Meetings
Our meetings are held on the second Tuesday
5pm for 5.30pm start
March, May, July, September (A.G.M), November.
Great Southern Room
4th Floor - State Library of Western Australia
10 March 2026
Sue Graham Taylor - The Growth of Environmental Activism: The role of the WA Naturalist' Club
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Dr. Sue Graham-Taylor AM is a prominent Western Australian historian, researcher, and environmental advocate, known for her work with the WA Museum, the Conservation Council of WA, and projects like Swan River Stories, focusing on local heritage and environmental history. She holds a PhD, curates exhibitions, researches various aspects of WA history (from health insurance to waste management), and champions environmental conservation.
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Members and guests are warmly invited to join us before the meeting for drinks and nibbles. ​
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12 May 2026
Christine Harris - Ghost Towns in Western Australia
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FHWA project
Fabulous fortunes, shocking tragedies, mystery and excitement surrounding Western Australia’s many ghost towns are being unveiled.
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At present, our list of identified ghosts towns has grown to more than 500 with more being identified every day. Of these perhaps the mining towns are the best known. In the 1901 census the largest towns in Western Australia included the mining towns of Day Dawn, Kanowna, Mount Morgan and Nannine, all of which are ghost towns today.
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Western Australia’s size, vast distances, boom and bust and unforgiving climate have left us with many places where once there was life that now has gone or almost gone. What remains may only be a crumbled down structure or grid patterns of a few streets which have now all but gone back to bush.
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The project is providing a richer, more human connection to these places, by giving voice to communities whose stories are often overlooked or marginalised in traditional historical narratives. The project will ensure that these individuals and locations are not forgotten. Information gathered will be published on an online website and index.
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Members and guests are warmly invited to join us before the meeting for drinks and nibbles. ​
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14 July 2026
To be announced​
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Members and guests are warmly invited to join us before the meeting for drinks and nibbles. ​
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8 September 2026
AGM - Jane Lydon - The Abolition of Slavery and Settler Colonisation
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Jane Lydon’s research centres upon Australia’s colonial past and its legacies in the present. In particular, she is concerned with the history of Australia’s engagement with anti-slavery, humanitarianism, and ultimately human rights. She is is a white settler scholar who aims to carry out politically located research that respects Indigenous sovereignty. Her work has contributed to decolonizing heritage and academic practice, with a strong impact on debates regarding colonialism and Australian legacies of imperialism and slavery. Her most recent books include Imperial Emotions: The Politics of Empathy across the British Empire (Cambridge University Press, 2020) which examines the role of the compassionate emotions in creating relationships spanning the globe, and Anti-slavery and Australia: No Slavery in a Free Land? (Routledge, 2021), which explores the anti-slavery movement in imperial scope, arguing that colonization in Australasia facilitated emancipation in the Caribbean, even as abolition powerfully shaped the Settler Revolution. She currently leads the ARC-funded research project ‘Australian Legacies of British Slavery: Capital, Land and Labour’, with Zoë Laidlaw, Catherine Hall, Keith McClelland, Alan Lester, Edmond Smith, Elizabeth Anya-Petrivna and Kiera Lindsay (DP240101389, 2024-2026). She has authored seven books, and edited a further fifteen collections (including journal special issues).
https://research-repository.uwa.edu.au/en/persons/jane-lydon/
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Members and guests are warmly invited to join us before the meeting for drinks and nibbles. ​
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17 November 2026
End of Year Celebration
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Members and guests are warmly invited to join us before the meeting for drinks and nibbles. ​
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