Digitised video (1.63GB). Duration: 30 minutes. Recorded April, 2024. (Video is available for viewing at Ringwood & District Historical Society Archives by appointment)Guest Presenter Dennis Johnston was named 2023 Maroondah Citizen of the Year for his long-standing involvement with and contribution to Biala, Ringwood. This organisation is dedicated to providing support and care for special needs children and their family.

Digitised video (2.50GB). Duration: 46 minutes. Recorded May, 2024. (Video is available for viewing at Ringwood & District Historical Society Archives by appointment)Guest Speaker, Alli Parker, accomplished scriptwriter, talks about her Ringwood family and her book based on the incredible true story of her Grandparents, Gordon and Cherry - Australia's first Japanese war bride - spanning seven years and two countries reeling from the aftermath of WWII.

Digitised video (2.84GB). Duration: 43 minutes. Recorded October, 2019 (Video is available for viewing at Ringwood & District Historical Society Archives by appointment)Presenter: Don Garden, OAM FFAHS, FRHSV, historian and author, examins the history of climate in Australia as researched for his book "Droughts, Floods & Cyclones - El Ninos that Shaped our Colonial Past".

Digitised video (1.05GB). Duration: 20 minutes. Recorded October, 2019 (Video is available for viewing at Ringwood & District Historical Society Archives by appointment)In this talk, Ringwood and District Historical Society President Russ Haines takes us through the history of the Warranwood area where he grew up, situated just north of Ringwood, Victoria.

Digitised video (662MB). Duration: 12 minutes. Recorded March, 2019. (Video is available for viewing at Ringwood & District Historical Society Archives by appointment)Presentation: Peter Fry has done quite a bit of tracing of properties in the Ringwood area where he grew up. In this talk, Peter presents an example of his research, covering the house and property now known as 64 Wonga Road, which has a long and interesting history dating back to the early days of orcharding in the district.

Digitised video (3.06GB) Duration: 56 minutes. Recorded November, 2019 (Video is available for viewing at Ringwood & District Historical Society Archives by appointment)Presenter: Alan Upton has spent his life growing fruit, both at the original Upton orchard in Wonga Park and at Yering on the Healesville Road. In that time, there have been many changes to not only agricultural methods and techniques but also to the local area, as covered by Alan in this video presentation.

Digitised video (4.25GB) Duration: 68 minutes. Recorded February, 2020 (Video is available for viewing at Ringwood & District Historical Society Archives by appointment)Presenter: Geoff Stock is one of the select baby-boomers who was born at the Pines Hospital that was in Adelaide Street, sent to school in Ringwood and, 66 years later, still resides in the Ringwood area. Over that period, he has seen many changes, not only to the area of East Ringwood and Heathmont but central Ringwood itself. Geoff has many stories to tell of growing up in the district - mostly humorous - but revealing the 1960s/70s lifestyle.

Digitised video (335MB). Duration: 13 minutes. Recorded March, 2020 (Video is available for viewing at Ringwood & District Historical Society Archives by appointment)In this talk, Ringwood and District Historical Society President Russ Haines presents an overview of technological developments in image colourization, with a slide-show demonstration of examples using black and white photographs from RDHS achives.

Digitised video (335MB). Duration: 24 minutes. Recorded August, 2023 (Video is available for viewing at Ringwood & District Historical Society Archives by appointment)In this talk, Ken Briscoe presents an overview of RDHS activities centred around the sorting and digitising of slides and movies for archival conservation, with examples of a local film found in the archives and a collection of items from the former Ringwood Amateur Photography Club.

Digitised video (909MB). Duration: 11 minutes. Recorded March, 2020In this talk, Ringwood and District Historical Society President Russ Haines presents a brief history of student punishment throughout Australia, with a focus on local references.

Digitised video (1.11GB). Duration: 20 minutes. Recorded March, 2021. (Video is available for viewing at Ringwood & District Historical Society Archives by appointment)Presenters: Gerry Robinson and Peter Le Get of Heathmont History Group (HHG) look back over developments in the area over the previous year. HEATHMONT HIGHLIGHTS FOR 2020 Summary - "Of course for 2020 the Covid 19 virus dominated. Other finalists included roadworks on Bedford Road corner, new Wards for MCC and their elections, 100th birthday and death of Rita James, opening of Milk & Wine Co. café replacing Barclays, election of Kylie Spears as Mayor, closure of Heathmont Medical Centre, demolition of Miller homestead in Coven Avenue, final edition of Maroondah Leader local newspaper, opening of HE Parker Sports pavilion, 50 more bollard arts, and the ugliness of the former Anglican Church and other local sites."

Digitised video (2.61GB). Duration: 61minutes. Recorded March, 2021 (Video is available for viewing at Ringwood & District Historical Society Archives by appointment)In this talk, Ringwood and District Historical Society President Russ Haines takes us through the early history of the Birt's Hill / Croydon Road area, the former locations of the Bilcock and Hardidge families. The Bilcock family had one of the early general stores in Kent Avenue and later moved to Toorak Avenue, Croydon. The father, David Bilcock was a talented film maker. His daughter, Joan Bilceaux, was a renown singer, model and actor, having varied the spelling of her surname as her chosen professional name.

Digitised video (3.06GB) Duration: 50 minutes. Recorded March, 2021 (Video is available for viewing at Ringwood & District Historical Society Archives by appointment)Presenter: Eric Panther is a dynamic and passionate speaker, who is one of Australia’s leading experts on Australian postcards. He is the current president of the Australian Cartophilic Society, which includes the collecting of cigarette and trade cards as well as postcards.

Digitised video (4.69GB) Duration: 90 minutes. Recorded April, 2021 (Video is available for viewing at Ringwood & District Historical Society Archives by appointment)The Guest family are well-known to anyone who lived in Ringwood, particularly East Ringwood, during the 1940s-80s and earlier. Everyone knew of their bakery and the taste of the Guest Brothers' delicious bread. Tommy Guest grew up in this environment and took it all in, as a part of growing up. In the last 12 months, Tommy has written many stories on the RDHS' Facebook, which has helped many people get through the pandemic shutdown.

Digitised video (3.20GB) Duration: 63 minutes. Recorded May, 2021 (Video is available for viewing at Ringwood & District Historical Society Archives by appointment)Presenter: Dr Jeff Kildea is an Honorary Professor in Irish Studies at the University of New South Wales. In 2014 he held the Keith Cameron Chair of Australian History at University College Dublin. He is the author of numerous books and articles on the Irish in Australia including Hugh Mahon: Patriot, Pressman, Politician, Anchor Books Australia, Melbourne, 2017 (Vol 1) and 2020 (Vol 2). This talk examines the background to Mahon’s expulsion from parliament and how it led to his being ostracised by his fellow Australians including his neighbours at Ringwood.

Digitised video (1.62GB). Duration: 30 minutes. Recorded November, 2021 (Video is available for viewing at Ringwood & District Historical Society Archives by appointment)In this presentation, Ringwood and District Historical Society President Russ Haines talks about the voting rights campaign for women, including suffragette Vida Goldstein's role in the collection of numerous documented signatures in Ringwood, for Victoria's Suffrage Petition to Parliament.

Digitised video (3.79GB). Duration: 67 minutes. Recorded March, 2022. (Video is available for viewing at Ringwood & District Historical Society Archives by appointment)Gerry Robinson and Margaret (Maggie) McKern of Heathmont History Group (HHG) combine to present an overview of Heathmont's pioneering orchardists, with Maggie providing a history of her Clark family property, "Roslyn", purchased in the 1930s and operating as a poultry farm and lemon orchard on the corner of Canterbury Road and Armstrong Road in Heathmont.

Digitised video (1.41GB) Duration: 40 minutes. Recorded May, 2022 (Video is available for viewing at Ringwood & District Historical Society Archives by appointment)Author and Historian Carole Woods OAM presents this talk on her biography of Australian humanitarian Vera Deakin, known for her involvement with the beginnings of Australian Red Cross and her incredible work in tracking down details of First World War Australian wounded and missing soldiers.

Digitised video (680MB). Duration: 9 minutes. Recorded May, 2022 (Video is available for viewing at Ringwood & District Historical Society Archives by appointment)In this presentation, Ringwood and District Historical Society President Russ Haines talks about the former Racecourse, located between New Street and Heatherdale Road behind Ringwood's original Coach and Horses Hotel in the late 1880s.

Digitised video (3.07GB) Duration: 50 minutes. Recorded May, 2022 (Video is available for viewing at Ringwood & District Historical Society Archives by appointment)Prof. Charles Sowerwine, Emeritus Professor at University of Melbourne, Fellow at La Trobe University and Chair of RHSV Heritage Committee, presents this talk on the subject of Heritage, both from an academic point of view and the practical appreciation of this integral part of our culture and local identification.

Digitised video (871MB). Duration: 25 minutes. Recorded July, 2022 (Video is available for viewing at Ringwood & District Historical Society Archives by appointment)In this presentation, Ringwood and District Historical Society President Russ Haines talks about three men with prominant backgrounds who settled in Ringwood early in the 1900s - Alexander Robert Edgar, John Robertson Duigan, and Count Erich Von Horn.

Digitised video (776MB). Duration: 19 minutes. Recorded July, 2022 (Video is available for viewing at Ringwood & District Historical Society Archives by appointment)In this presentation, Russ Haines, Ringwood and District Historical Society President and ERFC historian, talks about early Australian Rules football in the local area from the time of the formation of the East Ringwood Football Club, through the 1930s, the war years, and the era leading up to the historic 1947 Premiership.

Digitised video (2.66GB) Duration: 51 minutes. Recorded August, 2022 (Video is available for viewing at Ringwood & District Historical Society Archives by appointment)Presenter: Louise Blake is a writer and historian with an interest in the stories of women, families, and communities on the nineteenth-century goldfields in Australia and New Zealand. Inspired by her family connection to the gold mining settlement of Woods Point, Louise completed a PhD on Women and Community on the Upper Goulburn Goldfields in north-east Victoria in 2019. In this talk Louise will share her research on Lawrence and Esther Chubb, who lived and worked at Gaffneys Creek on the Upper Goulburn Goldfields in the 1870s and 80s. In a series of letters Lawrence wrote to his family in England, and now held by the State Library of Victoria, Lawrence shared his early struggles as an independent miner on the central Victorian goldfields, his protracted courtship with Esther, the ordinary intimacies of their life at Gaffneys Creek, the work that Esther did to support the family in this remote mining region, as well as the material and emotional support provided by and to family, friends and neighbours. A rare and revealing source, these letters help to expand our understanding of the lived experience of mining families, particularly the work that women did to sustain families and communities, in this period of waged labour and tribute mining in Victoria.

Digitised video (3.23GB). Duration: 60 minutes. Recorded October, 2022. (Video is available for viewing at Ringwood & District Historical Society Archives by appointment)Presenter: Gerry Robinson is the convenor of the Heathmont History Group (HHG). Gerry presents this talk on the the many facets of what makes up local history - the natural history of fauna, flora and geology; the social history; the histories of families; the changes in history and how we adapt to new technologies.

Digitised video (2.41GB) Duration: 43 minutes. Recorded September, 2022 (Video is available for viewing at Ringwood & District Historical Society Archives by appointment)Hardy and Evie Kielnhofer are rare examples of historians who are totally dedicated to gaining, and imparting, knowledge of their patch of the world. In this presentation, Evie talks about one of their regular group tours of Vermont that they conduct most Saturday mornings.

Digitised video (894MB). Duration: 20 minutes. Recorded February, 2023 (Video is available for viewing at Ringwood & District Historical Society Archives by appointment)As a follow up to the recent centenary celebrations of the 1921 Ringwood State School building in Greenwood Avenue, Ringwood and District Historical Society President Russ Haines presents this look back at the often overlooked earlier history of the village of Ringwood, including the establishment of Cass' School in 1874 on five acres of land between Dublin Road and Everard Road, becoming Ringwood's first school.

Digitised video (1.90GB). Duration: 35 minutes. Recorded March, 2023 (Video is available for viewing at Ringwood & District Historical Society Archives by appointment)Ringwood and District Historical Society President Russ Haines presents this talk on Bamford’s timber yard following the donation to the Society of the account books dating from the business’s inception in 1908 until the mid-1950s.

Digitised video (1.98GB). Duration: 48 minutes. Recorded August, 2023 (Video is available for viewing at Ringwood & District Historical Society Archives by appointment)In this presentation, Ringwood and District Historical Society President Russ Haines talks about some of the Society's archival activities, with a focus on "rescuing" items of significance, including timely digitisation of photographs and film potentially susceptible to loss or deteriorisation with the passing of time.

Digitised video (2.26GB). Duration: 54 minutes. Recorded September, 2023 (Video is available for viewing at Ringwood & District Historical Society Archives by appointment)Presenter: Judith Vimpani, Vice President of Marysville Historical Society, talks about her experiences, interviews and extensive research in re-gathering Marysville's history lost in the catastrophic 2009 Black Saturday fires.

Digitised video (2.68GB). Duration: 85 minutes. Recorded October, 2023 (Video is available for viewing at Ringwood & District Historical Society Archives by appointment)In this presentation, Ringwood and District Historical Society President Russ Haines talks about Ringwood's Irish Immigrants - a brief overview of their ancestry, why they came here, and how these pioneers added to our culture.