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Speaker Type: Historian
Way Back When Historians
Historian, Online - Virtual Visits
Way Back When Consulting Historians is a team of four professional historians: Sarah Rood, Katherine Sheedy, Lucy Bracey and Fiona Poulton. They work with a range of clients – from schools to local councils and community organisations – on many different projects, including books, exhibitions, oral history projects and digital histories. Way Back When is passionate about uncovering and telling stories, and helping communities make connections to the past that inform and give meaning to the present.
» Read more about Way Back When Historians
Fiona Poulton
Author, Historian
Fiona is driven in her work to bring the past to life and to create histories that are accessible and engaging for a range of different audiences. She particularly loves the thrill of research, digging through archives and collections, and working with communities to uncover memories and stories. Fiona is an experienced heritage practitioner and oral historian and is inspired by the potential of digital technologies to transform the way that we present history, using individual voices to add a richly personal quality to a story.
Fiona has co-authored several books, including histories of the Monash Business School, Victorian AIDS Council, and the City of Melton. Boroondara Remembers: Stories of World War I received a Victorian Community History Award in 2015.
» Read more about Fiona Poulton
Katherine Sheedy
Author, Historian
Katherine’s passion for making history accessible to a general audience inspired her decision to follow a career as a professional historian. She has broad experience in all aspects of professional history including commissioned histories, heritage, significance assessment and oral history. Katherine is the author of histories on educational institutions, businesses and professional bodies.
In all her work Katherine has been an enthusiastic supporter of oral testimony, in particular its ability to enable contributions from people who may otherwise be unlikely to contribute to the historical record.
» Read more about Katherine Sheedy
Lucy Bracey
Author, Historian
Lucy enjoys communicating about the past across a wide variety of formats. Her co-authored books include a history of the Children’s Protection Society and a children’s book exploring the history of Boroondara during World War I. Lucy has produced two radio documentaries for ABC Radio National and created audio documentaries using oral history interviews for a range of online history projects, including websites for ChillOut in Daylesford and the Sephardi Association of Victoria. She has curated exhibitions at the City Museum at Old Treasury, Counihan Gallery in Brunswick and State Library Victoria.
Like her Way Back When colleagues, Lucy is committed to giving back to her community. She currently serves as a councillor for the Royal Historical Society of Victoria and is on the collections committee of the Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute.
» Read more about Lucy Bracey
Sarah Rood
Author, Historian
In her career as a professional historian, Sarah has experience in all areas of public history, specialising in digital histories and exhibitions. She is motivated by her firm belief that the past shapes the present and the future, and enjoys working with community groups to record and document their stories. Sarah aims to produce interesting and engaging histories by communicating stories in an absorbing way and by using her narrative skills to help communities reconnect with their past, facilitating a sense of achievement and ownership.
Sarah has worked on histories of private companies, community groups, sporting clubs, schools and universities. These histories have taken the form of books, exhibitions and websites. Sarah has also curated exhibitions for MFB, Melbourne Museum, Monash Museum of Computing History, Jewish Museum of Australia, Robert Blackwood Hall and Moreland City Council, and created audio histories for Culture Victoria, VicRoads and ABC Radio National.
» Read more about Sarah Rood
Clare Wright
Author, Broadcaster, Historian, Social Commentator, Women's Rights
Professor Clare Wright is an award-winning historian, author, broadcaster and public commentator who has worked in politics, academia and the media. Clare holds a PhD in Australian Studies from the University of Melbourne and an MA in Public History from Monash University and is currently a Professor of History at La Trobe University.
Her best-selling first book, Beyond the Ladies Lounge: Australia’s Female Publicans (Text) met with both critical and popular acclaim. Her best-selling second book, The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka (Text), was based on a decade of archival research into women’s role in the Eureka Stockade. The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka won the 2014 Stella Prize and the NIB Literary Award (and People’s Choice Award) and was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, the NSW Premier’s History Awards, the WA Premier’s Literary Awards, the Victorian Community History Awards, and long-listed for a Walkely Award.
We Are the Rebels, a Young Adult version of The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka, was published by Text in 2015 and has been shortlisted for the Australian Children’s Book Council Awards.
The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka is currently being developed into a ten-part television drama series with Ruby Entertainment and Hollywood screenwriter/producer, Anne Kenney.
Clare’s latest book is the best-selling You Daughters of Freedom (Text), published in October 2018. It is the second book in her Democracy Trilogy. You Daughters of Freedom was shortlisted for the 2019 Prime Minister’s Literary Award, and is currently shortlisted for the Australian History Association’s Margarey Medal for Biography.
Clare has worked as a political speechwriter, university lecturer, historical consultant and as a broadcaster in both radio and television.
She is a popular public speaker and has presented numerous keynote addresses and dinner talks at academic conferences, AGMs, Writers Festivals, book stores and community and corporate events. Clare is a former Director on the Board of the The Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas.
Clare’s thought-provoking essays, reviews and opinion writing have appeared in The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Guardian, The Conversation, Overland, Crikey and Meanjin as well as leading national and international scholarly journals.
Clare researched, co-wrote and presented the acclaimed television documentary, Utopia Girls: How Women Won the Vote, which first screened on ABC1 in June 2012.
Clare created and co-wrote the four-part documentary series, The War That Changed Us, for Electric Pictures and ABC1. The series premiered on 23 August 2014 as part of the ABC’s centenary of WW1 programming. The War That Changed Us won an ATOM Award for Best Documentary and was nominated for a Logie for Most Outstanding Factual Program.
Clare is the writer and host of the ABC Radio National history series and podcast, Shooting the Past and co-hosts the history podcast, Archive Fever.
As a freelance historical consultant, Clare’s clients include Sovereign Hill Museums Association, the Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka and many television production companies. She runs her consultancy practice as Done Gone Productions.
For Clare’s scholarly outputs, see here.
In 2020, Clare was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in the Australia Day Honours list for “services to literature and to historical research”.
Clare is currently Professor of History and Professor of Public Engagement at La Trobe University. Her new book, a history of the Yirrkala Bark Petitions and the third instalment of her Democracy Trilogy, will be published by Text in October 2024.
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