I have lived in Balnarring for fifteen years and when I “retired” six years ago I decided to give some of my retirement time to the Balnarring & District Historical Society. Currently I am the President of the B&DHS.

History of any sort has always been an interest of mine, including being curious and reading about the development of the past, ie. why and how individuals, countries, communities and societies etc became who or what they are, and being curious too about my own family’s genealogy. So being a resident of Balnarring I was keen to work with others in understanding the stories that have contributed to the development of the Balnarring area and preserving them for future generations.

Family History has been a passion of mine for many years and researching where my family lines ascend to, or descend from, has led to many fascinating discoveries. I often describe doing family history as like being a detective, looking for evidence to support who is who, solving mysteries and finding the answers to the ‘brick walls’ that one often hits. It also provides wonderful opportunities to understand something of the social history of my family and I can bring some of my family history skills to my involvement with B&DHS.

These interests also seem to have a strong correlation with my professional life as I was a family therapist and counsellor for many years before managing the Family Support programs for a community service organisation. I have lived and worked on the Mornington Peninsula for about thirty years.

I have been involved with the Balnarring & District Historical Society for more than a decade.

I am currently Honorary Secretary, taking over this role, after being President for several years.

I have had a close association with the Merricks Beach area for more than seventy years.  Between 1967 and 1971 I worked as a jackaroo for the Cole family on their large farming property at Merricks.  The family had then farmed the property for more than a century so there was a lot of history learnt.

During this time, I was involved in local sporting clubs and other activities resulting in the development of a number of still enduring friendships

In 1971 I commenced a 42 year career with Victoria Police, serving in uniform and plainclothes, until my retirement in 2013 at the rank of Detective Chief Inspector. 

I have always been interested in history and in particular police and local history, since my retirement. Joining the Balnarring & Historical Society had enabled me to build on my interest in local history.

I think it is important to collect, preserve and disseminate information about local history to acknowledge the contribution of our ancestors to establishing our local community.  Our World is rapidly changing and we must use changes in technology etc. to perform these roles, particularly communication with younger generations.

Hi, I’m Julie McInnes, my interest in local history is about preserving the present and the past for the future. A well preserved historical collection forms the basis of great storytelling for upcoming generations. Local heritage connects people to places and places to people.

I’m currently the Acting Treasurer for B&DHS, I’ve been a member of the Society for ten years.

I’m keen on cataloguing so I look forward to soon getting our collection onto Victorian Collections and linking it with other groups. I live in Somers, so have a particular interest in Balnarring East (Somer’s former name), Coolart and Western Port Bay.

In a previous life I was a librarian, managing research collections in special libraries and customer service in public libraries. So you see that I’ve always liked to do detective work, find answers to questions and help others to do the same

I have been a member of the historical society since 2000 and currently hold the position of Information and Research Officer. As such, I try to find answers for any questions that come our way. I write and edit the quarterly Snippets, a collection of articles based on memoirs, interviews, newspaper articles from old papers etc. that relate to our district.

I also write history-related articles for two local publications, The Bridge, which reaches people in the Balnarring area and Peninsula Essence, a magazine circulated throughout the Mornington Peninsula.