history

Three women and logos for Ballarat Hospital Twilight Talks 2026

Twilight Talks: Season 2, A Brief, Selected History ‘Herstory’ of Nursing at Ballarat Base Hospital – Over the Years.

September 16 @ 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm $9 – $13 Get Tickets A Brief, Selected History ‘Herstory’ of Nursing at Ballarat Base Hospital – Over the years. Speakers: Emeritus Professor Margaret Bennett AM Sarah Birtles Shirley Jones Topic Synopsis: The ‘herstory’ of nursing at BBH, now Grampians Health, reflects changing times in Victoria. After looking at what is a nurse in 2026, we briefly glance…

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Elderly man reading Ballarat history book in home study

Twilight Talks: Season 2,The Importance of Ballarat East – Doug Bradby

By Mark

October 7 @ 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm $9 – $13 Get Tickets The Importance of Ballarat East Speaker: Doug Bradby Topic Synopsis: In the period 1832-1850 the Chartists of Britain tried and failed to extend Democracy to all male citizens. In the 1850‘s the Chartists of Ballarat succeeded. This talk will explore how the diggers of Ballarat obtained economic power, how they converted that economic…

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Two women featured in Twilight Talks 2026 event promotion

Twilight Talks: Season 2, Ideas of Love & Loss – In conversation with Anne Connor & Anne Gleeson

By Mark

September 30 @ 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm $9 – $13 Get Tickets Ideas of Love and Loss, Big Challenges and Small Victories. Speakers: Writer, Anne Connor Australian poet, Anne Gleeson Topic Synopsis: In this conversation, writer Anne Connor explores with Australian poet Anne Gleeson ideas of love and loss, big challenges and small victories, as revealed in her most recent poetry collections, Small Acts of…

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Ross McMullin author of The Light on the Hill book

Twilight Talks: Season 2, The Light on the Hill: An Updated History of the Australian Labor Party.

By Mark

October 28 @ 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm $9 – $13 Get Tickets The Light on the Hill: An Updated History of the Australian Labor Party. by Ross McMullin Speaker: Ross McMullin The Light on the Hill The Light on the Hill is Ross McMullin’s acclaimed commissioned history of the ALP. Hailed as a “classic”, it covers all states and the federal scene comprehensively and accurately…

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Smiling older man in formal attire at Twilight Talks event

Twilight Talks: Season 2, 100 Year History of Legacy, Ballarat

By Mark

December 2 @ 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm $9 – $13 Get Tickets 100 Year History of Legacy in Ballarat Speaker: Richard McRoberts Isabella Bates and Lorraine Ellis pass the torch at Ballarat’s iconic Arch of Victory, marking a proud moment in the Legacy Centenary Torch Relay 2023. The event honours 100 years of Legacy Australia’s support for veterans’ families. The Ballarat Legacy Club The Ballarat…

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Woman smiling softly in burgundy jumper for Twilight Talks 2026

Twilight Talks: Season 2, Understanding the Language of your Body

By Mark

November 25 @ 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm $9 – $13 Humffray Room Get Tickets Create Better Health by Understanding the Language of Your Body: Ancient Wisdom, Modern Science & the Microbiome Connection.Speaker: Meredith O’Loughlan The Language of your body Neurobiome Wheel Inner circle: regulatory domainsOuter circle: biopatternsThe Neurobiome Wheel is a simple framework that helps decode the body’s signals by connecting symptoms into meaningful health patterns. Combinging ancient…

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Pressed dried flowering plant specimen with roots on paper

150 Years of Botanical Communication

By Mark

August 7 @ 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm $15 Get Tickets Before digital databases and photography, how did we learn about the natural world? This Biodiversity Week, discover the BMI’s rare set of Ferdinand von Mueller’s Educational Collections of Victorian Plants (1874–1876). Designed to “diffuse information on the native vegetation” across Victoria, this historic herbarium and book collection reveals how early scientific communication cultivated

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Arresting the Ephemeral: The Beautiful Usefulness of a Victorian Herbarium

By Mark

July 24 @ 11:00 am – 12:30 pm Free Humffray Room Get Tickets The Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute is custodian of the most intact surviving set of the Educational Collections of Victorian Plants (1874–1876). A herbarium and series of books compiled by the first Chief Botanist of the Colony of Victoria, Baron Sir Ferdinand von Mueller. This presentation reveals the history and significance of this remarkable collection,

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Twilight Talks: Focus on Ballarat – What We Watched Before Cinema: ‘Entertainments’ at the Mechanics’ Hall, 1863–1919

By Mark

May 6 @ 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm $9 – $13 Humffray Room Get Tickets What We Watched Before Cinema: ‘Entertainments’ at the Mechanics’ Hall, 1863–1919 Speaker: Ellen Becker When the Mechanics’ Hall opened in 1863, the people of Ballarat flocked to see some strange and spectacular contemporary entertainments — mesmerists, automata, waxworks, human curiosities, and the magic of the first moving image technologies. Join Curator Ellen

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Twilight Talks: Focus on Ballarat – Ballarat Avenue of Honour

By Mark

April 22 @ 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm $9 – $13 Humffray Room Get Tickets Ballarat’s Avenue of Honour & A look behind names on the Avenue plaques Speakers: Amethyst May & Gary Snowden About the speakers Amethyst May Amethyst May is a student at Mount Clear College who has a passion for Australia’s war history. She will present a short documentary on Ballarat’s women during the

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