Ballaarat Mechanics' Institute

In Conversation with Margaret Hickey
2025-11-18 18:00 - 19:30 (Australia/Melbourne) | BMI – Humffray Room, 117-119 Sturt Street, Ballarat Central, VIC, 3350, Australia
Twilight Talks 2025, Season 3, Spring Season | Ballarat’s Henry Lawson, Unknown facts presented by Hedley Thomson

September 3

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5:30 pm

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6:30 pm

Bar open at 5pm

$9.73 – $13.83

Humffray Room

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Ballarat's Henry Lawson, Unknown facts presented by Hedley Thomson

The young Henry visited Ballarat, specifically to ‘bone up’ on the happenings at Eureka on Sunday 3rd December 1854; he proceeded to write numerous poems and prose pieces about the ‘battle’ and – more so – the effects of its outcome on the developing Australian national identity; that many of his pieces mention Ballarat in the same context. As with so many of our iconic personalities across our history, there’s much that is not well-known about their lives and achievements. Henry Lawson is a case in point, with the special appeal that in 1889, as a twenty two-year old, he actually came to Ballarat and that the visit materially affected his subsequent writings over the course of his nearly forty-year career. To help make up for that deficiency, as the first of the Ballarat Mechanics’ Institute’s Spring 2025 ‘Twilight Talks’, Hedley Thomson – local actor and a big Lawson fan – will be presenting a talk on Lawson’s time in Ballarat, which will include performances of several of the more notable pieces (both poetry and prose) that Lawson was inspired to write following his Ballarat visit.

Speaker: Hedley Thomson

Hedley Thomson | Former Environmental Manager, City of Ballarat

Hedley Thomson ‘I’ve spent 35 of my 70 years in Ballarat, having been raised in suburban Melbourne and holidayed and worked on the Mornington Peninsula, where I also met my wife, Christine, and started raising our family of three excellent daughters. My work has been in the fields of land use, environmental, strategic and corporate planning, principally in local government, but also with stints in State, regional, private and community organisations. Throughout my life I’ve had an interest in regional Australia, in theatre – especially performing – and, developing from not much to a near obsession (in all the right ways), in Henry Lawson. Coming to Ballarat, which I/the family did in 1988, has enabled me to indulge all three interests; e.g.: the Rosebud Memorial Hall was OK for the occasional play but I never counted on a venue as wonderful as Her Majesty’s Theatre, being part of Fred Fargher-directed musicals, and being on stage with my children in ballet performances at Royal South Street Society competitions (I like to demuse people by boasting that I have a ‘first’ in ballet from those comps – as ‘the male’ in a winning troupe). As far as Henry Lawson is concerned, like many of us growing up, I knew of his well-known pieces such as The Loaded Dog and The Drover’s Wife but little else. I’d scanned through a few selections of his works but – like many people, I think – I found them a bit too serious; ‘Banjo’ Patterson was certainly the more popular writer. Then, in the 1980s, I happened to buy what became the very popular two-volume complete works of Lawson, compiled by Leonard Cronin (I also bought a similar two-volume job of A.B. ‘Banjo’ Patterson’s works that came out around the same time); once I started reading, I was hooked. I discovered he wrote about everything, in almost every possible style, with humour, with pathos, with serious analysis of the topic chosen, with prophetic intent. This clearly was/is no ‘bush poet’. I found – like all great writers – that his truths, his observations, his descriptions of human foibles and failings, the brilliance of his verbal descriptions of the settings of his pieces stand the test of time; that is why I am so infatuated with his work. And that it is of Australia; palpably of this country, including when he writes of our indigenous peoples (with whom he frequently had amicable dealings, despite the views of some commentators). To find that Lawson visited Ballarat in 1887, following which he wrote a number of pieces about that seminal event in modern Australian history – the Eureka rising, has enabled me to make a connection between my passion for his writings, my place of residence and my long-time involvement with theatre/performance. During 2022 – the 100th anniversary year of Lawson’s death – a trio of us performed various of Lawson’s works to community group audiences. Now the BMI has provided me with the opportunity to focus on Ballarat’s Henry Lawson and to highlight the effect that the young Henry’s visit had on his writings.’

Community Bank Buninyong & District not only gives you access to award-winning financial products and services, we’re also committed to returning profits to our local communities.

This event is proudly supported by Community Bank Buninyong

Tickets and Bookings

Tickets $9.73 BMI members & $13.83 general admittance, includes gst & bkg fee.

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More Twilight Talks

This event takes place on Wadawurrung Country. Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute acknowledges the Wadawurrung People of the Kulin Nation as the first inhabitants and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we work, learn and create. Always Was, Always Will Be, Aboriginal Land.

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