9 July 2019
Dr Chris Owen -
The History of Kimberley Policing.
Acting Battye Historian Dr Chris Owen will talk about his history of Kimberley Policing as detailed in ‘Every Mother’s Son is Guilty: Policing the Kimberley Frontier of Western Australia 1882-1905. UWAP, 2016.
The year 1882 was when police were introduced into the Kimberley and 1905 was the year Dr Walter Roth submitted the ‘Royal Commission on the Condition of the Natives’ – the first public enquiry into the workings of the WA police system since the establishment of the Swan River colony in 1829. This report generated national and international headlines with Roth infamously calling the police and criminal justice system in the Kimberley ‘a brutal and outrageous condition of Affairs.’ Dr Owen will detail the value of the Battye Library and the SROWA collection in the research for this book.
About Dr Owen
Dr. Chris Owen is currently the Battye Historian at the State Library of Western Australia and an Honorary Research Fellow in the School of History at the University of Western Australia. He has been researching Aboriginal history for over twenty years, and his published articles have earned him research and archive awards. His research interests, utilising primarily archival state records, include colonial policing (specifically the Kimberley), Aboriginal policy and governmental administration and the social conditions at the frontiers of colonisation in Western Australia. He lives in Perth, Western Australia with his wife and twin daughters.
Meeting Time: 5pm for 5.30pm start, refreshments will be served prior to the meeting.
Place: Great Southern Room, 4th Floor State Library of Western Australia.
If any members might have difficulty with the stairs from the 3rd to the 4th floor, please see staff at the Battye Library desk for access to the staff lift.
After the meeting, members are welcome to join us for a meal at a nearby Perth restaurant. Bookings will be taken on the night.
10 SEPTEMBER 2019
Peter Ellery - WA MINING HISTORY
and the AGM
19 NOVEMBER 2019 (3rd Tuesday)
Richard Offen - Lost Perth
End of Year Function
Our meetings are held on the second Tuesday of the March, May, July, September (A.G.M), November (Christmas Party) (except the November meeting which is held on the third Tuesday).
