PUBLIC LECTURE: Friends of the Library talk: Family life in the goldfields 1895-onwards

Histories of the goldfields often focus on company histories or mining work ignoring or marginalising the lived experiences of women, children and domestic concerns. This talk will focus on the way in which families coped with the isolation, unfamiliar culture and vast distances forging through hardship rich and sustained close knit communities. Migrant families and the experiences of communities during the war will also be discussed.

About the Speaker

Dr Criena Fitzgerald is an Honorary research Fellow UWA. She has published two monographs, Kissing Can be Dangerous: The public health campaign against tuberculosis in Western Australia, A Press in Isolation: The history of UWA Press and several articles. She is editing her postdoctoral work on the history of silicosis in Western Australia and is co-editor with Lenore Layman of ‘110 Degrees in the Waterbag’ A history of Life work and Leisure in the Northern Fields’ to be published by with WA Museum Press. She is currently working for the NLA as an oral historian on the Forgotten Australians’ Project and for the NFAW researching a website on Kalgoorlie/Boulder women. Her research interests are Oral History, Occupational History, Medical History and women’s history.

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

Members: Free Non Members: $5 donation