Historical Research And Writing
Historical research and writing can vary from project to project. These are usually short-term projects with a limited timeline. Some research projects may be a request to find specific information, such as birth, death and marriage dates, a search for Probate, the date a house was constructed or the sequence of ownership of a building. Writing up of this type of historical research usually takes the form of a report, setting out the details required. It is usually undertaken on an hourly rate. Historical research may also be targeted for inclusion of required material in a book, article or other form of writing or presentation. An author may commission a researcher in another state to find particular details or refer to a certain file in an Archive for specific information. Again, this is usually undertaken on an hourly rate.
Australian Academy of Science, Canberra
Designed by Melbourne architect, Roy Grounds, a partner in the firm of Grounds, Romberg and Boyd, the Australian Academy of Science Dome was opened in Canberra in May 1959.
Commissioned by Alan Roberts, the author of the forthcoming history of the Australian Academy of Science building in Canberra, researching aspects of the documentation of this building was undertaken to locate specific correspondence pertaining to the design and construction of this building.
Maud Grieve, Herbalist (2008)
Maud Grieve was the author of A Modern Herbal, a text published in 1931 – it is still in use today. Joan Dugdale, the Sydney Medical Herbalist and author of the biography of Maud Grieve, commissioned research into her English family’s ‘Melbourne connection’. Her father James Law, lived in Melbourne briefly and worked as an upholster; her relative, William David Law also lived in Melbourne during the 1870s. Through diligent research, the connection between the family members in Melbourne and England was unravelled. Joan Dugdale is the author of The Gripping Beast, Struggle of Memory and The Descendant.
University of Melbourne El Nino Project (2007-08)
This project examined the effect of El Nino episodes on Australia, New Zealand and Oceania in the 19th century. Commissioned by Professor Don Garden, the Victorian study examined the impact of drought, bushfires and flood on the Murray and Goulburn Valleys and southern NSW by recording discussion of the weather patterns and their effects. The major source for this research was the Riverine Herald from 1870 to 1905. Don Garden’s book, Droughts, Floods and Cyclones: El Ninos that Shaped our Colonial Past, was published in January 2010 by Australian Scholarly Publishing.
