Author Talk: Marguerita Stephens with Aunty Fay - Mornington Library

Next date: Wednesday, 27 May 2026 | 01:00 PM to 02:30 PM

Join us during Reconciliation Week for a revealing and informative talk with Dr Marguerita Stephens and Aunty Fay Stewart-Muir as they discuss The Years of Terror.

The Years of Terror: Kulin and Colonists at Port Phillip 1835-1851 (Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2023) details the impact of the British invasion of Port Phillip on the Kulin people of central Victoria.

Based on the daily journal of Assistant Protector William Thomas, deputy to Chief Protector George Augustus Robinson, the book provides unsurpassed detail about the lives and deaths of Kulin men, women and children of the first generation to face the might of the British empire. It focuses on the fate of the Boon Wurrung of the Mornington Peninsula and the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung clans of the Yarra Valley.

Individuals hitherto lost to history reappear as multidimensional historic figures attempting both to resist the invasion and to accommodate it as best they could while witnessing and suffering the almost complete destruction of kin and culture. The work also details the moral and practical challenges faced by William Thomas and his wife Susannah, sent out from Britain to ‘protect’ the Kulin.

The work is the result of a partnership between historian Dr Marguerita Stephens and Boon Wurrung Elder, Aunty Fay Stewart-Muir, OAM.

Free, bookings essential.

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Note: If you can't make it on the day, please let us know so we can free up your tickets.

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Mornington Library, Vancouver Street, Mornington, 3931, View Map