Our Profession
Way Back When is committed to upholding professional industry standards. All Way Back When historians have postgraduate history qualifications, each having completed the Master of Public History at Monash University. All members of the team are accredited members of the Professional Historians Association (Victoria & Tasmania), members of Oral History Victoria and Friends of the History Council of Victoria. We are actively involved in our professional community via membership of a variety of committees and boards, as well as regular participation in events and professional development. The following websites can provide more information about professional historians:
Our extended team
Way Back When has an extensive network of colleagues and associates with whom we work collaboratively. This includes other qualified professional historians, as well as designers, sound engineers and videographers.
Tiny Empire Collective work collaboratively with organisations to create films and photographs which are emotive and engaging, backed by historical research, and informed by a respect and honour for the communities, objects and histories involved.
Russell Goldsmith is a multiple award winning Melbourne-based sound designer, composer, producer and audio system designer. He has a diverse body of work in theatre, film, television, commercial and radio production, live music and installation art.
Taloula Press is the creative home of Karen Wallis, a designer and illustrator with over a decade of industry experience. Karen works on a range of different design projects from books, illustrations, typography and print in both digital and print-based formats. She works collaboratively with a network of freelance web-developers, photographers, illustrators and historians.
Megan Atkins is a multi-disciplinary design studio specialising in the creation and delivery of spaces and experiences for exhibitions, interiors, installations, interpretative displays and heritage projects. The studio provides services from creative direction, master planning, spatial planning, concept design and interpretation, through to project management, 3D design, graphic design, documentation, production management and installation.
Dr Kirstie Close has been researching and teaching history professionally since 2006. In addition to teaching and research at Victorian universities, in recent years she has worked for the Pacific Adventist University in Papua New Guinea, the University of the South Pacific in Fiji and Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education in Darwin. Kirstie is a member of the Professional Historians Association (Vic & Tas).
Ellen Spalding holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in history from the University of Melbourne and a Graduate Diploma in Museum Studies from Deakin University. Ellen specialises in oral history interviewing, collection management, and researching and writing community stories. She is a member of the Professional Historians Association (Vic & Tas) and Oral History Victoria.
Dr Nicolette Snowden is an independent historian, researcher and writer. Nicolette has over 20 years’ experience interviewing as an oral historian and journalist with particular expertise and interest in rural and regional storytelling. She is a member of the Professional Historians Association (Vic & Tas) and Oral History Victoria.
Dr Deborah Lee-Talbot is a dedicated historian with a passion for preserving archival treasures, fostering community engagement and supporting the stories within those spaces to reach new audiences through various projects. She is a member of the Professional Historians Association (Vic & Tas) and current editor of Historia, the newsletter for Professional Historians Australia.
