REVIEWS
Professor Emeritus Stuart Macintyre, Melbourne University:
This is the first full biographical treatment of Higinbotham and the first to connect him properly to the political battles of colonial Victoria. He emerges undiminished, indeed enhanced by a deeper knowledge of this singular man.
Foreword: George Higinbotham and Eureka.
Professor Frank Bongiorno, Australian National University
This deeply researched and engagingly written book will be indispensable to students of Victorian colonial politics, as well as to anyone seriously interested in the ideas that have so largely shaped the way we are governed.
Labour History, Journal of The Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, No. 116, May 2019.
Eric Howard, President: Eureka Australia: Descendants and Supporters Inc.
Geraldine’s scholarship needs to be exposed to as broad a cross-section of Australians as possible… It gives the Eureka story added context and recognition as a massive change agent for strengthening Australian political culture.
RECENT PRESENTATIONS
Online Presentation via Zoom to the Australian Natives Association, Australia Day Reception, Tuesday 26th January 2021: ‘The New Eureka Historic Walk in Melbourne’.
Online presentation via Zoom to Deepdene U3A, 23 April 2020. ‘George Higinbotham and the struggle for democracy in Colonial Victoria.’
The Celtic Club, ‘Writers’ Book Festival’, 4 December 2019. Comment by Michael Van Leeuwin, “Geraldine’s book… brings to life Higinbotham’s important role in establishing parliamentary democracy in Victoria.”
Eureka Australia: Descendants and Supporters at the Annual Democracy Award Dinner, 16 November 2019. Comment by Eric Howard: “Geraldine presented a succinct and highly interesting profile of George Higinbotham…Her presentation was of the highest quality and the book is a great insight into lesser known aspects of Victoria’s struggle for democracy, during and subsequent to Eureka.”
‘Talking History @ Eureka’. One of a series of talks at the Eureka Centre, Ballarat.
What was significant to Victoria about the life of George Higinbotham “the most loved and the most hated man of his day,” and what did this have to do with Eureka? A presentation by Geraldine Moore at the Eureka Centre, Ballarat, Tuesday 5 November 2019 at 5 p.m.
Tel. (03)5333 0333.
Royal Historical Society of Victoria, 15 October 2019. “Key events in the life of George Higinbotham”
https://www.historyvictoria.org.au/event/lecture-geraldine-moore-on-key-events-in-the-life-of-george-higinbotham/
RADIO INTERVIEWS
Interview with Mawunyo Gbogbo. ABC Radio Digital, ‘Saturday Afternoon‘ program 30 January 2021,
Interview with Dr Patrick Geoghegan, Professor of Modern History at Trinity College, Dublin. “Talking History” on Radio Eirann, the Republic of Ireland, 1 March 2020.
https://www.newstalk.com/shows/talking-history-234948 (Segment commences at 37 ½ minutes into the program.
Interview with Jon Faine on Radio Melbourne’s ‘The Conversation Hour’, 26 April 2019.
https://www.abc.net.au/radio/melbourne/programs/theconversationhour/…/11032796
Interview with Phillip Adams on Radio National’s ‘Late Night Live’, 12 March 2019.
https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/george-higinbotham/10881158
Interview with Tim Brunero on ABC Radio Digital’s ‘Saturday Afternoon’, 3 August 2019.
http://bit.ly/2YSQoOI
Interview on ‘Honest History’, ABC Radio Canberra, 28th February, 2017 with Genevieve Jacobs.
READERS’ COMMENTS
‘ You write beautifully… your “context” is always so interesting and your ability to present complexities with such clarity is superb.’
Dr Jan Richardson
Thank you for giving me a better balanced understanding of Eureka; of the growth of Victoria and how self-interest impacted on justice in growth. There were some people there who cared and spoke up, and I am proud to say my great-great-grandfather was prepared to stand up and be counted, even when others did not agree.
John Franklin, Descendant.
Your argument that George Higinbotham was “Victoria’s indispensable man’ if not Australia’s indispensable man” is a compelling one, as he was a pioneer of the important foundations of our nationhood. His relative obscurity in popular Australian history is curious, not unlike the relative obscurity of Sir John Monash in Allied war history until recent times. It’s never too late to right a wrong!
Dr Julian Neylan
I enjoyed reading your book. I was impressed with the breadth and depth of your research. I was amazed, reading last night in your conclusion, that there were three fires which destroyed evidence. Despite this your book achieves the twin goals of biography. You bring your subject to life, his thinking and actions in the long tussle to achieve responsible government in Victoria, and you also bring the society in which he lived to life. I was also very interested in the influence of the Irish question on Victorian politics. You have extended my understanding of our past. I didn’t realise (or I had forgotten) that Steve Bracks’ government finished off the work started by Higinbotham.
Dr Sue Taffe, historian and author of ‘A White Hot Flame’ and ‘Black and White Together’.
George Higinbotham and Eureka 