Media releases

Federation University Australia’s Collaborative Research Centre in Australian History (CRCAH) is set to play a major role in this year’s Clunes Booktown.  

To be held on the weekend of 6 – 7 May, Booktown will feature significant contributions from the university.

“The Clunes Booktown festival attracts approximately 17,000 people over the weekend and is an excellent opportunity to showcase FedUni’s research and community engagement,” Professor Keir Reeves, Director of the CRCAH, said.

“Promoting history, heritage and regional studies is a core part of what we do and this is a great opportunity to celebrate all three.

“This year we welcome back some familiar faces and introduce some new colleagues and collaborators,” Professor Reeves said.

“The line-up features a session by Dr Anne Beggs-Sunter and Dr David Waldron, who will be joined by La Trobe based research fellow Dr Ben Mountford to talk about the always popular theme of ‘There’s gold all around us: discovering great stories from the Goldfields’.” 

On the Saturday bibliophile and BookTown favourite Emeritus Professor John Arnold, formerly of the State Library of Victoria and Director of the National Centre for Australian Studies at Monash University, will walk people through his rare and beautiful books session.

On the Sunday the FedUni Collections Librarian Roger Clark will join John Arnold in conversation to talk about collections, collecting, books and historical manuscripts.

The 2017 CRCAH Visiting Researcher Associate, Professor Jennifer Laing (La Trobe University), and acclaimed author Annie Razer-Rowland will be joined by Dr Joseph Cheer to talk about ‘eating, drinking and saving the planet’.

Ember Parkin, CRACH researcher and Creative Clunes member, will host FedUni’s Professor John McDonald and Dr Tim Harrison to discuss regional engagement.

Professor Andrew May from the University of Melbourne and the Heritage Council of Victoria will join CRCAH's David McGinniss and Dr Leanne Howard to discuss ‘everybody’s got a story to tell: writing great community history’.

This session will showcase some of the exciting research that is happening at the Centre, as well as hearing from a senior historian with over three decades of experience in public history.

Professor Keir Reeves will also be in conversation with Dr David Nichols from the University of Melbourne to talk about his timely landmark book titled Dig Australian Rock and Pop Music 1960-85.

The full Booktown program is available at http://clunesbooktown.com.au/clunes-book-town-festival