Guest Speaker Information

Kylie Rees is a Consultant Archivist and Councillor of the Royal Australian Historical Society. Kylie Rees is the former Librarian of the Royal Australian Historical Society, and is now the Honorary Archivist and a current Councillor. She works as a Consultant Archivist for The History Company. Kylie will discuss the various issues associated with looking after and using old photographs, such as storage, conservation, identification and copyright. She will also demonstrate products suitable for the storage of old photographs.

David Berry is a reference librarian at the State Library of NSW. He has worked in the library's Family History Service for over 10 years, providing family historians and genealogists with expert advice for their varied research needs. He has delivered numerous seminars relating to family history and shipping and immigration in particular. Currently he is a key member of library's research team, developing the "Shipping Navigator" - an online interactive research tool designed for locating and documenting the arrival of ancestors.

Carol Baxter is a Fellow of the Society of Australian Genealogists and the editor of the early New South Wales musters and convict indents. While writing and self-publishing a history of her First Fleet ancestors, she discovered the wonderful story of a political-sex scandal in early New South Wales and decided to write it as popular history — An Irresistible Temptation: the true story of Jane New and a Colonial Scandal was published by Allen & Unwin in 2006. In May 2008, Allen and Unwin published — Breaking the Bank: an Extraordinary Colonial Robbery, the true story of Australia's largest ever bank robbery which happened in 1828. Carol will talk about both books and how to turn research into a good story.

Robyn Hawes is a founding member and current President of the Friends of Rookwood. She is responsible for organizing tours and other activities to raise money for restoration of projects for the Friends of Rookwood. Friends of Rookwood is a community based organization, passionately interested in the restoration of one of the best surviving examples of a Victorian gardenesque cemetery in the world and the largest cemetery in the Southern Hemisphere. Approximately one million people have their final resting place within the boundaries of its almost three hundred hectares. Friends of Rookwood aims besides raising funds are to promote the interests of Rookwood Necropolis, raise public awareness of the social, cultural and historical aspects of Rookwood Necropolis and cemeteries in general.

Cliff Crane's presentation is an account of the first 31 years of the life of a Sydney-based (but ever-homesick for the country life of his childhood!) solicitor, "Bartie" Paterson who eventually was "outed" in his 32nd year as the mystery writer "The Banjo". From 1885 to 1895 Paterson increasingly pleasured an ever growing readership of Banjo enthusiasts who in that long period gained no hint as to the real identity of the revered author. Some of The Banjo's timeless ballads are narrated as part of the presentation. Cliff Crane is grew up in Gundagai (his family had been there for 5 generations) but has lived in Oatley for the last 50 years. Cliff is an active member of Oatley Lions, Oatley Flora and Fauna Society and more recently Hurstville Family History Society. He is an avid reader of colonial and family history.

 

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