Inaugural Billie Crawford Lecture

The Macleay River Historical Society is proud to announce the inaugural Billie Crawford lecture to honour Billie’s significant contribution to history and heritage on the Macleay.

Refreshments will be provided after the lecture so come along and join in our celebration of Billie Crawford.

Presenter: Dr Julie McIntyre
Topic: ‘Re-making the Macleay: A migration history’

Dr Julie McIntyre is an award winning historian and is the 2018 State Library of NSW Merewether Fellow, working on a project on the origins of colonial agricultural science. She has a special interest in the arrival of people from other parts of the world to regions like the Macleay Valley and the affect on Aboriginal locals and the natural environment. Julie considers how the introduction of ideas, tools, plants and animals to places such as the Macleay disrupted traditional ways and created new patterns of society, economy and nature. Julie is well known for her research on the role of wine in Australia. Her book First Vintage: Wine in colonial New South Wales (NewSouth 2012) was shortlisted for a NSW Premier’s History Award. Julie’s new book Hunter Wine: A History (NewSouth 2018) traces six generations of Australia’s oldest winegrowing community.

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This lecture is accompanied by a photographic exhibition at Kempsey Museum, Migrant Heritage on the Macleay, featuring the images and stories of German, Indian, Syrian, Italian, Greek, Danish, Maltese, French West Indian and the stories of Aboriginal people. Many of the images are from the Angus McNeil collection and from photographs taken during the internment of German nationals at Trial Bay during WW1.This exhibition can be seen as part of National Trust Heritage Festival until mid year. Billie Crawford supported, among many other causes, Reconciliation for Aboriginal Women, migrant heritage, extension of the Dalaigur Preschool, and played a major role in developing an extensive set of history and heritage of the Dunghutti families at the Kempsey Museum.

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RSVP: 02 6562 7572 or 0403 868 051
or email: noelinekyle@gmail.com