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ACU history and literary experts to join major regional book festival

Australian Catholic University is proud to join an exciting program to mark the 20^th anniversary of the country’s biggest book festival, the Clunes Booktown.

ACU’s National School of Arts and Humanities will host events at the Esmond Gallery in Clunes across featuring high profile historians and literary experts leading panels and talks on everything from the history of Australian rail to the dark side of family bonds and cinema to the importance of children’s books to fashion in the Gold Rush era.

Historians Associate Professor Benjamin Mountford and Adjunct Professor Amanda Nettelbeck are among the long line up of speakers for the festival.

Fans of historic children’s books, rail history, fashion and fiction are expected to be among the 15,000 people crowding the main street of Clunes, north of Ballarat, for the Clunes Booktown Festival on 21-22 March.

ACU is the only university sponsor of the Clunes Booktown Festival and has supported the event since 2023.

Ballarat-based Associate Professor Mountford said the Clunes Booktown Festival celebrated the region’s burgeoning arts and humanities scene.

“Booktown is one of the most important fixtures on our calendar in Central Victoria,” Associate Professor Mountford said.

“It brings together writers, readers and storytellers from a diversity of backgrounds to celebrate the role of books, stories and ideas in enriching all our lives.

“ACU is delighted to again play a role in supporting this exciting and engaging regional cultural festival.”

ACU’s new Executive Dean of the Faculty of Education and Arts Professor Larissa McLean Davies said the festival’s focus of diverse writing and storytelling reflected ACU’s vision and commitment to the study of literature and history.

“One of the central ideas of our university mission is to bring people of diverse backgrounds together in a way that celebrates individual and community stories,” Professor McLean Davies said.

“The Clunes Booktown Festival has done this exceptionally well for the past 20 years.

“ACU is excited to continue lending our support to host the fascinating talks and panels in the Esmond Gallery.”

Festival Creative Director Suzi Cordell says the event will include more than 130 books stalls, a Kids Village, writers workshops, panels on crime writing, speculative fiction, romance, First Nations storytelling, playwriting and historical fiction, as well as free music and entertainment across the weekend.

Clunes Booktown events at the Esmond Gallery highlights:

• Ties that Bleed: Family, Secrets and the Australian Gothic. Four writers working in the darker corners of speculative fiction, Sean Williams, Kirstyn McDermott, Jason Nahrung and Lisa Hannett will discuss how family bonds can be tested in unsettling ways.

• New Histories of Australian Rail: Panel with Amanda Nettlebeck, Carolyn Holbrook and Emma Robertson.

Three of Australia’s leading historians will share their latest work on the history of Australia’s transcontinental railways. In a session spanning environmental, political, gender, and labour history, our speakers will shed fresh light on the role of the railways in shaping Australian history.

• Collecting and Studying Historic Children’s Literature. Learn more about the Australian Catholic University Library’s special collections include the Nolan and Culican Children’s Literature Collections. Historian Ben Mountford, Library Co-ordinator Fiona Gibson and student researcher Clara McLeod Goodman will discuss the special collections, the library’s research, and the importance of children’s books for historical and literary research. Collection highlights will also be on display.

• Refashioned: Clothing Circularity in Gold Rush Victoria. As Australians grapple with the environmental consequences of our passion for fashion, what can we learn from the past? Join Lorinda Cramer as she explores historical practices of clothing circularity and ways to rethink, revalue and rewear our clothes.

• Summoning the Cailleacha. Can dark cinematic arts lure this Irish hag from the ruins of myth? Moving image artist Erin M McCuskey will unfold through screening and presentation how film art and research can work together, through flicker and cinematic hauntings to awaken ancient legends allowing ancestral knowledge to surface in startling ways.

Clunes Booktown Festival will be held from 21-22 March 2026.