The talks are held every couple of months at the Port Arthur Historic Site, are free of charge and open to anyone who is interested in the topic. Rich and varied subjects and speakers make for fascinating listening and discussion.
For more information about our Port Arthur Talks, please phone +61 (0)3 6251 2324.
Wednesday 15 February, 2012
Protecting the children: the early years of the King's Orphan Schools in Van Diemen's Land
presented by Prof. Lucy Frost
At a time of public debate about governmental responsibility for children (in several different contexts), it is salutary to look back nearly two hundred years to the early days of Van Diemen’s Land when Lieutenant-Governor George Arthur struggled with the problem of how best to protect the colony’s most vulnerable children. This paper suggests that in the years before the Orphan Schools gained their reputation as institutions confining primarily the children of convicts—and hence a place of stigma—they played a far more complex and compassionate role in the community.
Lucy Frost is Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Tasmania. Her current research focuses on the experiences of the convict women and their children transported to Van Diemen’s Land during the first half of the nineteenth century. She is the co-convenor of the Female Convicts Research Group (Tasmania), and editor of the Research Group’s most recent publication,
Convict Lives at the Ross Female Factory (Convict Women’s Press, 2011). Her biographical study of women convicted in the courts of Scotland,
Abandoned Women: exiled beyond the seas has just been published by Allen &, Unwin.
ALL WELCOME
Wednesday 15 February 2012, 5.30pm at the Junior Medical Officer’s Conference Room, Port Arthur Historic Site
For more information call 6251 2324
Port Arthur Talk leaflet - Prof Lucy Frost
Thursday 19 April, 2012
Maria Island: How people shape places, and places shape people
presented by Kathy Gatenby and Tom Dunbabin
This presentation looks at the changing landscape of Maria Island, from the early convict period to its evolution as a National Park. It draws on the stories of the people who once lived on the island, together with a vast collection of historical images, as they explore the importance of place to the people who once called Maria Island ‘home’.
Kathy and Tom have very close associations with Maria Island - Kathy lived there as a child and Tom spent most of his life on a farm overlooking the island. Both have written books about the island, Tom exploring his ancestor’s farming experience in the 1870s in
Making their Own Way: the Dunbabins of Maria Island 1869-1876, while Kathy introduces us to the Robeys who lived there in the 1900s in
Viv and Hilda: meeting the Robeys of Maria Island. (Signed copies of these books will be available for purchase on the night).
ALL WELCOME
Thursday 19 April, 2012, 5.30pm at the Junior Medical Officer’s Conference Room, Port Arthur Historic Site
For more information call 6251 2324
Port Arthur Talk leaflet - Kathy Gatenby and Tom Dunbabin