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.

Heather Holst lives in Castlemaine and became interested in the subject of ‘home’ through working in services for the homeless for 15 years. Her paper ‘Home Truths’ is part of a larger PhD project at the University of Melbourne on making a home in the Castlemaine district.

Rick Clapton is a second-year PhD student in the History Department of the University of Melbourne, where he is completing a research thesis on the criminalisation and policing of Melbourne’s traffic between 1900 and 1930. Originally from London, Ontario, Canada, he first became interested in drivers, driving and traffic during his time as Driver Rehabilitation Specialist (1999) at Parkwood Hospital, where he assisted people with disabilities to return to driving.

Dr Simon Cooke completed his 1998 doctoral thesis ‘Secret sorrows: a social history of suicide in Victoria, 1841-1921’ in the History Department at the University of Melbourne. He is the author of A meeting of minds: the Australian Psychological Society and Australian psychologists 1944-1994 (2000).

Dr Andrew Brown-May is a senior lecturer in the History Department at the University of Melbourne. He is director of the Encyclopedia of Melbourne project and his books include Melbourne street life (1998) and Espresso! Melbourne coffee stories (2001).

Fred Cahir is a PhD candidate and Eco-Tourism teacher at the University of Ballarat. His previous publications and MA thesis have centred on the history of inter-racial relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people of Central Highlands Victoria in the colonial period. His PhD thesis focuses on the role of Aboriginal people on the goldfields of Victoria between 1850 and 1900. His industry partner is Sovereign Hill Museum and Parks Association.

Jill Barnard, a professional historian, is a partner in Living Histories. Her recent work includes Welcome and farewell: the story of Station Pier (with Sonia Jennings) and Holding on to hope: a history of the founding agencies of MacKillop Family Services (co-authored with Karen Twigg), both published in 2004. This article is based on Jill and Karen’s research for the latter title.

Dr John Anthony Leckey has a Bachelor of Commerce, a Bachelor of Letters (Hons) and a PhD in history at the University of Melbourne. He is a member of the Professional Historians Association, is a Fellow in the Department of History, and represented the University of Melbourne at cricket. His book Low, degraded broots? Industry and entrepreneurialism in Melbourne’s Little Lon 1860-1950 was published by Australian Scholarly Publishing in 2005.

Dr Judith Buckrich was born in Budapest, Hungary and emigrated to Australia with her parents in 1958. She completed her PhD thesis on the life of the science-fiction writer George Turner at the University of Melbourne and is now an Honorary Research Fellow in that University’s Cultural Heritage Unit.

Jessica Ellen Stagnitti is completing her Honours year of a Bachelor of Development Studies at La Trobe University. Jessica’s research interests include Latin American and African history, the social construction of race, ethnicity and culture, social justice issues, and the lack of regulation in the cosmetics industry and the implications of this for consumers. This present essay has allowed Jessica to further develop her interest in writing history as narrative.