Editorial Team – Austin

Peter Bridge
Peter Bridge, is a series editor of Western Australian Exploration and a founder of the project. He established Hesperian Press in 1969 and has produced over 500 publications, mainly on aspects of Australian history. His own published works include research and geological indexes for the mining industry, several books and many edited collections and reminiscences.

Kim Epton
Kim Epton prepared the biographical notes for this Volume, with Sheryl Milentis. He is a series editor of Western Australian Exploration and a founder of the project. He is the author of Get it Write; C.C. Hunt’s 1864 Koolyanobbing Expedition; and Rivers of the Kimberley. Since helping to establish the project, his role is now one of marketing, assisting in financing future volumes, and the determination of prescriptive documents for proofreading and editing of the diaries.

Marion Hercock
Marion Hercock, FRGS has a PhD from the University of Western Australia, where she is an Adjunct Research Fellow with the School of Earth and Environment. A geographer, her publications include works on environmental management and history, environmental resources, geographical thought and 19th century geographers, as well as tourism and recreation. She was the principal editor of Western Australian Exploration 1836–1845.

William Kitson, PSM
Bill Kitson is the Senior Museum Curator of the Museum of Lands Mapping and Surveying in Queensland.  Widely acknowledged as an expert in the fields of exploration, land settlement history and early surveying of Queensland, Bill Kitson was Queensland Surveyor of the Year 2000.  He is an Honorary Fellow of the Institution of Surveyors, Australia and the Spatial Science Institute, an Honorary Member of the Royal Australian Survey Corps and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society of Queensland.

Sheryl Milentis
Sheryl Milentis is an historical researcher and a principal editor with the Western Australian Explorers’ Diaries Project. Her interests are in early criminal history, prostitution and genealogy, with some 30 years research experience. She has contributed to a history of policing in Western Australia, and co-edited The Scarlet Stain, a social history of the early years of Kalgoorlie prostitution. Sheryl’s forebears arrived on the Marquis of Anglesea, the third ship to the Swan River Colony, in August 1829. Her other colonial ancestors include the King family of Guildford and of Gingin, and the Andrews family of Fremantle. She was a principal editor of Western Australian Exploration 1836–1845 and she is currently preparing the third chronological volume in the Western Australian Exploration series for publication.

Western Australian Explorers’ Diaries Project Members who assisted with this Volume

Shirley Babis
Shirley Babis is a retired primary school teacher. She is a member of the Genealogical Society of Western Australia and a foundation member of the Bayswater Historical Society and the Bassendean Historical Society. After a number of years as the Treasurer of the Western Australian Explorers’ Diaries Project Shirley has concentrated on proofreading.

Shirley Barnes
Shirley Barnes is now semi-retired after more than 30 years experience in recreation and community planning. She lived for many years in rural areas, especially the eastern goldfields and has always been keenly interested in the human component of ‘communities’, particularly during the early years of settlement and the gold rushes, including how and why ‘communities’ were established and flourished, and the historical and leadership aspects involved. She has travelled extensively throughout the Western Australian outback goldfields regions and the Pilbara, has a Bachelor of Applied Science (Recreation) – aligned to the ‘community’ aspect – and a continued interest in the Outback. After a number of years of Secretary for the Project, Shirley’s role is one of proofreading.

Phil Bianchi
Phil Bianchi has prepared the descriptions of the exploration routes and the lists of maps and place names for a number of Western Australian Explorers’ Diaries Project publications. He is a keen four-wheel driver with a long interest in Western Australian exploration and following up on explorers’ routes. Phil has published a number of books on Western Australian history, and been a contributor to a number of others. His areas of special interest include books on the woodlines in Western Australia, and the Canning Stock Route.

Nina Cameron
Nina Cameron completed general and midwifery nursing qualifications in Kalgoorlie and KEMH in the early 1960s. While living in Darwin she re-trained as a library technician in the early 1990s and went on to complete a Bachelor of Arts in history at Northern Territory University (now Charles Darwin University) where she worked until returning to Perth in 2005.

Gail Dreezens
Gail Dreezens is the Project’s typist and creator of the original transcripts for many of the Volumes. An amateur historian, her passion for Australian history has been further developed by travels throughout Australia. She has collaborated as co-editor on numerous publications, including: Bang-em-all, Bardie, Teams and Teamsters, There’s gold there – look for it : 60 true tales of real finds and lost mines from Queensland to the Kimberley, Peterwangy, The Wanderings of Dido, The Golden Quest, The Murchison Revisited, Whatever Happened to Kangaroo Kate, Travels Among Gold and Cannibals in Western Australia 1870-1874.

Ian Murray
Ian Murray is a researcher of history, specialising in Western Australian 1890s gold towns, prospectors and place names. He is a volunteer in the Private Archive Section of the Battye Library and a long time member of the Western Australian Explorers Diaries Project. His publications include Aboriginal Corporations, Communities and Outstations, Where on the Coast is that? (with Marion Hercock), Western Australian Goldfields Towns and Settlements,(with Phil Bianchi, Maria Bloomfield and Celene Bridge), John Dunn and the Wealth of Nations (with Peter Bridge and Maureen Cause), and The Overlanders (with Peter Bridge).

Jeff Murray
Jeff Murray is a cartographic draftsman with over 40 years of experience in mapping, photogrammetry, surveying and nomenclature. He is a researcher of history specialising in retracing Western Australian stock routes and exploration. Extensively travelled, he has detailed knowledge of Western Australia’s environment and geography. He prepared the two locational sketch maps for this volume.

Glenda Slarke
Glenda Slarke was a Road Dental Clinic nurse, and in her course of work met and married a farming descendant of an original Lake Grace settler. Keen on Australian history, she loves reading of the explorer expeditions, which she was not taught at school. Until recent retirement to town, she lived on the original historic family farm in an early family home, and is a proofreader.

Jim Quinn
Jim Quinn BA, Dip. Ed., was a senior officer of the Education Department of WA. He was active in establishing Edith Cowan University and was its first Pro-Chancellor. The strong interest he had in remote schools as a District Superintendent was increased by his proofreading work for the Western Australian Explorers’ Diaries Project. He was a member of the Melville Historical Society. Jim died in 2016.

Mardi Quinn
Mardi Quinn is a member of the Melville Historical Society in which she has held the position of vice-President and now acts as rental officer of the Miller Bakehouse Museum Building for the society. She has a keen interest in the history of WA.

Allan Zweck
Allan Zweck is a native of Blyth, South Australia who moved to Lake Grace as a new-land farmer from 1965 until retirement, when he became an enthusiastic family history researcher. While researching William Rudall, to whom his wife was related, he developed a great interest in the WA Explorers’ Diaries Project. Enthusiasm for the Project has been maintained by involvement as a Proofreader, by having a recognition of its uniqueness, and acknowledgement of the importance to collate such valuable documents. Allan lived and worked on farming land that Roe crossed during his major expedition south-east to the Russell Range.