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The Geelong Historical Society’s Research Tools

ByMichael O'Donnell
new society search tools

You can find a range of search tools designed to explore our archives and more.

We have keyword lookups, a natural language Investigator Assistant and two tools to explore Dr David Rowe’s Thematic History of Geelong.

The Geelong Historical Society provides easy access to a growing range of digital search tools. Whether you’re a member researching family connections or a visitor exploring local heritage, these resources help you uncover stories that shaped our region.

Natural Language Search of Investigator Magazine.

Search decades of Investigator articles by topic, place, or person. Perfect for researchers tracing local stories or historical themes.

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Dig deep into Dr David Rowe’s About Corayo.

This tool offers a plain English language search of About Corayo – A Thematic History of Greater Geelong.

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Explore the 1853 Letters from Pioneers.

Use this smart search companion to explore the 58 letters in Joseph La Trobe’s 1853 Letters from Pioneers.

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Explore Corayo using a Google Notebook.

This tool uses Google’s Notebook  to search David Rowe’s About Corayo – A Thematic History of Greater Geelong.

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The Investigator Assistant: Explore Geelong’s Past.

Step back into Geelong’s streets in another era. This tool allows you to explore over 60 years of articles published in the Investigator magazines. The tool keeps the reader inside our society’s archive and offers clear references to the relevant sources.

Start Your Search

Find hidden information in Historical Records & Articles Instantly

Search over 1,500 articles detailing Geelong’s local history, key figures, and heritage sites published across more than five decades of Investigator Magazine. Ask specific questions or search by broad historical topics to surface instant, cited findings from past issues. Every result links back to the specific volume and page number so you can easily locate and read the original printed record.

Explore the overarching social, economic, and environmental narrative of the Geelong region through About Corayo: A Thematic History of Greater Geelong. This tool allows you to query complex historical themes—such as early industry, land settlement patterns, maritime heritage, and municipal development—without needing to manually flip through nine separate documents. Answers include precise chapter and section references.

Dive directly into 58 historical letters written by early Victorian settlers in response to Lieutenant-Governor Charles Joseph La Trobe’s 29 July 1853 circular letter. Search for family names, early pastoral run names, squatter accounts, and initial European contact narratives. The assistant analyses the raw transcripts and returns cited excerpts matching your query alongside the author’s details.

Interact directly with About Corayo: A Thematic History of Greater Geelong inside NotebookLM, Google’s tailored AI research environment. This notebook format allows you to explore thematic chapters, generate custom study guides, listen to automatically generated audio overviews, and ask natural language questions against the complete text: all with grounded citations linking directly back to the original source pages.

Use our legacy keyword search to find information.

Step back into Geelong’s streets of another era. This keyword search of the Investigator Magazine, from its earliest days in 1965, had its genesis in 2005 when the Geelong Historical Society developed its first digital tool. In 2024 this tool reflected a pivot to the website.

Dive into the Past

Looking for a particular author or article? You can search for articles from 1965 up until recent times here.

Find an article or author

Michael O'Donnell has been a teacher in Primary and Secondary schools, in both Victoria and the Northern Territory. In another life he was an adventure travel guide in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. He is the current Web Manager and Secretary of the Society.

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