Joan Hunt is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society of Victoria, where she served several terms on Council, partly as vice‑president and partly as convenor of the History Victoria Support Group. Her work in community history spans thirty‑seven years, from Dandenong Historical Society committee membership in 1974 to involvement in the Ballarat region since 1980. Joan is a past president of the Ballarat Historical Society, a founder and past president of the Woady Yaloak Historical Society, has served two terms chairing the Ballarat & District Genealogical Society, and is an active member of other local historical societies. She is a co‑founder and inaugural secretary of the Central Highlands Historical Association. In 1988 Joan was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to study how local and family history societies in the UK organise and administer themselves. Joan has published a history of Ross Creek, a centenary history of Scarsdale Old Boys Reunion, and many articles and papers. She is currently working on a history of the Springdallah goldfields. She recently retired from her position as an Access Services Officer at the Ballarat Archives Centre, Public Record Office Victoria.