A symposium on the history of State Archives in Victoria

Contributors

Professor Bill Russell, consultant historian for PROV, member of Public Records Advisory Council

• Professor Bill Russell is a member of the Public Records Advisory Council. He has had a long association with Public Record Office Victoria, having been an archivist 1968–74, a member of the Task Force on Records Management 1978–80, and Director-General of the Department of Property and Services, of which PROV was a Division, 1985–88.
• Bill obtained his Diploma of Archive Studies from University College, London, in 1973 and was the first Victorian archivist to hold formal qualifications in archives. His doctorate in history at Monash University, completed in 1980, was based on records in PROV.
• Since 1988 Bill has held professorial posts at Monash, Victoria and Latrobe Universities. He is currently an Adjunct Professor in the Latrobe University School of Public Health, Chairman, Review of Port Reform in Victoria and Managing Director of EW Russell and Associates, Management and Training Consultants.

Anne-Marie Schwirtlich, CEO and State Librarian, State Library of Victoria

• In February this year Anne-Marie Schwirtlich took up the position of CEO of the State Library of Victoria.
• A respected member of the archives and library professions, and until her recent appointment, Acting Director-General, National Archives of Australia, Anne-Marie has occupied senior positions at the Australian War Memorial, National Library of Australia and National Archives.
• Anne-Marie has served on professional bodies, in a leadership capacity, nationally and internationally. She has been President of the Australian Society of Archivists and of the Australian Council on Archives, and has been a member of the ICA Committee on Archival Legal Matters. She has taught archives administration at the University of NSW and has published on matters archival.
• Her distinguished contributions to the Australian Society of Archivists were recognised in 1993 when she was honoured by the Society as its first Laureate.

Professor AGL Shaw, AO, historian, former Chairman of Public Records Advisory Council

• Professor AGL Shaw is Emeritus Professor of History at Monash University and has had a distinguished career as a scholar in Australia. From 1964 to 1981 he was Professor of History at Monash University having taught previously at the Universities of Melbourne and Sydney. In 1982 he was awarded the A.O. for services to education.
• He is a Fellow of the Australian Academies of the Humanities and of the Social Sciences and has been president of the Royal Historical Society of Victoria. In 1994 he was appointed Associate Editor of the New Dictionary of National Biography.
• Professor Shaw was President of the Public Records Advisory Council from 1980-1986.
• Among his wide range of publications are The economic development of Australia, Gipps-Latrobe Correspondence 1939-1846 and A history of the Port Phillip District : Victoria before separation

Professor Weston Bate, OAM, President, Royal Historical Society of Victoria

• Professor Weston Bate; has had a long association with PROV, through the Royal Historical Society of Victoria of which he is again President, after holding the office previously from 1991 to 1997, and as a member of the Public Records Advisory Committee in the 1980s.
• He has had a distinguished academic career as a historian, first at University of Melbourne from 1953 to 1976 and more recently at Deakin University where he was Professor of Australian Studies from 1978 to 1989.
• Weston is a Life Member of the Ballarat Historical Park Sovereign Hill.
• He is also the author of many books including A History of Brighton, Lucky City (Ballarat 1851–1901), Victorian Gold Rushes, Life After Gold: Twentieth Century Ballarat, and Essential But Unplanned – The Story of Melbourne’s Lanes.

Ross Gibbs, PSM, Director-General, National Archives of Australia

• Ross Gibbs took up his current post as Director-General at the National Archives of Australia only recently serving 12 years as Director and Keeper of Public Records at Public Record Office Victoria.
• He was previously Director, Archival Heritage at the Public Record Office and Office of Library Services, Victoria and has held senior positions at the State Library of Victoria, the Library Council of Victoria and the Victorian Ministry for the Arts.
• Ross is currently Deputy Chair of the Commonwealth Government’s Visions of Australia Committee and a member of the National Collections Advisory Forum.
  

Professor Stuart Macintyre, Ernest Scott Professor of History, University of Melbourne

• Since 1990 Stuart Macintyre has been the Ernest Scott Professor of History and since 1999 the Dean of the Faculty of Arts.
• He has written eleven books and edited another fourteen concerned principally with aspects of Australian history. His most recent books were The Reds (1998), a Concise History of Australia (1999), and A Short History of the University of Melbourne (2003).
• Stuart Macintyre is a fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, From 1996 to 1998 he was president of the Australian Historical Association. He currently chairs the Humanities and Creative Arts panel of the Australian Research Council.
• He has a particular interest in libraries and served terms on the councils of the National Library of Australia and the State Library of Victoria.

Andrew Lemon, historian

• Andrew Lemon is a writer and historian with several major books to his credit.
• In his career he has been involved with most of the institutions represented in this seminar. He worked as an archivist at the Public Record Office in the period between 1972 and 1975 and he became a foundation member of the executive of the Australian Society of Archivists.
• Andrew edited Archives and Manuscripts for the Society until 1979. He has also been active in the Royal Historical Society of Victoria, editing the Victorian Historical Journal for ten years until 1999. He is a Fellow of the RHSV.
• His areas of expertise include local history (his works include books on Box Hill, Northcote and Broadmeadows) as well as the history of sport – particularly horse racing – shipwrecks, schools and companies, Three of his books have won national literary awards.

John Charleson, Deputy Secretary, Corporate Services, Department of Justice

• John Charleson is currently Deputy Secretary, Corporate Services in the Victorian Department of Justice. His role encompasses responsibility for a broad range of resource management functions across the Department including Finance, Human Resource Management; Executive Services, Capital Infrastructure Development, Major Projects Delivery and Business Services
• John is a career public servant with over 20 years experience at both the state and commonwealth levels of Government.
• Immediately prior to his appointment to his current position in 1998, John held the position of Assistant Public Service Commissioner in the (then) Office of the Public Service Commissioner (now the Office of Public Employment).
• John has a particular interest in transforming the way in which work is done in the public sector through the use of technology. He is currently sponsoring the development of an electronic document management system (EDMS) for the Department of Justice.

Carmel O’Connor, portrait artist

• Carmel O’Connor is a Melbourne born artist whom PROV commissioned earlier this year to paint a portrait of Harry Nunn.
• Carmel has twice entered the Archibald Prize, making the final cut in 2002 with her splendid and confronting portrait of Professor Bernard Smith. Her entry this year was a painting of John Button sitting naked on the steps of Parliament House in the pose of Rodin’s Thinker.

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