Celebrating 80 years of Service in 2024

The Geelong Historical Society

investigating geelong’s history

Fostering research that explores Geelong’s rich history.

The Geelong Historical Society was founded in 1944, and is dedicated to fostering and presenting historical research, and collaborating with exhibitions and public programs, to highlight the historical significance of Geelong and District.

For further information, please see our current Lecture Syllabus in Lectures.

join us at one of eleven monthly events

Investigating our past to enrich our future

80 Years of Research and Publishing

The first edition of Investigator, the Geelong Historical Society magazine, was published in September of 1965 and it included a series of articles it described as ‘The Story of Geelong’.

The Investigator magazine wanted to chronicle the earliest European exploration of Port Phillip Bay and the greater Geelong area. No author is explicitly acknowledged and the reader is left to surmise that it is the writing of the Investigator’s first editor, Ian Wynd. These articles are taken from those early issues from the 1960s. The author takes us back to the late 1790s, only 10 years after the first settlement in New South Wales, at Port Jackson.

The subsequent articles include the first recorded contact with the Waddawurrung which, whilst initially harmonious, culminated in discord and violence and ultimate demise of the Bengalat clan by the mid-1840s.

The Early History of Geelong

Port Phillip Map based on Lt. Murray's exploration in1802

Murray in the Lady Nelson – Investigator Vol 1 No 1

The Story of Geelong. The first edition of Investigator, the Geelong Historical Society magazine, was published in September of 1965 and it included a series …
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Port Phillip map based on Tuckey's survey

Collins and the Sullivan Bay Settlement – Investigator Vol 1 No 4

David Collins and the Sullivan Bay Settlement In the fourth issue of Investigator magazine in 1966, the Story of Geelong featured an account of the …
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Port Phillip Bay as depicted by Hume & Hovell

Hume and Hovell – Investigator Vol 1 No 5

Hume and Hovell The fifth instalment of The Story of Geelong was published in the Investigator magazine during November 1966. It covers the overland exploration …
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We publish the Investigator magazine four times a year. It is distributed to financial members as part of their $35 annual subscription. You can read extracts from the magazine by clicking the links below or by clicking through to our Publications Page where articles from past editions are posted each month. These three articles offer a European woman’s perspective on life in early Geelong, a local history of a nearly forgotten area in Geelong and account of the first township established on Corio Bay.

Exploring what we stand for

Our Objectives

Holding Monthly Meetings with a Lecture or guest speaker
Holding Annual General Meetings and Quarterly Executive Committee Meetings
Publishing of the quarterly Investigator magazine
Excursions held in Spring and Autumn
Publishing Books and Pamphlets
Providing information on Geelong and District history
Commemorating historical sites with memorials or plaques
Collecting and preserving historical documents and artefacts
Assisting in the preservation of historical buildings and structures

We Acknowledge the Wadawurrung People, the Traditional Owners of the Land upon which we live.