PUBLIC LECTURE: Friends of the Library talk: Mary Durack, the Diarist

Last year the diaries of Mary Durack were absorbed into the Battye archives. Of the thousands of documents that have passed through Patsy’s hands, she considers none as important for future scholars and researchers as this detailed and personal record covering so many aspects of the transitional period between the 1950s and 1990s in WA and across Australia. The talk ‘Mary Durack, the Diarist’ reveals for the first time some of what might be discovered in these remarkable journals.

About the Speaker

Since inheriting the legacy of 150 years of family and inter-related archival documents, Patsy Millett has spent the past sixteen years researching, collating and ordering a vast accumulation of documents. The bulk of the Durack historical and Mary Durack literary papers have now been handed over to the State Library. Prior to this task and her continued role as Literary executor for her mother, the author Dame Mary Durack, Patsy had experience in teaching English and History to secondary school children and her publications include commissioned work, booklets and free-lance articles on literary, biographical and historic subjects.

Parking is available in Myer Street and Park Way, accessible from Fairway

Members: Free Non Members: $5 donation