FHACT Monthly Meeting (Register)

FHACT February Monthly Meeting is a hybrid meeting. Members and guests interested in attending should register for this event via Zoom or in person. After registering to attend via Zoom, you will receive an email with a link to the external Zoom website to complete the registration.

 People of Old Queanbeyan

Nick Swain of Canberra & District Historical Society

Nick Swain’s local history journey began in 2007, wanting to find out more about a heritage cottage in Barton.  He has held several CDHS offices, including Secretary and President, and is also one of two ACT delegates to the Federation of Australian Historical Societies. In 2023, Nick was the recipient of the inaugural National Trust award for outstanding Heritage advocacy. Nick has a special interest in the CDHS photographic collection.

This presentation gives a slightly different perspective of the lives of some of Queanbeyan’s early residents, using old photographs from the CDHS collection, including those taken by the famous travelling photographer Henry Beaufoy Merlin and his assistant, Charles Bayliss, in 1870.

The photographs provide entry points for looking at the lives of the people who lived, worked and studied in the places photographed.

The result is not a series of comprehensive biographies but some impressionistic sketches that emanate from these photographs.