history at Melbourne State College and then at the University of Melbourne. He has particular expertise in environmental history and in 2009 published Droughts, Floods and Cyclones: El Ninos that shaped our colonial past. As an active member of several local historical societies, Don understands well the issues that confront our volunteer bodies. He has been a strong advocate for history and heritage. Don received an OAM ‘for service to community history and heritage preservation organisations’.
Our AGM will be held this year in the recently renovated hall of St Joseph’s church at the corner of Rouse and Stokes Street at 7.00pm for 7.30pm. The entrance is toward the rear of the hall on the left of the church, so from Rouse just keep walking along the left side of the church to reach it. There is some parking farther along, behind the hall.