Helen Garner: Author

Helen Garner was born in 1942 in Geelong and she attended Manifold Heights Primary School and The Hermitage Private Girls School in Newtown.

Her first novel Monkey Grip was published in 1977. It won a National Book Council award in 1978 was filmed in 1982. Since then, Postcards from Surfers won a 1986 NSW Premier's Literary award, & her short novel The Children's Bach won a SA Premier's Literary Award in 1986. Her novel Cosmo Cosmolino was nominated for a Miles Franklin Award in 1993. In 1993 she won a Walkley Award for feature journalism for her story in Time magazine about the Daniel Valerio case. Her first non-fiction book, The First Stone (1995) was highly controversial. It explored a sexual harassment case at the University of Melbourne which led to the sacking of the Master of Ormond college. She was widely criticised by many feminists for being too sympathetic to the Master and angered supporters of the two female students who bought the case against him.

Link here to more information about Helen Garner: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Garner

Several YouTube videos of Helen discussing her work are available.

Award winning novelist

Dorothy Johnston is an award-winning novelist, poet, short story writer, and author of reviews and literary essays who was born in Geelong, Victoria, in 1948. She was winner of the Miles Franklin Award 1986 and 1997. After living in Canberra for thirty years, she has returned to the Bellarine Peninsula, and her new novel (forthcoming Bewrite books) is a sea-change mystery set in Queenscliff titled, 'Through a Camel's Eye'.

Link to her website here:

• http://www.dorothyjohnston.com.au/

Majory Taylor

1980. Marjory Taylor became a Member of the Order of Australia 9 June 1980 for her service to nursing. In World War II she served with the Royal Australian Airforce Nursing Service (1944-1946) & volunteered for 3 years as senior nursing officer with the Girl Guide International Service in the British Zone, Germany. 1950 -1981 Marjory worked with the Geelong Hospital, first as supervisor of the Maternity Wing & then as Director of Nursing. For 17 years - two as president - Marjory was a board member of the Intellectually Handicapped (Karingal) & was a founder & Board Member of the Geelong Hospice Care Association.

Reclaim the Night collective

The Geelong Reclaim the Night Collective has 21 years of working to stop violence against women. They have annual event in the centre of Geelong on the last Friday of October. The collective initiated the Geelong Women's Herstory to celebrate and honor women in Geelong's story.

Link to their website: Reclaim the Night collective Geelong