About me.

Here’s some info about me. It’s current as of September 2023 and I’ll update it from time to time.

If you’re needing a bio of me in preparation for an event (or whatever), feel free to assemble something (as brief as you like) from the details below. I’ve included a short version, should you prefer to cut to the chase.
Also below are a couple of photos for promotional use. Please credit: Photo by Penny Ryan. For further information, contact Mrs Bradley.

→Please note: I resigned from the Library Board of Victoria in 2012.

Robyn Annear is author of eight books of history –
Bearbrass: Imagining Early Melbourne – winner of a Victorian Premier’s Literary Award in 1995 and still in print (Black Inc)
Nothing But Gold: The diggers of 1852 (Text, 1999)
The Man Who Lost Himself: The unbelievable story of the Tichborne Claimant (Text, 2002)
Fly a Rebel Flag: The Eureka Stockade – for younger readers (Black Dog Books, 2004)
A City Lost & Found: Whelan the Wrecker’s Melbourne (Black Inc, 2005)
Nothing New: A history of second-hand (Text, 2019)
Adrift in Melbourne: Seven Walks with Robyn Annear (Text, 2021)
and Corners of Melbourne: The great orange-peel panic & other stories from the streets (Text, 2023).

As a curator, Robyn has explored aspects of Melbourne and Victoria’s history in exhibitions at State Library Victoria and the City Gallery at Melbourne Town Hall. She writes occasionally for The Monthly.

On TV, Robyn has appeared in Victoria Wood’s BBC series, Victoria’s Empire (Episode 3), in Tony Robinson Explores Australia (Episode 4: Eureka), and in The Crown and Us. She also featured in Gus Berger’s award-winning 2022 documentary, The Lost City of Melbourne.

In 2018, Robyn launched a podcast, Nothing on TV, which ransacks Trove Newspapers, the National Library of Australia’s digital repository of historical newsprint, for stories from a time when there was, literally, nothing on TV.

Short version –

Robyn Annear is author of eight books of history, including Bearbrass, A City Lost & Found: Whelan the Wrecker’s Melbourne, Adrift in Melbourne and, most recently, Corners of Melbourne: The great orange-peel panic & other stories from the streets. She appeared in the award-winning 2022 documentary, The Lost City of Melbourne. In her podcast, Nothing on TV, Robyn presents stories from Trove historical newspapers.

Please credit: Photo by Penny Ryan.