Meetings

Members and Friends Meeting

BHS has scheduled six Members & Friends meetings for 2023.   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 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.