Meetings

Members and Friends Meeting

BHS has scheduled six Members & Friends meetings for 2023. Our new partnership with the La Trobe Art Institute in View Street means that we can drop in at History House for a cuppa after the meetings. Come along and hear an inspiring talk from a guest speaker and chat to BHS committee members and others interested in history and heritage. Suggest ways we can all celebrate events and people that have played
a significant role in Bendigo’s history.

Friday 14 April, 2.00 p.m.

Relationships between Art and History

Guest speaker: Emma Busowski, Curator, Bendigo Art Gallery
Bendigo strives to have the best offerings of art and history. At their best, both art and history provide the means to understand our shared, and sometimes conflicted past and its relationship to our present. By engaging with art and history we can be inspired to better understand and respond to the world in which we live.

Friday 5 May, 2.00 p.m.

Bendigo’s Community Museum at History House

Guest speaker: Euan McGillivray, President, Bendigo Historical Society.
Bendigo has never had a permanent history museum. Surveys and reports have shown that there is a large and diverse range of people very active in local history. Over the years some temporary displays have been mounted at various sites. The lack of a well-equipped central facility such as a museum, has led to inefficiencies and frustrations. Museums and heritage collections, like those in Bendigo, can be stranded between arts and heritage policy with less access to the kinds of funds available to the arts.

Friday 2 June, 2.00 p.m.

What is Bendigo’s Heritage Advisory Committee?

Guest speaker: Cr Dave Fagg, Chairperson, Heritage Advisory Committee
Heritage generally refers to treasured objects and qualities that have been passed down from previous generations. In order to advise the Greater Bendigo City Council on policy and matters affecting such areas, and to act in the community interest in protecting and preserving such important assets, the Council has established an expert advisory committee. The purpose of the Heritage Advisory Committee is to provide strategic advice, guidance and representation to Council on the natural, Indigenous and cultural heritage of the city.

Friday 7 July, 2.00 p.m.

Contemporary Art and Connection to History

Guest speaker: Bala Starr, Director, La Trobe Art Institute
Local history and collections reflect on the people, places and events that are important to us. Like local history, contemporary art also strives to be part of a cultural dialogue that concerns larger contextual frameworks such as identity, family, community, and nationality.

Friday 4 August, 2.00 p.m.

Short talks on latest research

Guest speakers: To be announced
What is the role of material culture in understanding the past? Historical collections and individual objects, when studied critically, offer perspectives that might not be obvious without the existence of those objects. That is why local history collections and historians play an important role in acquiring items for future study. These short talks will demonstrate the relationship between historical research and the significance of some BHS collection items.

Friday 1 September, 2.00 p.m.

History rescued from a rubbish skip

Guest speaker: James Lerk, Bendigo Historian
BHS has over 15 boxes of papers from Bendigo solicitors, Connelly, Tatchel & Co. Some papers go to a time when solicitors such as Dunlop, Smalley, Balmer, De Ravin were involved in the business. The papers were rescued from a waste bin following a fire in 2003. While some of the papers are quite dirty and are in fair to poor condition, many offer a valuable insight into the range of clients, especially local farmers, and the nature of a notable Bendigo legal business between 1880s and 1920s.