Our events are fairly relaxed and convivial and we always have refreshments from 5:30pm until 6pm when the event will start. All our events are now hybrid so there will both an audience at the RHSV and on Zoom (from 6pm). The discussion usually takes one hour including audience Q&A, finishing at 7pm.

Please note that this event was originally promoted with Alex McDermott as a speaker. Unfortunately, due to illness, Alex has had to pull out so it will now be a ‘deep-dive’ between Lachlan Strahan and Andrew Lemon.

Speakers

Dr Lachlan Strahan is a descendant of Senior Constable Anthony Strahan, accused by Ned Kelly of threatening to shoot him ‘like a dog’.  Lachlan’s book, published by Monash University Publishing, is Justice in Kelly Country: The Story of the Cop Who Hunted Australia’s Most Notorious Bushrangers.

Lachlan joined the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) in 1993 as a graduate trainee, and recently completed a three-month assignment as Australia’s Acting United Nations Ambassador in Geneva, managing Australia’s first session as a member of the Human Rights Council. Dr Strahan was an Assistant Secretary in the International Division at the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, 2013-15, managing relations with the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia, the Americas and the Pacific. During his time there, he played a central role in developing a major counter-terrorism package in the wake of ISIL’s capture of Mosul, and coordinating the initial stage of the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, receiving an excellence in leadership award for the latter.

He has published several articles and two books, “Australia’s China: changing perceptions from the 1930s to the 1990s” and “Day of Reckoning,” which was shortlisted for the 2006 New South Wales Premier’s Australian History Prize.

Dr Andrew Lemon AM has enjoyed a distinguished career as a professional historian, specialising in Australian social and cultural history in their British and colonial context. An accessible writer, he believes that the local and particular illuminate the big questions we ask about ourselves and our society. A recent past president of the Royal Historical Society of Victoria, Andrew was honoured as a Member of the Order of Australia for services to community history and the racing industry.