Our guest speaker for the October meeting will be the well known local researcher Loretta Dynan.

Loretta Dynan (nee Ryan of Pyalong) completed a Masters thesis at Footscray’s Victoria University in 2021.

The thesis was titled “Forging an identity on Central Victoria’s colonial landscape: Patrick Cooke and the Irish influence 1845-1903 – analyses the impact of life experience on Irish settlement patterns in colonial Victoria.”

It represents the first scholarly analysis of a settler farmer in the Pyalong district. The thesis focuses on how Irish settler Patrick Cooke adapted successfully to life in the Antipodes and how he forged a relationship with the land on which he settled.

Loretta will be our guest speaker at our next meeting on Tuesday 4 October, 7.30pm at the Old Post Office, 2 Powlett Street.

As usual the meeting will be followed by an opportunity to mingle over supper.