In 2021, Society member Dr  David Rowe published his landmark study About Corayo: A Thematic History of Geelong. Completed for the City of Greater Geelong, the work received the Judges’ Special Prize at the Victorian Community History Awards 2022, recognising its significance in documenting the region’s cultural landscape.Rather than presenting a chronological narrative, the study explores Geelong’s past through a series of interconnected themes. This approach explains how and why the municipality looks as it does today, linking historical …

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 in the region. Her major works include “Women and Work in Geelong” (December 1991), “The Union Woollen Mill” (December 1990), “The Albion Woollen Mill” (June 1990), “The Barwon Woollen Mill” …

New Trial Feature: Search the Entire Investigator Archive Using Natural Language We’re delighted to share a major step forward in how members can explore our region’s history. The society has developed a new natural‑language search tool. With this tool members can search the entire Investigator archive, from 1965 through to our most recent editions, simply by typing a open question. A key feature of the Assistant is its focus: it searches only the articles published …

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 the spirited, good‑humoured and often improvised world of inter‑war soccer in Geelong, when factory floors, naval crews, and tight‑knit social clubs kept the game alive through enthusiasm rather than resources …

Louis N. Lane’s article “The Wathaurungs” from Investigator, Volume 23, No. 3 (September 1988) Pages 96 -109. Members can read the original from that month’s issue online. You can now also listen to a reading of the article by clicking the following link: A reading of Lou Lane’s article “The Wathaurongs”. This article was written nearly forty years ago, and some of the language choices may not resonate with the modern reader. Louis N. Lane …

Superintendent Charles Joseph La Trobe sent a circular letter to a number of early settlers in the Colony of Victoria, asking them to provide written accounts of their arrival and early activities in the district. He encouraged them to describe when and how they first occupied land, and to reflect—however selectively—on their interactions with the Aboriginal people of the region. Although La Trobe’s original circular has not survived, 58 responses were received. These recollections, written …

David Fisher of Roslin, Geelong – 21 September 1853 David Fisher’s letter is a wide-ranging firsthand account of life in the Port Phillip District soon after first European settlement. It is included in the Letters from Victorian Pioneers collection. Fisher, a Scottish-born settler, arrived from Van Diemen’s Land in the earliest days of Port Phillip’s European colonisation, he was both witness and participant in the transformation of the region from a scarcely known frontier into …

The author of Memoranda of a trip to Port Phillip in 1836 was Joseph Tice Gellibrand, a former Attorney General in Van Diemen’s Land (VDL) and one of the 15 members of the Port Phillip Association. His association attempted to claim ownership of all the land around Port Phillip through “negotiations” with the Indigenous peoples of the region in 1835. The fifteen members of the association were John Batman, a farmer, Joseph Tice Gellibrand, a …

A Society transformed by GOLD! By Harry Roberts The year 1854, just three years after Victoria became an independent Colony, was one of growth. The gold rush brought prosperity to Melbourne and the rural towns of Bendigo and Ballarat. Geelong also benefited from the increased trade and travellers. It was the gateway to the goldfields and it thrived on the wealth that passed through the town. Many of Geelong’s male citizens had deserted their domestic …

Hume and Hovell: ‘Knowing the Past, but not captive to it’ As its 200th anniversary draws near Michael O’Donnell reflects on Hume and Hovell’s epic exploratory journey, which reached the shores of Corio Bay near present-day Lara on 16 December 1824. Michael examines changing attitudes to significant colonial endeavours, expansion and settlement, acknowledging their destructive impact on First Nations people. This article was originally published in Investigator magazine Vol. 58, No. 4, December 2024. You …

Foster Fyans (1790-1870) played a significant role in the European settlement of Victoria and the dispossession of its Aboriginal people. This article examines a letter he wrote in 1853 about his experiences at that time. Fyans joined the British Army. He served in Crimea, Spain and in India. In 1833 he was transferred to Sydney and was posted to Norfolk Island. There he took charge during a murderous convict mutiny, leading to him being given …

Geelong 1839-1841: its early development. In the first issue of 1968 the Ian Wynd, the editor of the Investigator magazine, continued his ‘Story of Geelong’. His focus in the February edition was the early development of the township of Geelong between 1839 and 1841. He begins his account with the sale of the first lots in the township. Oddly the auction was conducted in Sydney with speculators dominating the sale. He explains the division of …

Little Scotland: its borders, people and stories. On April 5 1967 LJ Keavy was the speaker at the Geelong Historical Society’s monthly meeting. He had been a resident of Little Scotland, a small pocket of Geelong West, for the great part of his life. His talk that evening was recorded and transcribed for publication in the society’s Investigator magazine. His spoken word commentary conveys an intimacy and power that captures the spirit and atmosphere of …

This is the seventh instalment of the Investigator’s series ‘The Story of Geelong’, published in May 1967. Using John Wedge’s journals and a subsequent map of his explorations the writer takes the reader along on that first recorded exploration of our region. Included amongst his party was William Buckley and some other Wadawurrung men, and he provides a richly detailed account of the landscape and the occupancy of the area at this point of European …

Hume and Hovell The fifth instalment of The Story of Geelong was published in the Investigator magazine during November 1966. It covers the overland exploration undertaken by Hume & Hovell during 1824 and it provides interesting detail on their journey and their interactions with the Wadawurrung, which included the names of important natural features such as Corio Bay and the You Yangs. The next visitors to Corio Bay came overland. They were Hamilton Hume, a …

Listen to the article (10 minutes) David Collins and the Sullivan Bay Settlement In the fourth issue of Investigator magazine in 1966, the Story of Geelong featured an account of the ill-fated settlement at Sullivan Bay in 1803. The article focused on the survey work done by Lieutenant Tuckey as he explored Port Phillip Bay. It touches on, but does not expand upon, some of the more interesting historical questions raised by the actions of …

Grimes and Flemming – the Story of Geelong. In the May edition of 1966 the Investigator magazine continued its ‘Story of Geelong’ with the following account of the five week expedition to Port Phillip mounted by Charles Grimes and James Flemming in early 1803. Despatched from Sydney, Grimes’ party completed a thorough survey of Port Phillip with a special focus on the area from the Yarra through to the Bellarine Peninsula. This article from 1966 …