Author, Researcher, Historian
THE LARGE INSTITUTIONS In 1849 the Mayor of Melbourne, approached a charitable organisation, the Dorcas Society, for urgent help with the children of a man who had murdered his wife. A stop-gap was found for these and other urgent cases of destitute and homeless children, the ‘uncriminal orphans and friendless children’. In 1850 the Dorcas […]
I found this gem when I was trawling through the Report of the Victorian Royal Commission on the State Public Service (1917). The Commission was chaired by one Alexander Gooch, Esquire. I quote from the Report verbatim. Employment of women Until the war forced the position, the powers given by the Public Service Act […]
Associate Professor Jacqueline Wilson and I have published this article in the latest issue of International Journal of Heritage Studies http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/IVwwDQZhmM8saZwXSuJF/full
This is the text of a short presentation I gave at a gathering at Monash University on 14 September 2016. The occasion was the 10th Anniversary of COSI (the Centre for Organisational & Social Informatics – a flash name for a dynamic group of research academics who work in partnership with community groups on issues around records, […]
A brilliant essay given by Maria Tumarkin at the University of Melbourne on Wednesday 7 September 2016. A short version was published in The Conversation on Friday 9 September – reprinted here with permission. Among other things, Maria asked: “Have we outsourced the witnessing of child sexual abuse in Australia to the Royal Commission?” Some say yes. Others, […]
This is an updated version of a paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Australian Historical Association in Ballarat July 2016 Scene 1: 1956 I’m 18 and studying at the Ballarat Teachers’ College in Dana Street. It’s our weekly assembly. We all stand up to sing from our blue song-books: ‘Ballaarat’. A city built on […]
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has recently released 55 submissions in response to their ‘Consultation Paper: Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Out-of-Home Care’ You can download and read the submissions here. This is my submission dated 11 March 2016. I became aware of the above Consultation Paper only […]
As a guest blogger, I posted this on the Find & Connect website today. Other Care Leavers share with me their shock at some of what we find in our records. The language hits us between the eyes. Our counterparts in the nineteenth century were tagged by a battalion of adjectives: criminal or neglected, destitute, […]
This is the final draft of my paper for the Biennial European Social Science History Conference of the International Institute of Social History to be held in Valencia, Spain 30 March to 2 April 2016. Read more about the Conference here. Given that there are several papers being presented on related issues, I will revise […]
Jingle bells, Cardinal Pell. An orchestrated campaign has been mounted in belated defence of Cardinal George Pell who told the Child Abuse Royal Commission at the last minute that he was too ill to fly to Australia to give vital evidence (here). There was wide-spread skepticism since it was widely known that he had flown […]