Work in progress

Helen Penrose, A centenary history of Firbank Grammar School, due for publication in 2009.

Firbank Grammar School was established in Brighton by the Church of England in 1909 to provide education for local girls from Christian families. Links to the church and to the suburb are enduring features of its history. Despite a shaky start with three headmistresses in as many years, Firbank eventually flourished to become one of the largest girls’ schools in Australia by the late 1950s. This centenary history uses widely sought documents, archival sources, beautiful illustrations, intimate oral histories, and written reflections gathered from members of the Firbank community. It identifies the people who were responsible for shaping Firbank’s educational philosophy; charts the highs and lows experienced by staff, students and others associated with the school during its journey; describes the adaptation of the curriculum to the changing landscape of girls’ education and considers the school’s responses to the challenges imposed by modernisation and competitive marketing.

Barbara Pertzel, A fifty-year history of International Social Service - Australian Branch, due for publication in 2009.

International Social Service (ISS) is an international organisation dedicated to assisting families with the solution of problems involving action in two or more countries. An Australian branch of ISS was established in 1955 and this history celebrates the branch’s first 50 years. Within a context of the migration to Australia of people from many parts of the world, the history of International Social Service - Australian Branch (ISSAB) explores the place and profound significance of the organisation’s gentle, modest gestures of help, how they endeavour to mend with tiny, shiny threads the holes blasted in the substance of the human family by history’s calamities.