Ann Hodgkinson has a PhD in economics and worked for over 25 years as a university academic in Victoria and New South Wales, examining regional development, small business and environmental economics. On retirement she completed a Graduate Diploma in Local, Family and Applied History at the University of New England. She began volunteering at the Bellarine Historical Society, Drysdale, where she is now president. Ann combines her prior knowledge of economics with new skills in historical research, focusing on the colonial economic history of her local area. Her work explores the histories of grazing and farming properties in the old County of Grant, the people who ran them and, particularly, the people who worked on these properties. As part of her studies, she examined the workers on the properties of the ‘lady squatters’, Anne Drysdale and Caroline Newcomb, as documented in Anne Drysdale’s diaries. This work has been extended to research the fate of these workers after they left Drysdale and Newcomb’s employ, with their stories added to the society’s webpage. A recent project traced the history of the now defunct property of Greenvale in the Curlewis area from its purchase as freehold in 1848 to its demise under the Closer Settlement Act 1906, documenting its occupants until the 1940s. This work has been published as a book. Ann also responds to public queries regarding families and properties on the Bellarine and provides talks to local organisations on related topics.

Author email: annhod712@gmail.com