SOVEREIGN Hill\u2019s annual Weston Bate Memorial Lecture is set for next week and will look at the history of children\u2019s institutions on the goldfields.<\/p>\n
To be held next Thursday, 27 October from 6pm, it will be delivered by Australian Catholic University Associate Professor Nell Musgrove.<\/p>\n
Sovereign Hill\u2019s head of collections Lauren Bourke said the talk will complement their mission to tell unique human stories and learn from the past.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re really committed to sharing the diverse range of histories that relate to the goldfields and the experience of people who have lived here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNell\u2019s lecture will look at the rapid expansion of population during the goldrush here, and the precarious nature of people\u2019s lives that generated a need for social welfare supports.<\/p>\n
\u201cOut of that emerged institutions for children. Nell\u2019s research… looks at it from the perspective of children and their experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Bourke said the lecture is an important 12-year-old tradition on the outdoor museum\u2019s calendar, and it coincides with Victoria\u2019s History Month.<\/p>\n
\u201cWeston Bate was a popular and influential local and urban historian, and also Sovereign Hill\u2019s consultant historian from the earliest days.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe 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,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n