Whatever you are writing or plan to write, and whether it is about real or imaginary people or places, research is essential. Everything changes so quickly these days that no matter what time or century your piece is about, and how much you know, you will still need to do some checking. At our 26th October meeting, member Keira Lockyer will share some of her research adventures over the last 28 years. These include two years investigating over 400 Jewish pioneers who came to Ballarat during the gold rush for her prizewinning 2024 book, and her research on the Anzacs and the 1915 Lone Pine conflict for the 2015 Gallipoli centenary. Her current research projects include helping people discover the stories of their ancestors through DNA and research. This has led her to look at London’s Flash houses and brothels during the Regency days, the Japanese pearlers of the Tiwi Islands, and their POW camps in Singapore, and Abe Saffron and his Sydney underworld of the 1960s. Besides advising what current free research options are available, Keira will also provide a hard copy list of her favourite Victorian, Ballarat and worldwide sources.
YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED TO JOIN US FOR THE LAUNCH OF:
TALL POPPY ON THE GOLDFIELDS
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HENRY FOSTER
1819–1884
BY BEVERLEY FOSTER
From the untamed frontier of the Western District in 1842, the Victorian goldfields and the dry and dusty Northern District of Victoria comes the remarkable story of a man who lived with courage, conviction and an unyielding strength of character. Loved by thousands, he was reviled by a few men in high places who would bring him to his knees.
Join us to unveil the life and times of Henry Foster—early pioneer and an extraordinary figure of colonial Victoria. A story as yet untold.
SATURDAY, 24th OCTOBER 2026 from 1.30 pm – 4.30 pm
The Soldiers Lounge and Balcony NORTH STAR HOTEL 302 Lydiard Street, Ballarat
An afternoon unveiling untold history, old stories made new and a celebration of Colonial Victoria. We would be greatly honoured by your presence. Ground floor lift is available.
RSVP would be appreciated at tallpoppy1842@gmail.com
Congratulations Gabbi, winner of BWI Pamela Miller Flash Fiction Competition.
RIPPLES
Her father feared many things. Anxieties chittered and scurried through his brain each day and filled each night with dark dreams. But underneath it all, a constant, built into the very foundation of his life, was the greatest fear, the fear of a watery death. As a young man he’d joined up to defend King and Country. It looked so bold, that brash confidence, volunteering before the call-up became compulsory. But underneath, he knew it was the only way to escape the trap of the cloying family, the passive aggressive dutiful older sister, the brilliant changeling younger brother. And so a sensitive boy, a vulnerable boy, was sent out on the high grey seas, the mountainous waves of the Atlantic Ocean. Waves like monstrous arms that rose up, threatening to bind him in a suffocating embrace. Water walls that towered over the ship, smashed over the deck, reaching, grabbing, pulling. He was sent out to spend his days and nights peering into mists and horizons, seeking signals, checking codes, sending words into the emptiness. Always alert. Always aware. Captains’ decisions were made or not made depending on what her father saw or related. Telescopes, flags, Morse code. Responsibility. Loneliness. His posting was to guard the Atlantic convoys, the merchant ships bringing vital cargo from the United States to the United Kingdom. A ragbag fleet zig zagging across the ocean, protected by destroyers, frigates, and corvettes. The latter were the smallest of the warships, but warships nonetheless; grey metal giants, improbably named after flowers – Cowslip, Hollyhock, Primrose. Her father was a signalman on one such ship, helping keep the convoy safe from submarines and attack. Until. Until. Until the night he stood and watched the ship in front, the ship behind, explode and sink. Ships he was duty bound to protect. The watery death. Men floundering in the oily sea, their thick uniforms dragging them under. Lifeboats hopelessly launched. And worst of all, the screams, the smell of burning, the sea itself on fire. Then the awful, long, long silence. Only the wind and the rain and the engines, and orders barked through to carry on. Later, on chilly Welsh beaches, he’d help his daughters build sandcastles, always with fantastic moats, turrets, bridges. But when the tide came in, he’d back away, move his deckchair further up the beach, saying he was just going for a smoke. And as the water flooded the children’s carefully constructed defences and crumbled their kingdoms, he’d call them back, away from the waves. When he was much older, she asked what kind of funeral he wanted. ‘Anything,’ he said. ‘Anything but burying me at sea.’ His eyes filled with sea fret as he remembered watching the bodies softly, silently sinking into forever.
Ballarat Writers is running some workshops to make you into the great writer you (and we) know you can be!
These will be conducted by the lovely Bruna Pomella, who has some forty years’ experience teaching English and English Literature to the great unwashed. Each workshop gives you the skills to benefit from the next workshop, so it’s a good idea to do all three, but that’s your choice.
The workshops are held in the salubrious surrounds of the Ballarat Public Library, 178 Doveton St Nth, Ballarat Central.. (Ballarat has a library? Who knew?)
You can get tickets at the following TryBooking links::
Writers Corner is back! With the June event having been cancelled due to Covid restrictions, July will pick up where we left off with a discussion of social media for writers.
Do you have followers or are you a follower, perhaps a blogger or a vlogger, tweeter, snapper, and or a chatter? Maybe you just enjoy a surf, virtually speaking from a digitised reality.
Is it a matter of sitting in front of your keyboard and tapping away, word after word, sentence after sentence – taking the words straight to the world wide web? Is social media the ultimate in self-publishing – do it anytime, anywhere, put it out there? Well, maybe not.
Building content is difficult. Reaching and keeping followers (audience) is not easy. Just because you have built it, they may not come. But you should come to Writers Corner and tell your social media story.
Come along on Tuesday 6 July at 2pm at the Bunch of Grapes in Pleasant Street, Ballarat, and join the Writers Corner discussion about social media and putting yourself out there in the digital universe.
Do you have a favourite piece of travel writing? Has reading stories of travelling inspired you to pack a bag and take to the road, jet set off to strange lands? What was it about that writing that inspired you?
The discussion topic for our first Writers Corner, on Tuesday 6 April, is travel writing. This creative form of nonfiction is often based on the writer’s encounter with foreign places. However, it can also take several other forms, which is something we can explore.
There is a practical side to travel writing: tips and advice, the must see’s and do’s, and how to get from one place to another.
In these restricted times travel writing would seem questionable. Writing about travel may fuel aspirations that cannot be achieved, or alternatively make how-to’s and itinerary planning even more critical.
Travel writing is not simply a product of the industrial revolution or the jet setter age; this popular form of writing has been written since Classical times. A couple of early examples include:
· Rutilius Claudius Namatianus (fl. 5th century)
De reditu suo (Concerning His Return, c. 416) – the poet describes his voyage along the Mediterranean seacoast from Rome to Gaul.
Travel writing takes many different forms, they might more readily be described as follows:
Destination pieces
Special interest for types of travel, e.g., hiking, cycling, caravanning, backpacking or something more quirky.
Holidays and events – family vacation
festivals.
Personal adventures
Travel blogging
Itineraries
Travel guides
Memoir of personal travel.
Questions to help kick off your thoughts:
Why do you want to write about travel?
Do you have a collection of tips for other travellers going to a particular destination?
Is the travel just a backdrop to another adventure or drama, a setting for a romance?
Could Murder on the Orient Express be thought of as writing with a travel theme?
How to transport your reader to a new place?
Travelling during pandemics?
Places to publish – do you have suggestions?
Where, when and what to bring
Bunch of Grapes Hotel, 401 Pleasant St, Ballarat, on the first Tuesday in April: that’s the 6th, at 2pm; the bar will be open. Come along for a relaxed, loosely moderated discussion about the topic. It would be useful to bring a pen and paper in case we decide to get creative.
Following on from the AGM this month, the committee welcomes Nicole Kelly to the role of Competitions Co-ordinator!
Last year’s co-ordinator, Megan J. Riedl, has moved to a general committee position.
The committee thanks departing general committee members Zoe Werner, David Mellows and Brooke Vogt for their contributions last year.
Otherwise, familiar faces abound!
The 2021 committee is:
Chair: Rebecca Fletcher
Treasurer & Membership Officer: Kirstyn McDermott
Secretary/Public Officer: Laura Wilson
Publicity & Media Coordinator: Jason Nahrung
Competitions Coordinator: Nicole Kelly
Unassigned Committee Member: Megan Riedl
Unassigned Committee Member: Phil Green
The committee welcomes contributions and suggestions from members. If there is a project you think would be well suited to Ballarat Writers that you’d like to be involved in, please feel free to get in touch at a Members’ Night or through this website.
If you’d like to contribute to the blog, please email the Publicity and Media Coordinator (publicity AT ballaratwriters.com).
Due to renovations at Races Cafe, Ballarat Writers Write Club will be held at the Lake View Hotel in the private dining room from 18th October to 22nd November (2:00 pm every Sunday)
