Friends of History at Melbourne

15/10/2026

Dr Paige Donaghy and Dr Jacinthe Flore are among the panelists at this event coming up on 13 November 2026

Join the Deakin SSN and 11 leading researchers to explore issues of medicine, ethics and history in health humanities.

13/10/2026

Come and celebrate the brilliant work of the Chariot community, which has culminated in our 9th annual journal brought together by Chief Editor Janice Hui.

We will be distributing printed volumes completely for free, so this event is a special chance to bring one home and support the hard work of our volunteers. Also on offer will be a generous platter of food and drink, and a chance to mingle with fellow Charioteers!

We can’t wait to see you there. 💙

13/10/2026

Sarah Craze is writing a book on Glen Iris and would love to hear your stories about diving off the diving tower at Harold Holt.

The Harold Holt 10m diving tower was one of only a handful in the whole of Victoria. Many municipal pools had springboards for diving, but platform diving requires a different training regime and specialist instruction. This photograph shows 17 year old Beverley Donnet diving from the 10m platform as part of the diving exhibition for the opening of Harold Holt Memorial Swim Centre in March 1969.

The Donnets were well-known in the diving community. The father, Tom Donnet, was an Olympic diving coach who invented a unique step to gain more height during dives. It is now used by divers all around the world. His wife Barbara was a competitive diver. Their daughters Beverley and Jenny trained at Harold Holt during the 1970s and both dived for Australia. Beverley went on to earn 6th place in the 10m platform diving at the Commonwealth Games in 1972. Jenny preferred springboard diving and became the first Australian woman to compete at four Olympic Games. She was the flagbearer for Australia at the opening ceremony Barcelona Olympics in 1992. In summer, you can sometimes still see Jenny coaching Wesley divers at Harold Holt pool!

Jumping, bombing or diving off the diving platform at Harold Holt Pool was a rite of passage for many children growing up in Malvern and Glen Iris in the late 20th century. The platform was closed in 2005 after diving platform regulations changed and it no longer met the requirements. As it was included in the heritage protection of Harold Holt Swimming Pool, it could not be demolished. It was restored during the 2022 renovation of the diving pool and now stands as a monument to Harold Holt Pool's important contribution to Victorian diving.

Text by Sarah Craze. She is writing a book on Glen Iris and updates her blog on Glen Iris stories regularly. A recent post on the Malvern Baths: https://www.sarahcraze.com/post/the-place-to-be-a-brief-history-of-the-malvern-baths details some of the history of swimming in Glen Iris.

Image:
Diving from the tower at Harold Holt Pool
1969
Stonnington History Centre MP5371

13/10/2026

Dr Charlotte Millar on the Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer of Witches)

The phrase "ditch the witch" has reappeared in Australian politics recently to attack and criticise female politicians — always associated with images of broomsticks and pointy hats. But why do we picture witches that way, and why are they associated with evil? The answer lies in a 15th century bo...

09/10/2026

09/10/2026

Sidney Myer Philanthropy (2026)

In 2026 Roly Wettenhall assisted the University of Melbourne Advancement office by researching the impact of philanthropy provided to the University by Sidney Myer and his descendents....

In 2026 Roly Wettenhall assisted the University of Melbourne Advancement office by researching the impact of philanthropy provided to the University by Sidney Myer and his descendents. In 1926, Sid…

09/10/2026

Carlton Common Ground: Community Histories of South-West Carlton to 1945 (2026)

Project Outline Community partners and students are at the core of Carlton Common ground, a collaborative effort to recover histories of vanished communities whose stories remain absent in the material trcaes of the campus precinct....

Project Outline Community partners and students are at the core of Carlton Common ground, a collaborative effort to recover histories of vanished communities whose stories remain absent in the mate…

07/10/2026

Jacobin Bosman will deliver this year's Weston Bate Memorial Lecture, on the evening of Thursday 15 October 2026 at Sovereign Hill:

Beyond the Cities of the Plain: Settler Sexuality and Gender on Victoria’s Goldfields

Is ‘q***r’ history urban history? The urban/rural divide has long characterised histories of sexuality and gender: defining cities as spaces of a vibrant q***r subculture, and the rural or regional as empty sites to be escaped. The expansion of pastoral and mining interests in nineteenth-century Victoria, however, made non-urban instances of sexual and gender transgression routinely visible. At times controversial, sometimes exceptional, often they were simply unremarkable.

In this year’s Weston Bate Lecture, Jacobin Bosman presents a reimagining of how settler society understood, experienced, and expressed sexuality and gender through a case study of the Victorian goldfields (1851-1879). Focusing on moments in which the purportedly ‘unspeakable’ or ‘unknown’ were rendered publicly visible by courtrooms and newspapers, this lecture discusses the multiple meanings made of same-sex desire and cross-gender expression involving settlers in rural, regional and remote parts of the colony. In doing so, it presents a new image of this time and area. One in which ‘the q***r’ was as often a fundamental part of everyday experience, as it was a threat to colonial advancement.

Delve into the past and discover captivating stories from the Gold Rush era at our annual Weston Bate Memorial Lecture.