Society News
Members can use this page to find articles that are of general interest. For upcoming events you can also use the Events menu. At times there may be some duplication but the aim is to point readers to the widest array of resources on the site.
Latest News
President’s August newsletter
Key Dates August 5 Monthly Meeting August 15 Excursion – Noel Sharkey’s Heritage Vehicles Collection September 2 Monthly Meeting – at the Virginia Todd Hall. October 7 Monthly Meeting – at the Geelong Club October 9 to 18 Combined Geelong Heritage Centre & Geelong Historical …
Women and Work
You can listen to a reading of this article by clicking the following link: WOMEN AND WORK IN GEELONG Anne Riggs has made a substantial contribution to the Investigator magazine, writing with particular insight on Geelong’s woollen mills and the wider history of women’s employment …
The Snow-Flake Washer
Rediscovering a Geelong Original: The Snow‑Flake Washer You listen to reading of this article by clicking the following link: When Abby and Dale Stephan of Warracknabeal contacted the Geelong Historical Society about a weather‑beaten washing machine found on their family farm, we had little idea …
A Dutch Historian’s Request
You can listen to a reading of this article by clicking the following link: Interest in the Battle of Fromelles has grown steadily in recent years, not only in Australia but across the world. What happened on that quiet stretch of French farmland 110 years …
July Speaker Report – Beating the Bounds
Ben Petkov – Beating the Bounds You can listen to a reading of the report by clicking the following link: Senior Heritage Officer Ben Petkov joined the Society to present a lively and engaging exploration of Beating the Bounds, a once‑routine civic ritual that has …
Soccer since the war
Geelong Soccer Since the War – by Roy Hay Geelong’s post‑war soccer story is far more than a record of clubs, scores and competitions. It is a social history of the city itself: a history shaped by migration, industry, community ambition and the quiet determination …
June 3 Speaker Report – Jim Happ
Speaker Report — Jim Happ on Geelong’s Municipal Incinerator You can listen to a reading of this article by clicking the link below: At our 3 June meeting, Jim Happ delivered a rich and absorbing exploration of a largely forgotten chapter in Geelong’s civic history: …
Humble and Sons of Geelong
Updated in July 2026 this post now contains a reading of the 1988 article by C.G.T. Weickhardt on the Geelong Engineering firm Humble & Sons. Our society appreciates the Royal Historical Society’s Publications Committee for giving us permission to make this recording of the article …
Geelong Soccer between the Wars
Geelong’s soccer story has always been a story of people: of newcomers finding their footing, of workplaces and ship crews forming teams, and of a city learning to welcome a game that arrived with its migrants. In this revised and expanded account, Roy Hay traces …
A Reconsideration of a Familiar Photograph
Re-evaluating an old image of the pier You can listen to a reading of this article by clicking the link below: Every so often, a photograph that has sat comfortably in a collection for years begins to shift when placed under closer scrutiny. A caption …
May 6 Speaker report – Carolyn Stok, Archivist, The Geelong College
The first female students at The Geelong College Shaping Memory: How Archives Reveal the Story of Change You can listen to a reading of this article Our guest speaker last night was Carolyn Stok, Archivist at The Geelong College, who also had worked in a …
The President’s May Newsletter
Key Dates May 6 Monthly Meeting — Carolyn Stok: The Geelong College’s 50 Years of Co-education June 3 Monthly Meeting – Jim Happ: Geelong’s public health and engineering history July 1 Monthly Meeting – Ben Petkov from the City of Greater Geelong: on ‘Beating the …
Digging in to help their country
Source: https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/ARTV01062 To mark ANZAC Day, we reflect on a vital yet often overlooked chapter of Australia’s home-front history: the Australian Women’s Land Army (AWLA). While the contributions of those who served overseas are rightfully honored today, the security of the nation also rested on …
The Man Behind the Medal: Charles Brownlow
This is a review of a newly published article by Society members Bob Gartland OAM and Dr Tony Joel. It offers a fresh and deeply researched portrait of Charles Brownlow, not only as a football administrator, but as a community leader whose influence shaped Geelong’s …
2026 AGM
The Geelong Historical Society Welcomes the 2026 Committee The Geelong Historical Society held its Annual General Meeting on 1 April 2026, with 30 members gathering at the Virginia Todd Community Hall for a positive and forward‑looking evening. The meeting confirmed the minutes of the previous …
The April 1 Speaker Report: The Fyansford Paper Mill
The Fyansford Paper Mill: Industry, Ingenuity and Community Listen to a reading of this article by clicking the link below: The Society was delighted to welcome Rod Morrison to a well-attended meeting, with thirty members present. Rod gave a lively and insightful overview of the …
Images of Geelong
Over recent weeks the Society has been fortunate to receive several intriguing photographic collections, each with its own mystery, each offering a fresh window into Geelong’s past. One arrived from Toowoomba via the Ballarat Historical Association; another came from a member’s family archive; and the …
April Jigsaw Puzzle – The Paper Mill
The Fyansford Paper Mill Don Patterson has once again sourced an iconic photograph of one of Geelong’s few remaining examples of colonial industrial architecture – the Fyansford Paper Mills. This images taken around 1876 and shows the mill set against the sparsely treed local topography, …
All Saints Honour Board: Tom Hawkes
Among the many names carved into the All Saints World War I Honour Board, few carry a story as unexpected and far‑reaching as that of T.B. Hawkes. At first glance, his entry looks like any other—just a pair of initials in gold leaf—but behind them …
March 4 Speaker Report: Wayne McLaren
You can listen to a reading of this article by clicking the following link: Improving Fish Passage in the Barwon and Moorabool Rivers The Society President, Harry Roberts, opened the evening by reflecting on the changing meaning of heritage. Once centred almost entirely on buildings, …
March 2026 Jigsaw Puzzle
Geelong Industries 1891 Jigsaw Don Patterson has selected another iconic image for this month’s jigsaw puzzle. It has a Barwon River theme, taking you from upstream at the Barwon Paper Mills, down river via the Princess Bridge and the Barwon River bridge to the Tanneries …
Tracing Elsie Olive Evans — A Geelong Story Rediscovered
A century-old trophy leads to the rediscovery of a young woman’s life along Cowies Creek. An email from New Zealand and the photograph of a single silver cup, awarded at a school fair in 1916, opens a window onto a world now largely vanished: the …
PAWN BROKING IN GEELONG
160 YEARS AGO IN GEELONG (From the pages of the Geelong Chronicle) Daryl Wight’s 1864 piece on pawn broking opens a rare window onto a Geelong caught between respectability and hardship, where the quiet traffic of pledges and repayments revealed as much about the town’s …
Podcasts: the Story of Geelong
Voices from the Past … Stories for Today Stories of Geelong Podcasts bring the region’s history to life through narrated articles from the Geelong Historical Society’s archives. Each episode features a reading of a published piece from our publications, illuminating the people, places, and events …
Feb 4 Lecture Report: History of the Geelong Art Gallery
Art in the Park – A History of the Geelong Art Gallery By Dr David Rowe You can listen to a reading of this article by clicking the link below: This month’s lecture was delivered by Dr David Rowe, a Society member ‘since last century’, …
From the President’s Pen Feb 2026
Key Dates February 4 Monthly Meeting – Dr David Rowe – Geelong Art Gallery March 1 Membership Year begins from 2026 to 2027, and fees are due March 1 Investigator will be distributed March 4 Monthly Meeting – Wayne McLaren – Corangamite Catchment Management Authority, …
All Saints Honour Board: Alan & Doris Green
Across the western wall of All Saints, Newtown, the WW1 Honour Board has long stood as a quiet ledger of sacrifice. Many parishioners know its polished timber and gilt lettering by sight, yet few know the full stories behind the names it carries. Among them …
The February Jigsaw
Don has selected a solid gold paperweight presented to Dame Nellie Melba by the citizens of Coolgardie, Western Australia for our first jigsaw puzzle of 2026. You can read the full story online on page 97 of the Investigator, number 234. Jigsaw Puzzle …
Writing Indigenous History
How non‑Indigenous historians should approach Indigenous history remains one of the most contested and sensitive questions in Australian scholarship. The challenge is not only methodological – dealing with archives shaped by colonial power – but ethical, involving questions of voice, authority, and responsibility. Over the …
ANOTHER LOCAL HERO: ALBERT ‘POMPEY’ AUSTIN, A MAN OF MANY TALENTS
First published in Investigator Magazine, Vol. 53, No. 2, June 2018 A couple of years ago our editor, Lana Capon, wrote an article for The Investigator on Tom Wills, the charismatic and wayward cricketer who was one of the pioneers of the Australia’s domestic code …
The Index to our Investigator Magazine
Members have two options for searching the Investigator Magazine archive: first a search of the Index of Article Titles and the second is a Keyword Search. The Index of Article Titles searches through all the article titles from the first edition in 1965 up until July 2024. The second is a keyword search of issues from 1965 to 2009.
The Index of Articles 1965 – 2024
The following 2 minute video shows how to undertake the search:
How to search the index
Searching the Investigator Article Titles
How to search the Investigator by Article Title, Author, Year and other fields. The original index, which was published in 2009, has been updated to July 2024 and is available online on our website. Only members who have registered for web access can make use of the Search Tool. The following video is a quick 2-minute explainer of how it can be accessed: You can …
The Keyword Search of Investigator 1965 – 2009
The Investigator Index was first published in 2010 after many years toil a dedicated team of society members collated and indexed all the articles published in Investigator from the first issue in December 1965 until 2009. The main file in this index contains over 75,500 records – it was an amazing task!
We are now undertaking a trial of that Index online. This is only available to our members who have registered to use the society’s website. You can find the Keyword Search to the Index under the Publications Pages Menu or from the Members Pages menu or just click here.
It is also available as PDF document. Members can still purchase the database but we are looking at ways to make it more accessible.