Annual Luncheon including Alexander Henderson & Don Grant Awards

Cost:  $55 per person

Booking forms are available from the office. 

Online bookings are also available to members.

Speaker:  Dr Liz Rushen is a well-known Australian historian and independent scholar. Liz is widely published and is currently working on numerous projects.

Well-connected governess Nichola Anne Cooke established the first ladies’ seminary in Melbourne in 1838, just three years after the foundation of the settlement. Conditions were still very harsh and Nichola experienced devastating personal tragedy. She needed courage and enterprise for her school to be successful, and she demonstrated many times that she had both. With the deaths of her family and benefactor within nine months of her arrival in Melbourne, she used her education to provide a source of income, establishing Roxburgh Ladies Seminary on the Batman property now the site of Young and Jackson’s Hotel in Melbourne.

Liz will speak about the history of the site as a school run by Nichola Cooke. She will be joined by Meg Goulding, CEO of Ochre Imprints Pty Ltd and a member of the Victorian Heritage Council, to speak about the archaeological dig currently being undertaken at the site and what is being uncovered.

Liz has an amazing repertoire of historical publications.