The History Council of NSW hosts a program of speakers of outstanding quality and expertise, connecting them with organisations across the state to facilitate the sharing of their wealth of knowledge with the wider community, linking members with member organisations to bring history alive.
We invite feedback from Host Organisations, Speakers and Attendees via the buttons at the bottom of this page.
Our speakers during History Week 2019 were:
Michael Bodey
Michael Bodey is an author, journalist, broadcaster, speechwriter and strategist. His journalism and broadcasting has focused on film, media and show business, after a former career as a marketing executive. He is the author of four books, and is currently a media director and speechwriter within a NSW government department and weekly contributor to Radio National’s Breakfast with Fran Kelly and Steve Price’s Afternoon show.
Speaker Connect Lectures:
- 2019 History Week – Writing history for a community and being alive to fund-raising (Hosted by Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts)
Dr Mark Dunn
Mark Dunn is a professional historian, who has worked in heritage conservation, archaeology and public history for the past twenty years. During this time he has completed a range of large scale and complex thematic histories, heritage studies, oral history and interpretation projects. He was awarded a PhD in Australian history from UNSW in 2015 for his thesis on the colonial conflicts in the Hunter Valley, NSW and has a book coming out on the same subject, published by Allen & Unwin, in 2020.
Speaker Connect Lectures:
- 2019 History Week – A Landscape of Violence: Colonial Conflict in the Hunter Valley (Hosted by Lake Mac Libraries)
Fiona Reilly
Fiona Reilly is a designer, producer, and historian who works across the theatre, film, television, events and museums sectors. As a life-long researcher she brings the past alive – whether in lectures, in the documentary and film worlds or by staging events that enliven locations and the past. A passionate researcher of costume history, she left her position as Head of Costume at the National Institute of Dramatic Art to make historical documentaries full-time and to bring history to the general public. She is a Director of May Gibbs’ Nutcote Trust, a position that brings together her love of history with the work of one of Australia’s most iconic authors and artists.
Speaker Connect lectures:
- 2019 History Week – “The Recruiting Officer”: A Theatrical Palimpsest (Hosted by Singleton Council)
Dr Gary Werskey
Gary Werskey holds a PhD in History from Harvard University. After teaching for twenty years in the UK at the University of Edinburgh and Imperial College, he emigrated to Australia in 1987. Gary is currently an Honorary Associate in the University of Sydney’s Department of History. He is also a co-founder and past Chair of the Blackheath History Forum. Next year Gary will be publishing a biography of the British-Australian artist A.H. Fullwood, as well as co-curating an exhibition at the National Library of Australia on the artists of the Picturesque Atlas of Australasia.
Speaker Connect lectures:
- 2019 History Week – ‘Australia: A Colonial Settler Landscape? The Art of the ‘Picturesque Atlas’ (Hosted by Bathurst Library)
Dr Ian Willis
Dr Ian Willis is an honorary fellow at the University of Wollongong and a member of a number of professional organisations including the History Council of NSW. He has a particular interest in place, local studies, gender and the war at home.
Speaker Connect lectures:
- 2019 History Week – ‘Country girls going to London’ (Hosted by Mid-Western Regional Council)
