Lecture focused on goldfields children

SOVEREIGN Hill’s annual Weston Bate Memorial Lecture is set for next week and will look at the history of children’s institutions on the goldfields.

To be held next Thursday, 27 October from 6pm, it will be delivered by Australian Catholic University Associate Professor Nell Musgrove.

Sovereign Hill’s head of collections Lauren Bourke said the talk will complement their mission to tell unique human stories and learn from the past.

“We’re really committed to sharing the diverse range of histories that relate to the goldfields and the experience of people who have lived here,” she said.

“Nell’s lecture will look at the rapid expansion of population during the goldrush here, and the precarious nature of people’s lives that generated a need for social welfare supports.

“Out of that emerged institutions for children. Nell’s research… looks at it from the perspective of children and their experience.”

Ms Bourke said the lecture is an important 12-year-old tradition on the outdoor museum’s calendar, and it coincides with Victoria’s History Month.

“Weston Bate was a popular and influential local and urban historian, and also Sovereign Hill’s consultant historian from the earliest days.

“He was the primary reference for a lot of the research in creating our museum, and remained so until he passed away in 2017 at the age of 93,” she said.

“He’s held in really deep respect and great affection by all of us here, and he was an eminent historian, focusing significantly on the writing of local history with a particular focus on Ballarat and the goldfields, particularly through his book Lucky City.”

Tickets are available at bit.ly/3yRKFca.