Dr Helen Dehn is originally from Melbourne, where she worked as a property manager. She moved with her husband to Beremboke in 1985 and commenced studies at the University of Ballarat, gaining degrees in librarianship, literature and history. Researching Ballarat and its social history led to an interest in family history, particularly among families who immigrated to Victoria during the1850s.

Dr Madonna Grehan holds a PhD from the University of Melbourne, having recently completed a history of midwives, nurses, and the health of women in Victoria from the 1840s to the present. Her interest in coronial investigations was sparked when examining primary sources at the Women’s Hospital which reflected a coroner’s jury’s recommendation relating to the practice of midwifery. Nineteenth-century provision of care to the sick and childbearing women continues to be one of her major research interests.

Dr Peter Yule is a Research Fellow of the History Department of the University of Melbourne. He has written widely on Australian economic, social and military history and Western District local history, with his recent books including Ian Potter: Financier, Philanthropist and Patron of the Arts, and Steel, Spies and Spin: the Collins Class Submarine Story. He is currently writing a biography of WL Baillieu.

Anna Kyi is a historian at the Sovereign Hill Museums Association. Her articles expand on research she undertook for the redevelopment of Sovereign Hill’s Chinese Camp.

Dr Ian D Clark is an Associate Professor in Tourism in the School of Business at the University of Ballarat. He has a PhD in Aboriginal historical geography from Monash University. His areas of interest include Victorian Aboriginal history, cultural heritage management, attractions management, Indigenous tourism, the history of tourism, and Victorian toponyms.

Dr Fred Cahir is a lecturer in the School of Behavioural Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Ballarat. Fred has a Masters and Doctorate in Victorian Aboriginal history and was the recepient of the Australian Historical Association’s Alan Martin Award in 2008 for his PhD thesis, ‘Black Gold: A History of the Role of Aboriginal People on the Goldfields of Victoria, 1850-1870’. He lectures in Indigenous History and Indigenous Health.

Dr Frances Thiele is a freelance historian currently working in the area of Aboriginal cultural heritage management. In 1995 she was a visiting research scholar at Cambridge University and in 1997 won the EW Benham Prize for a PhD in Early Modern English History from the University of Adelaide. She worked for seven years as Field Historian at the State Library of Victoria developing websites and exhibitions, and collecting material for the Library’s Manuscript, Picture and Map Collections.

Kirstie Close completed her honours degree in history at La Trobe University in 2006. She went on to a Master of Arts at the University of Melbourne, which she completed by coursework and research in 2009. Kirstie is currently working on her PhD project at Deakin University, which looks at the independence of the Fijian Methodist Church. This piece was written for an undergraduate class at La Trobe and involved Kirstie’s first archival experience, at PROV.

Donna Bourke was raised on a property near Nathalia, in Northern Victoria. She completed a Bachelor of Education/Librarianship degree and embarked on a career teaching secondary school boys in Melbourne and Canada. Then, at a time of life when many are consolidating their careers, Donna and her partner left their jobs and began restoring historic homesteads. Longerenong Homestead in the Wimmera was one of their purchases and inspired Donna to undertake the detective work that brought to light the fate of the camels that survived Burke and Wills’ expedition to the Gulf

Christine Graunas is a retired editor and instructional designer with an interest in local history, art and architecture. Born in the United States, she emigrated to Australia twenty-five years ago. Christine holds a Bachelor of Arts in the history of art from Boston University. She presently lives in North Melbourne with her husband, Edward Terrell, artist and lecturer in the history of art, who provided the photographs for this article.