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DTSTART;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20250723T110000
DTEND;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20250723T120000
DTSTAMP:20260506T142831
CREATED:20250620T003205Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250620T003205Z
UID:10000183-1753268400-1753272000@www.oldtreasurybuilding.org.au
SUMMARY:In Conversation with Megan Herbert\, Political Cartoonist of the Year
DESCRIPTION:Join ‘Behind the Lines 2024’ curator Matthew Jones and Political Cartoonist of the Year Megan Herbert as they explore the exhibition and Megan’s work. \nMegan Herbert is a cartoonist\, illustrator\, and writer whose work appears in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Her cartoons in ‘Behind the Lines’ reference climate change\, the cost of living\, the housing crisis and more in her signature style. \nPresented as part of the exhibition\, ‘Behind the Lines 2024: No Guts\, No Glory’ on display at the Old Treasury Building from 21 July to 28 August 2025. \n‘Behind the Lines’ is a travelling exhibition developed by the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House\, proudly supported by the National Collecting Institutions Touring and Outreach program\, an Australian Government program aiming to improve access to the national collections for all Australians.
URL:https://www.oldtreasurybuilding.org.au/event/in-conversation-with-megan-herbert-political-cartoonist-of-the-year/
LOCATION:Online\, Australia
CATEGORIES:Free
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.oldtreasurybuilding.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Hero_BTL2024_Megan-Herbert_No-Guts-No-Glory_2024-sm.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="Old Treasury Building":MAILTO:bookings@otb.org.au
GEO:-25.274398;133.775136
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20250822T130000
DTEND;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20250822T140000
DTSTAMP:20260506T142831
CREATED:20250515T233321Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250515T233321Z
UID:10000177-1755867600-1755871200@www.oldtreasurybuilding.org.au
SUMMARY:Colonial Tourism: Objects of Martindale Hall
DESCRIPTION:The next installment in the seminar series from Deakin University\, Australian Catholic University and Old Treasury! ‘Material Histories’ presents new scholarship from a wide range of speakers\, all united by their passion for objects! \n\n\n\n\n\n\nFirst Speaker:\nSpoils from ‘The Tour of the East’\n \nIn 1930\, the white colonials\, Jack Mortlock\, of Martindale Hall\, near Clare S.A.\, and his younger brother Ranson\, and their manager\, E. E. Scarfe\, made a three month ‘Tour of the East’\, travelling in Java\, Singapore\, Ceylon and India. We have been able to trace their journey\, creating a Time Layered Cultural map (TLC)\, drawing upon the movie they made of the trip\, diaries\, newspaper reports and itineraries. En route they collected souvenirs and artefacts\, which they displayed in Martindale Hall.\nThis paper will examine some of these souvenirs\, such as the Javanese lampshade\, the Sri Lankan masks and the Taj Mahal lamp\, drawing attention to the colonial power relations which pervaded them. \nProfessor Emerita Margaret Allen\, University of Adelaide has researched gendered histories\, and also transnational and postcolonial histories\, focussing upon India-Australia 1880-1940. In the ARC project\, ‘Beyond Empire transnational religious networks & liberal cosmopolitanisms’ she examined the emergence of faith-based cosmopolitanisms in the interstices of multi-faith\, multi-cultural and multi-racial connected webs around India in late colonial period. This paper emerges from ARC project\, ‘Slow digitisation\, community heritage and the objects of Martindale Hall.’ \n  \nSecond Speaker:\nJoe Timbery’s boomerang and the politics of 1938 \nThe Smoking Room at Jack Mortlock’s Martindale Hall\, an Italianate Georgian mansion in the Clare Valley SA\, displays some fifty Australian Aboriginal objects\, including shields\, spear throwers\, clubs and boomerangs. The artefacts and objects in the Hall’s opulent Smoking Room are portals to new stories that take us through\, in Delia Falconer’s words\, the ‘back door of history’. These new ways of looking at Martindale Hall seek to show the hidden material relationships of class and race that underpinned the wealthy lifestyles of its inhabitants.\nOne object is described as ‘an urban boomerang’ and was most likely purchased by Mortlock in Sydney in 1938. This ornately decorated boomerang was made by Joe Timbery a famous boomerang-maker and -thrower from the Aboriginal community of La Perouse\, Sydney. The designs and the object biography of this boomerang opens an unexpected window onto the modern political history of Australia in the twentieth century. \nProfessor Penelope Edmonds is Matthew Flinders Professor\, History\, Flinders University. She researches in 19th century British empire and setter colonialism in the Australian/Pacific region\, transnational and postcolonial histories\, heritage and museums. She brings a critical theory perspective to questions of colonialism\, race\, reconciliation and redress\, humanitarianism\, slavery and unfreedom in the Australian and Western Pacific region. She has broad industry and professional experience in the GLAM sector. On the Board of the Tasmania Museum and Art Gallery\, she was involved with the development and delivery of its landmark apology to Tasmanian Indigenous peoples in 2021. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMaterial Histories is presented by Old Treasury Building in partnership with Deakin University and Australian Catholic University.
URL:https://www.oldtreasurybuilding.org.au/event/colonial-tourism-objects-of-martindale-hall/
LOCATION:Online\, Australia
CATEGORIES:Free,Material Histories
ORGANIZER;CN="Old Treasury Building":MAILTO:bookings@otb.org.au
GEO:-25.274398;133.775136
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20250925T170000
DTEND;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20250925T183000
DTSTAMP:20260506T142831
CREATED:20250912T025530Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250912T025530Z
UID:10000196-1758819600-1758825000@www.oldtreasurybuilding.org.au
SUMMARY:Making Public Histories: Australian Fathering and Family Life: Learning Lessons from History
DESCRIPTION:Over the best part of a decade\, we’ve been researching the history of Australian fathering and family life\, from 1919 to the present day\, working alongside a team that’s also included John Murphy\, Johnny Bell and Mike Roper. Drawing upon hundreds of oral history interviews from several national collections\, as well as memoirs\, wartime letters and submissions to Royal Commissions and government inquiries\, we’ve explored how family life and fathering (and mothering) have been shaped by shifting structural forces and cultural expectations\, and how diverse Australian families have negotiated those expectations and forces in varying ways\, influenced by personal character and family circumstances (see our co-authored book\, Fathering: An Australian History\, MUP\, 2025). In this webinar we’ll each focus on an aspect of the research and reflect on lessons we’ve learnt from the past that might be useful for contemporary families and social policy. \nAl Thomson will introduce the project’s aims\, approaches and sources\, and note key findings about fathering and family life. \nKate Murphy will focus on the Royal Commission on Human Relationships (1974-77) and what we learnt from individual and institutional submissions about family life and fathering in the 1970s. \nJill Barnard will discuss how an oral history collection sheds light on the family lives of Forgotten Australians. \nThe seminar is part of an ongoing series\, Making Public Histories\, that is offered jointly by the Monash University History Program\, the History Council of Victoria and the Old Treasury Building. Each seminar aims to explore issues and approaches in making public histories. The seminars are open\, free of charge\, to anyone interested in the creation and impact of history in contemporary society. \nWe thank the series sponsors\, Monash University Publishing\, the Monash University History Program and the Old Treasury Building.
URL:https://www.oldtreasurybuilding.org.au/event/making-public-histories-australian-fathering-and-family-life-learning-lessons-from-history/
LOCATION:Online\, Australia
CATEGORIES:Free,Making Public Histories
ORGANIZER;CN="History Council Victoria":MAILTO:info@historycouncilvic.org.au
GEO:-25.274398;133.775136
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20251002T110000
DTEND;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20251002T120000
DTSTAMP:20260506T142831
CREATED:20250912T025845Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250912T025845Z
UID:10000197-1759402800-1759406400@www.oldtreasurybuilding.org.au
SUMMARY:The Great Australian Dream- A Home of our Own
DESCRIPTION:Home ownership is once again a hot political issue. As house prices rose inexorably in the early twenty first century\, many young people found themselves locked out of home ownership. And yet the desire to own ‘a home of our own’ is still as strong as ever. Join Margaret Anderson as she reflects on the highs and lows of home building in Victoria\, from boarded-up streets in the Great Depression\, through the acute shortages of the post-war years\, to the peak of home ownership during the ‘long boom’ of the 1960s. We also consider how homes have changed over the years\, from the outside laundry and toilet to the ensuite bathroom and more. Expectations in 2025 are very far from those of 1925. \nMargaret Anderson is the historian director of the Old Treasury Building. \nPresented as part of the ‘Belongings: Objects and Family Life‘ online exhibition from Old Treasury Building.
URL:https://www.oldtreasurybuilding.org.au/event/the-great-australian-dream-a-home-of-our-own/
LOCATION:Online\, Australia
CATEGORIES:Free
ORGANIZER;CN="Old Treasury Building":MAILTO:bookings@otb.org.au
GEO:-25.274398;133.775136
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20251022T130000
DTEND;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20251022T140000
DTSTAMP:20260506T142831
CREATED:20250917T014357Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250917T014530Z
UID:10000198-1761138000-1761141600@www.oldtreasurybuilding.org.au
SUMMARY:Consuming Fashion: Fibres and Fun in the 1960s
DESCRIPTION:The next installment in the seminar series from Deakin University\, Australian Catholic University and Old Treasury! ‘Material Histories’ presents new scholarship from a wide range of speakers\, all united by their passion for objects! \nThe 1960s is a period defined by change. An era of unprecedented growth in youth culture and synthetic fibres saw the birth of two fashion icons: Barbie and Woolmark. During this online talk event\, we’ll delve into the history and impact of these two fashion giants. \nFirst Speaker\nPlaying with Barbie: Youth fashion and child’s play in the 1960s\nwith Dr Pauling Hastings\nMattel’s Barbie doll launched in Australia in 1964\, a time of unprecedented growth in the youth fashion market. Dubbed “The Teenage Fashion Model Doll\,” Barbie modelled teenage lived experience and aspirations to children\, challenging traditional images of postwar femininity and motherhood. For Barbie\, fashion enabled possibility. Through her expanding fashionable wardrobe\, Barbie reinforced new ideas on sartorial style\, fun and alternative women’s roles.\nDr Pauline Hastings is a Professional Historian and independent scholar. Her work on Australia’s postwar manufacturing\, marketing and consumption of fashion and textiles connects the material to broader histories of society\, culture and the economy. \nSecond Speaker\nFashioning Australian wool: the Wool Fashion Awards and Woolmark in Australia’s 1960s\nwith Dr Lorinda Cramer\nAustralian wool stood a fashion crossroads in the 1960s. On the one hand\, exciting new synthetic fibres linked with modernity and youth culture had electrified the clothing market. On the other\, initiatives directly focused on regaining wool’s footing strengthened. This included the Wool Fashion Awards that had launched the previous decade and the introduction of the Woolmark symbol in Australia in 1966. Both extended wool’s appeal for Australian consumers by creating a glamorous\, fashionable and high-quality image for the natural fibre.\nDr Lorinda Cramer is a lecturer in Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies at Deakin University. Her work explores the worn and material histories of Australian wool\, the gendered dimensions of dress and textiles\, and historical examples of sustainable fashion and waste in museum collections. \nMaterial Histories is presented by Old Treasury Building in partnership with Deakin University and Australian Catholic University. \n‘Consuming Fashion: Fibres and Fun in the 1960s’ is presented as part of Melbourne Fashion Week.
URL:https://www.oldtreasurybuilding.org.au/event/consuming-fashion-fibres-and-fun-in-the-1960s/
LOCATION:Online\, Australia
CATEGORIES:Free,Material Histories
ORGANIZER;CN="Old Treasury Building":MAILTO:bookings@otb.org.au
GEO:-25.274398;133.775136
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20251120T110000
DTEND;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20251120T120000
DTSTAMP:20260506T142831
CREATED:20251021T052000Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251021T234504Z
UID:10000201-1763636400-1763640000@www.oldtreasurybuilding.org.au
SUMMARY:Looking back on the Swinging Sixties
DESCRIPTION:What comes to mind when we think about the ‘Swinging Sixties’? Is it miniskirts and pop music\, street protest\, or the Pill? Do we remember rebellious youth and ‘the generation gap’\, or think nostalgically of a time of full employment\, buoyant wages\, and high rates of home ownership? In truth the sixties was about all of these things. Join Margaret Anderson as she explores life in the 1960s and asks did Victoria really ‘swing’ in the 1960s? \nMargaret Anderson is the historian director of the Old Treasury Building. \nPresented as part of the ‘Swinging Sixties’ exhibition from Old Treasury Building.
URL:https://www.oldtreasurybuilding.org.au/event/looking-back-on-the-swinging-sixties/
LOCATION:Online\, Australia
CATEGORIES:Free
ORGANIZER;CN="Old Treasury Building":MAILTO:bookings@otb.org.au
GEO:-25.274398;133.775136
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20251127T170000
DTEND;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20251127T183000
DTSTAMP:20260506T142831
CREATED:20251021T052827Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251105T003735Z
UID:10000202-1764262800-1764268200@www.oldtreasurybuilding.org.au
SUMMARY:Making Public Histories: Thinking about the weather heatwaves and history in twentieth century Australia
DESCRIPTION:Heatwaves are forgotten killers as deaths occur silently\, in homes and institutions. In urban and temperate areas heatwaves evaporate from our memory\, erased by the drama of fire\, flood and storm.\nEnvironmental historians recognise the importance of climate as not simply a “backdrop against which history is played out” but an active force in Australian life. Through hospital records\, diaries and press reports\, we examine daily life in the mid-twentieth century as heatwaves unfold\, finding that decisions about sleep\, food\, housing\, clothing and social interaction\, as well as professional and domestic labour\, were disrupted and negotiated.\nBy uncovering the everyday practices by which people negotiate weather\, in urban\, regional and remote areas\, we reveal how heatwaves have been crucial in shaping the Australian idea and experience of climate. \nJoin us for three expert speakers and a topical panel discussion. \nSpeakers\nMANDY PAUL- ‘Fearful heat’: the January 1939 heatwave in Tarntanya/Adelaide\nMandy is a public historian and museum professional whose current research interests include the history of heatwaves in Tarntanya/Adelaide\, and the power of museum collections. She is Head of Collections at the History Trust of South Australia and a visiting Research Fellow in the School of Humanities at the University of Adelaide. \nROCHELLE SCHOFF- Thermometer conscious: keeping an eye on the mercury in everyday life\nRochelle is a graduate researcher in environmental history in the Department of Archaeology and History\, La Trobe University. Her research focuses on drought and extreme weather and considers relationships between people and climate across regional southeastern Australia during the twentieth century. \nREBECCA JONES- Living with heat in arid Australia\nRebecca is an environmental historian with particular interest in Australian climate\, weather\, rural health and adaptation. She worked as a public historian in Victoria and at Monash University and the Australian National University. She is the author of Slow Catastrophes: Living with drought in Australia (Monash University Publishing). \nThe seminar is part of an ongoing series\, Making Public Histories\, that is offered jointly by the Monash University History Program\, the History Council of Victoria and the Old Treasury Building. Each seminar aims to explore issues and approaches in making public histories. The seminars are open\, free of charge\, to anyone interested in the creation and impact of history in contemporary society. \nWe thank the series sponsors\, Monash University Publishing\, the Monash University History Program and the Old Treasury Building.
URL:https://www.oldtreasurybuilding.org.au/event/making-public-histories-thinking-about-the-weather-heatwaves-and-history-in-twentieth-century-australia/
LOCATION:Online\, Australia
CATEGORIES:Free,Making Public Histories
ORGANIZER;CN="History Council Victoria":MAILTO:info@historycouncilvic.org.au
GEO:-25.274398;133.775136
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20260220T130000
DTEND;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20260220T140000
DTSTAMP:20260506T142831
CREATED:20260114T232331Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260114T232331Z
UID:10000220-1771592400-1771596000@www.oldtreasurybuilding.org.au
SUMMARY:Material Histories: Cuttings\, Combings\, Fettlings and Flock: Fashionable Consumption and Australian Wool ‘Waste’
DESCRIPTION:We live surrounded by material things. Some are mundane and utilitarian\, others exotic objects of desire\, but all our belongings have something to say about who we are and how we live. Objects reflect both culture and history. Individually and collectively\, they shape our lives\, link us to others and connect us to the past. Yet objects are often strangely absent from accounts of past lives. This seminar series aims to unpack some of the stories that objects can tell about the present and about the past.  We also hope to provide a forum for discussion for those of us interested in material histories. We aim to cast the net widely\, with no limitations on either time or space. \n  \nAustralia’s wool industry produced vast amounts of fine fleece from the nineteenth century\, spurring clothing industries globally and driving fashionable consumption. Yet wool processing and clothes manufacturing also generated waste – products like cuttings\, combings\, fettlings and flock. Salvaged then sold to waste merchants\, these materials had a second life. This paper explores fashion and its resulting waste by drawing together the mail order catalogues produced by the Melbourne department store Foy & Gibson and the invoices it issued for the wool waste leaving its mills and clothing factories. It considers the value of these waste products in their second life. \nSpeaker: Dr Lorinda Cramer is a lecturer in Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies at Deakin University. Her work explores the worn and material histories of Australian wool\, the gendered dimensions of dress and textiles\, and historical examples of sustainable fashion and waste in museum collections. \nMaterial Histories is presented by Old Treasury Building in partnership with Deakin University and Australian Catholic University. \n  \n‘Cuttings\, Combings\, Fettlings and Flock: Fashionable Consumption and Australian Wool ‘Waste’’ is presented as part of the PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival’s Independent Programme.
URL:https://www.oldtreasurybuilding.org.au/event/cuttings-combings-fettlings-and-flock/
LOCATION:Online\, Australia
CATEGORIES:Free,Material Histories
ORGANIZER;CN="Old Treasury Building":MAILTO:bookings@otb.org.au
GEO:-25.274398;133.775136
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20260312T160000
DTEND;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20260312T170000
DTSTAMP:20260506T142831
CREATED:20260216T005629Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260216T005629Z
UID:10000225-1773331200-1773334800@www.oldtreasurybuilding.org.au
SUMMARY:Media Literacy and Political Cartoons in the classroom (for Educators)
DESCRIPTION:The Museum of Australian Democracy is excited to work with The Old Treasury Building to present an online Teacher Professional Development: Media Literacy and Political Cartoons in the classroom. \nThis online session will provide tips and resources to help you use political cartoons in the classroom to build students’ media literacy skills. Join discussions about how to analyse cartoons with students\, and how you can work with students to create their own cartoons as a way to use their voice on issues important to them. With special guest Fiona Katauskas. \nBe prepared for an interactive session with activities to spark your thinking and discussions with other educators. Book online to secure your spot. \nThe Behind the Lines travelling exhibition is on at the Old Treasury Building from 2 March 2026 to 3 May 2026. \n‘Behind the Lines’ is a travelling exhibition developed by the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House\, and is proudly supported by the National Collecting Institutions Touring and Outreach program\, an Australian Government program aiming to improve access to the national collections for all Australians.
URL:https://www.oldtreasurybuilding.org.au/event/media-literacy-and-political-cartoons-in-the-classroom-for-educators/
LOCATION:Online\, Australia
CATEGORIES:Free
ORGANIZER;CN="Old Treasury Building":MAILTO:bookings@otb.org.au
GEO:-25.274398;133.775136
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20260326T170000
DTEND;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20260326T183000
DTSTAMP:20260506T142831
CREATED:20260216T005321Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260216T005321Z
UID:10000224-1774544400-1774549800@www.oldtreasurybuilding.org.au
SUMMARY:Making Public Histories: Women and the criminal justice system in Australia
DESCRIPTION:Women were outsiders in the criminal justice system for most of the nineteenth century. Unable to practice law\, sit on juries or serve in the police force\, they were subject to the operation of a masculine legal system. But this did not mean that they were without agency. Through the lives of three very different women\, this seminar explores women’s interactions with an evolving criminal justice system\, struggling to come to terms with new (and assertive) women as citizens. \nSarah Conquest was a working-class woman from inner Melbourne who engaged extensively with Melbourne’s Court system in the early twentieth century. Sarah navigated the Melbourne Police Courts in a wide variety of ways from the 1890s to the 1920s\, as witness\, as accused\, in an attempted prosecution\, in maintenance claims against her separated husband and for the state support of her two children. Later\, she was an inevitable presence as her younger son became entrenched in the criminal justice system. Sarah’s experiences suggest that working class women were not only the subject of state intervention\, but endeavoured — with varying success — to employ the Court system to their own advantage. \nMary Fortune was a pioneering crime writer in Australia\, and one of the first women to write police procedurals world-wide. Because she used the pseudonyms Waif Wander and W. W. her substantial audience did not know her identity–with good reason. She had committed bigamy when she married a policeman\, and her son George was a career criminal. That did not stop her earning a living with goldfields memoir\, female-centric journalism and of course genre\, for she survived as a freelance writer for over forty years in Melbourne. While George robbed banks and cracked safes\, his mother considered questions of reform and recidivism in her crimewriting. This contradictory and vital pair raise questions of gender roles\, crime and punishment\, and how the unconventional can be so easily erased from history. \nFanny Kate Boadicea Cocks was an unmarried\, 40-year-old South Australian woman who in 1915 became the first policewoman in the British Empire employed on the same salary as men\, and with the same powers of arrest. A strict Methodist and teetotaller who loved to shop\, Cocks walked the streets with a five-foot cane\, barking “Three feet apart!” at young couples caught canoodling in the Adelaide parklands. When she wasn’t rescuing young women from opium dens and finding jobs for wayward youths\, she was single-handedly cracking cases\, from drugs being smuggled aboard interstate coffin boats\, to the suspicious poisoning of children in a country town. Cocks’ work was so groundbreaking that it was reportedly copied by the New York Police Department and hailed as world’s best practice by the League of Nations. But despite earning an MBE and enjoying almost unrivalled renown in early 20th century Adelaide\, she has joined many once-prominent women in becoming lost to popular history. \nOur speakers: \nDr Jennifer Anderson is a managing lawyer at Women’s Legal Service Victoria. Her PhD examined the creation of the Children’s Court jurisdiction in Victoria in the early twentieth century. Her research explores the experiences of children and women in the early Victorian criminal justice and social welfare systems. \nLucy Sussex is an Honorary Fellow at La Trobe University. Her award-winning fiction includes novels and five short story collections. She has examined crime fiction’s origins in: Women Writers and Detectives in the Nineteenth Century (2012); Blockbuster (2015); and with Megan Brown\, Outrageous Fortunes (2025)\, about Mary and George Fortune. \nDr Lainie Anderson OAM is a writer whose 35-year career in journalism and public relations includes 17 years as a columnist with Adelaide’s Sunday Mail as well as stints at the Herald Sun and London’s The Times. In 2024\, Lainie completed a PhD with the University of South Australia\, researching the life of Kate Cocks\, the inspiration behind her best-selling historical cosy crime\, The Death of Dora Black. Lainie is vice-president of the History Council of South Australia\, board trustee with the History Trust of South Australia and a South Australian representative on the Federation of Australian Historical Societies. \nThe seminar is part of an ongoing series\, Making Public Histories\, that is offered jointly by the Monash University History Program\, the History Council of Victoria and the Old Treasury Building. Each seminar aims to explore issues and approaches in making public histories. The seminars are open\, free of charge\, to anyone interested in the creation and impact of history in contemporary society. \nWe thank the series sponsors\, Monash University Publishing\, the Monash University History Program and the Old Treasury Building.
URL:https://www.oldtreasurybuilding.org.au/event/making-public-histories-women-and-the-criminal-justice-system-in-australia/
LOCATION:Online\, Australia
CATEGORIES:Free,Making Public Histories
ORGANIZER;CN="History Council Victoria":MAILTO:info@historycouncilvic.org.au
GEO:-25.274398;133.775136
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20260327T163000
DTEND;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20260327T173000
DTSTAMP:20260506T142831
CREATED:20260205T033706Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260216T005757Z
UID:10000223-1774629000-1774632600@www.oldtreasurybuilding.org.au
SUMMARY:In Conversation with Matt Golding\, Political Cartoonist of the Year
DESCRIPTION:Join Political Cartoonist of the Year Matt Golding and last year’s winner Megan Herbert as they discuss Behind the Lines 2025 with the exhibition curator Matthew Jones. \nBoth hailing from Melbourne (there must be something in the water)\, Matt Golding currently draws political cartoons for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. A second-time winner of this award\, he is also a Walkley Award-winner and has received multiple Stanley Awards from his peers at the Australian Cartoonists Association. Megan Herbert is a cartoonist\, illustrator\, and writer whose work appears in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. 2024 was her first time being Political Cartoonist of the Year. Matt and Megan will reflect on what being Political Cartoonist of the Year means\, and how they work to distil complex ideas into short\, witty cartoons. \nThis talk is presented as part of the exhibition\, ‘Behind the Lines 2025: Are we Rolling’ on display at the Old Treasury Building from 2 March to 3 May 2026. \n‘Behind the Lines’ is a travelling exhibition developed by the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House\, and is proudly supported by the National Collecting Institutions Touring and Outreach program\, an Australian Government program aiming to improve access to the national collections for all Australians.
URL:https://www.oldtreasurybuilding.org.au/event/in-conversation-with-matt-golding-political-cartoonist-of-the-year/
LOCATION:Online\, Australia
CATEGORIES:Free
ORGANIZER;CN="Old Treasury Building":MAILTO:bookings@otb.org.au
GEO:-25.274398;133.775136
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20260329T110000
DTEND;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20260329T113000
DTSTAMP:20260506T142831
CREATED:20260105T002148Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260105T002306Z
UID:10000211-1774782000-1774783800@www.oldtreasurybuilding.org.au
SUMMARY:Glee East Celebrates the 1960s
DESCRIPTION:Join Glee East on the Old Treasury Building steps to celebrate the ‘Swinging 60s’ exhibition with a fun free set of much-loved music from the 1960s. \nWhat better way to mark a decade of change and colour than by sharing this unforgettable music in such a beautiful historic setting?\nAnd of course\, you’re always welcome to sing along! \nGlee East is a vibrant community choir of around 50 voices and part of the much-loved Glee Club Singing family.\nKnown for their warm sound\, inclusive spirit and joyful performances\, Glee East brings people together through the simple pleasure of singing.
URL:https://www.oldtreasurybuilding.org.au/event/glee-east-celebrates-the-1960s/
LOCATION:Old Treasury Building\, 20 Spring Street\, East Melbourne\, VIC\, 3002\, Australia
CATEGORIES:Free
GEO:-37.8134372;144.9742711
X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Old Treasury Building 20 Spring Street East Melbourne VIC 3002 Australia;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=20 Spring Street:geo:144.9742711,-37.8134372
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20260508T130000
DTEND;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20260508T140000
DTSTAMP:20260506T142831
CREATED:20260220T003729Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260220T003729Z
UID:10000229-1778245200-1778248800@www.oldtreasurybuilding.org.au
SUMMARY:Material Histories: Belief\, Magic and the Supernatural: the Power of Objects
DESCRIPTION:We live surrounded by material things. Some are mundane and utilitarian\, others exotic objects of desire\, but all our belongings have something to say about who we are and how we live. Objects reflect both culture and history. Individually and collectively\, they shape our lives\, link us to others and connect us to the past. Yet objects are often strangely absent from accounts of past lives. This seminar series aims to unpack some of the stories that objects can tell about the present and about the past.  We also hope to provide a forum for discussion for those of us interested in material histories. We aim to cast the net widely\, with no limitations on either time or space. \n  \nFirst speaker: \nA Boot in the Wall: Folk Magic in Gold-Rush Victoria? \nThis talk starts with a single\, mud-caked leather boot found sealed inside a small compartment in a Ballarat building and asks why anyone would hide footwear in a wall. Drawing on the Australian Magic Research Project’s fieldwork in Victoria\, I explore concealed shoes as protective charms\, links to British and European folk belief\, and what these quiet acts of “everyday magic” reveal about anxiety\, migration and community life in nineteenth-century Australia. \nDr David Waldron is Associate Professor of History at Federation University Australia. His research focuses on folklore\, local history and community heritage. His works include Sign of the Witch\, Snarls from the Tea-Tree and Aradale: The Making of a Haunted Asylum\, and the award-winning podcast Tales from Rat City. \n  \nSecond speaker: \nRuma Besar (The Big House): Encountering the Supernatural in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands \nThis paper focuses on Oceania House\, a colonial-era mansion located in the Australian Indian Ocean Territory of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. Now privately owned\, it was formerly home to the Clunies Ross family\, who operated a coconut plantation using the labour of “Malay” indentured workers until the islands’ integration with Australia in 1984. Known locally as Ruma Besar or “the Big House\,” it is believed by the local Cocos Malays to be a site of supernatural activity following the departure of its original owners. This research situates these beliefs within the broader Malay-Muslim context and considers what they reveal about tensions between official heritage narratives and local understandings of the past. In doing so\, it examines how supernatural beliefs provide a means of engaging with difficult histories and heritage and its impact on the present day lives of the community. \nMelathi Saldin is a Lecturer in Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies at Deakin University. An archaeologist and critical heritage scholar\, Melathi’s research looks at the relationship between difficult heritage\, local communities and cultural resilience. She is an International Member of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and Co-Chair of the Sri Lanka ICOMOS National Scientific Committee on Intangible Cultural Heritage. She is co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of Heritage Destruction (2023). \n  \nMaterial Histories is presented by Old Treasury Building in partnership with Deakin University and Australian Catholic University.
URL:https://www.oldtreasurybuilding.org.au/event/material-histories-belief-magic-and-the-supernatural-the-power-of-objects/
LOCATION:Online\, Australia
CATEGORIES:Free,Material Histories
ORGANIZER;CN="Old Treasury Building":MAILTO:bookings@otb.org.au
GEO:-25.274398;133.775136
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END:VCALENDAR