Beyond The Ladies Lounge - COMING SOON! (Date TBC)

Clare Wright's award-winning research challenges the myth that the Australian pub is a male domain, revealing the enduring and dynamic presence of female publicans behind the bar. Wright takes the reader on a pub crawl through this history- from Sarah Bird, the 27-year-old convict who was Australia's first female licensee, to Big Poll the Grog Seller, the miners' darling on the goldfields, to Cheryl Barassi and Dawn Fraser in recent years.
Handsomely illustrated and weaving oral history interviews, archival sources, folk songs, bush ballads and other popular literature throughout the narrative, this groundbreaking book exposes the remarkable visibility and dominance of women in Austalian hotel-keeping culture.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Professor Clare Wright OAM is an award-winning historian, author, broadcaster and public commentator who has worked in politics, academia and the media. Clare is currently Professor of History and Professor of Public Engagement at La Trobe University. In 2020, Clare was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for 'services to literature and to historical research'. She is the author of four works of history, including the best-selling The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka and You Daughters of Freedom, the first two instalments of her Democracy Trilogy. She is popular public speaker, panellist and interviewer and makes frequent appearances at literary festivals and on radio and television.