Friday 11am

The History of Children

Neville Bray has been interested in Australian History, particularly the Colonial period, for over 30 years and now have quite an extensive library of books on this subject. This love of history grew into an interest in Family History and he began researching his family history in the mid 80s. He was a foundation member of the Shoalhaven Genealogical Society but left after several years but rejoined the Shoalhaven Family History Society in 2002 and now serves on the committee. He is currently undertaking and enjoying the Advanced Diploma in Local, Family and Applied History as an external student with the University of New England.

His presentation is called The History of Children. This talk looks at the way in which the treatment of children and the attitudes to childhood have changed over the years in Australia. Up to the mid 1800s, children were expected to help support the family by some kind of employment. Families were typically large and childhood death rate was high. By 1900 families were much smaller and all states had introduced compulsory education. By the 1940s there were various competing theories about raising children and this became a topic of education.

Now children have rights and protection under the law and the period of education and childhood is much longer so families typically are quite small with two children being the norm.

Friday 1pm

The TSS Merimbulla

Colin Jack

Friday 2pm

General Monash

Peter Sixsmith worked as electrician in Pt Kembla area and New Guinea. In 1968 joined T.A.F.E. As an Electrical Trades Teacher. Taught at St. George and Wollongong. Joined ranks of T.A.F.E. Principals in 1977 when appointed to Young T.A.F.E. College.

Completed a B.A. By external studies with Charles Sturt University. Other appointments were at Deniliquin and Broken Hill. In 1990 appointed to Wagga Wagga as Network Manager. Retired at end of 1991. Moved to Nowra in 1994.

Is a keen member of U3A Shoalhaven. At various times has been on management committee. Peter has deliver talks on historical subjects - mostly to do with Australian History and Politics.

His presentation, named General Monash, will be emphasizing General Monash’s ability to plan what ever task was his so that results were invariably successful. This ability was evident in both war and his working life as Australia’s leading civil engineer.

Peter will stress the hurdles put in the General’s way due to his German ancestry, being Jewish and the fact that he was a part time soldier.

Saturday 10.30am

Christine Yeats - State Records Office of NSW

Your place: your locality

The NSW State archives collection is an invaluable resource for those researching people and their links to particular localities or places. The linking persons to places is an important component of any local history research project. This talk will explore some of the key sources in the collection relating to the Nowra area. It will draw on selected examples from the records to showcase the holdings.

Christine Yeats manages the Public Access program at State Records NSW, providing direction for its principal streams of activity - the reading room services, research, outreach and other public activities and initiatives. Christine is Treasurer of the History Council; Convenor of the ASA Reference, Access and Public Programs Special Interest Group; President of the Randwick and District Historical Society; a member of the Sydney Joint Committee of the Australia Women's Archives Project and the UNESCO Australian Memory of the World Committee. Christine is also a member of the Professional Historians Association of NSW.

Saturday 11.30am

Ancestry.com

Brad Argent is the Australian representative of Ancestry.com and will speak on the wonders of the information available on Ancestry to anyone interested in any form of history.

Saturday 12.30pm

Jewish Families in the Early Shoalhaven

Deanne Rosenthal will speak on the Jewish pioneers of the Shoalhaven district. Although not related to these families, during her research Deanne has become quite attached to the Hyam and Moses families in particular and has some very interesting information to share about these early Shoalhaven settlers.

Saturday 2.00pm

Post Cards from the Past

Alison Spencer joined the staff of Penrith City Library in March 1977, working at the Central Library which was then located in Henry Street. In 1979 she moved to the new St Marys Branch Library where she remained until 1986. Returning to the central library at Penrith, she was responsible for the inter-library loans service. Having always enjoyed reference and research work, Alison became involved with the Technical Library (or Corporate Collection) when it was created for the new Civic Centre library in 1994. This meant working more closely with her other council colleagues and with Local Studies staff.

From 2000 Alison has been the ‘curator’ of the photographic collection. This work involves the cataloguing, care & conservation of this large collection. This work has enabled Penrith City Library to create a web based photographic library called ‘Penrith in Pictures’, which was launched in 2006.

The presentation is called 'A Passion for Postcards'. The presentation explores the history of postcards, with specific reference to the Joyce Cole Collection held at Penrith City Library. This collection contains over 170 postcards of the Penrith area from the turn of the nineteenth century to present day.