PROFILES

Peter Chinn

Peter, who has lived in Springwood for almost forty-five years, worked as a Customs Officer for forty years.  After retiring for two years, he returned to take up a position as their History Officer.  Peter’s career with the Australian Customs Service now spans half a century.  He is an accomplished speaker and many community and service organisations have enjoyed his lectures on aspects of Blue Mountains history.  As Research Officer for the Springwood Historical Society, he saw a long-standing passion fulfilled in 2006 when the society published Peter’s history of law enforcement in the Blue Mountains.  Five years of research went into the writing of the narrative The Thin Red and Blue Lines that spans the years 1814-2005.  He is now President of the Society. Peter also contributed to The Making of a Mountain Community: A Biographical Dictionary of the Springwood District, published by Springwood Historians. 

Special Interests:

Military History

Shirley Evans

Shirley is a retired High School Teacher Librarian – married with three adult children and three grandchildren.  She is a keen family historian – a 5^th generation Australian who is particularly interested in the early convict settlers of the Hawkesbury district.  The Evans family lived in Glenbrook from 1956 to 1965, and then moved to Moree where they lived and worked for four years, moving on to Leeton for seven years, and then back to the Blue Mountains where they have lived in Springwood and Winmalee for the last thirty-one years.  Family history led to an interest in Local History and in 1998 Shirley wrote a small book titled The Influenza Pandemic of 1918/1919 in the Blue Mountains and Lithgow (now out of print but available in the Library) and co-authored The Making of a Mountain Community: A Biographical Dictionary of the Springwood District and Remembrance: Springwood District Honor Roll 1914-1919.  She served, for a time, as Vice President & Research Officer for the Springwood Historical Society and is an active member of the Blue Mountains Family History Society Inc.  regularly contributing articles for their journal, The Explorers' Tree.  Shirley received the 'Bob Howard Award' for the best researched article three times. She also conducted Family History workshops in Springwood Library for many years.  As a volunteer for the Local Studies section of BMCC Library she spent 10 years clipping newspapers and indexing the articles for inclusion in the vertical (or pamphlet) files. Her relaxation activities are organic gardening, reading (mostly mysteries, Australian History and the classics), watching films and listening to light classical music. Shirley is a member of the Heritage Advisory Committee convened by Blue Mountains City Council. 

Special Interests:

Education

Influenza Pandemic

Convicts & family history

John Low

John was born in North Sydney. He worked as an English-History teacher after graduating from the University of Sydney in the 1960s, before moving into librarianship.  He worked in public libraries in Wagga Wagga and Cowra prior to taking up the position of Local History (now Studies) Librarian for Blue Mountains City Council Library, in 1982. John remained in that position until his retirement in July 2007. John occasionally speaks to community groups and is a member of the Blue Mountains Historical Society.  While his interests are very broad, John enjoys poking around in the hidden and overlooked corners of local history.  He has written and contributed to a number of local history publications such as The Making of a Mountain Community and is presently experimenting with a web journal blog.

Special Interests:

Overlooked & hidden history

Sport

Lindsay Paish

Lindsay was born in Katoomba.  He served with the R.A.A.F. during World War II and post war, undertook tertiary education.  Twelve years with the Forestry Commission qualified him as a Cartographer and Topographical Surveyor.  Lindsay was a foundation member of the Springwood Historical Society, a member of the Springwood Rifle Club and chair of the Lower Blue Mountains Conservation Society.  He joined Blue Mountains City Council as a Cartographer/Surveyor and during his time there, qualified as Town Planner. He served as chair of the Blue Mountains National Park Advisory Committee for ten years.  In the capacity of Town Planner Lindsay supervised Council’s initial Heritage Register.  In retirement, he served as chair of the Management Committee of ‘Braemar’ for ten years.  Lindsay’s published works include Hawkesbury Road and the Development of North Springwood, William Dawes – First White Man on the Mountains, Springwood Rifle Club, and Orchards of North Springwood and collaborated on The Making of a Mountain Community.

Special Interests:

Sir Charles Rosenthal 

Sadly we report the death of Lindsay Paish who passed away peacefully - at home - just after New Year.  Lindsay will be sadly missed not only by the Springwood Historians but also the Blue Mountains community.  We pass on our deepest sympathy to his wife and family.    

Kate Santleben

Following a peripatetic Defence Forces childhood, Kate lived in Sydney for five years and worked for the Public Service. For her, the highlight of these years was being seconded onto the ministerial staff of one of the then Federal Labor Government Cabinet Ministers. Upon marriage, she lived in Armidale, NSW, from 1979-1991. Whilst there, she worked periodically in a private dental practice as well as administrative work at the University of New England. During this time she completed a Diploma in Teaching with the then Armidale College of Advanced Education. After moving to Lake Macquarie, NSW, Kate continued working in a dental practice prior to completing a Diploma in Library and Information Studies. After three years working in a K-12 school library, she relocated to the Blue Mountains in 2005 and is a recent recruit to Springwood Historians. Kate is working on contributions to the group’s series on Springwood’s commercial history. Kate is currently enrolled in the University of New England’s Graduate Diploma in Local, Family & Applied History, and works part-time as a Membership Development Officer for a Sydney based charity.

Special interests:

Australian historical fiction

Australian quilting history

Blue Mountains writers

Springwood medical and dental practitioners

Pamela Smith

Pamela and her family have resided in the Blue Mountains for almost forty years.  She enjoyed a long association with ‘Braemar Gallery’ as both Co-director and Chair of the management committee.  Pamela organised the first history conference in the Blue Mountains in 2001, as part of the Centenary of Federation celebrations, and received the Centenary of Federation Medal.  Because the conference was so well received several more followed. She has a B.A (Hons) degree in History and an Advanced Diploma in Local, Family and Applied History. Her dissertation for Honours focused on private venture education in the Blue Mountains.  Another university thesis dealt with the presence of the fascist ‘old guard’ movement in the Blue Mountains in the 1930s. Pamela tutored University of the Third Age groups for several years and was a major contributor to The Making of a Mountain Community: A Biographical Dictionary of the Springwood District and collaborated with Shirley on Remembrance: Springwood District Honor Roll 1914-1919. She is president of the Blue Mountains Association of Cultural Heritage Organisations Inc. (BMACHO) and is currently enrolled in a Masters Degree at the University of New England Armidale.  In 2008 Pamela was awarded the Professor D.R. Grey Postgraduate Research Foundation Award from the faculty of Arts and Sciences University of New England Armidale NSW. She is a foundation member of the Heritage Advisory Committee convened by the Blue Mountains City Council.

Special Interests: 

Non-government or private venture schools

Local/Public History

Political History

Old and New Guard History

Women in Local Government