Ken James is a secondary teacher in Melbourne who has an interest in the history of small rural districts in Central Victoria.

Anne Herdman Martin is a great-niece of Robert Herdman and lives in Yorkshire England.

Marilyn Kenny is a member of the Essendon Historical Society in Victoria.

Louise Blake has been mining her family history for interesting stories since she was a teenager. She has a post-graduate diploma in Cultural Heritage Management from the University of Canberra and a masters in Biography and Life Writing from Monash University. She has previously worked for the National Library of Australia, National Museum of Australia, Public Record Office Victoria and the City of Whitehorse.

Dr Liz Rushen completed a PhD in history at Monash University in 1999, and was then appointed executive director of the Royal Historical Society of Victoria. Now an independent scholar, she is a member of the Professional Historians’ Association and an adjunct research associate in the School of Historical Studies, Monash University. Liz is widely published and is currently working with Dr Perry McIntyre on a project which explores the experiences of pre-Famine Irish immigrants to Australia, particularly in the context of the wider diaspora of this period.

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.