Events calendar for 2023
Upcoming events
Our program of activities in 2023 has concluded. We wish all readers a wonderful festive season and a safe and happy start to the new year.
Our office will be closed between Christmas and New Year, re-opening on 2 January 2024.
We'll announce the 2024 Events calendar in February 2024.
Communication and bookings
Our members and supporters receive notification of events via our occasional E-News and via supplementary emails if we have your email address. To join as a Social Member, please complete the form HERE.
Unless otherwise advised, all events are held at our premises in Ascot Vale.
If you wish to attend a scheduled ESU activity, please book by contacting the office - via telephone on 0477 005 932 or via email at admin@esuvic.org.au.
For the record - our past events in 2023
PUB LUNCHES
We planned to host Pub Lunches on the first Saturday of June, August, October and December but have cancelled these while we recruit a new Administrative Officer.
MARCH
Friday Night Forum: The Voice referendum - Friday 3 March, from 6:30 pm.
APRIL
Book launch - Wednesday 5 April at 6.30 pm.
Bonfire Books launched its Anthology of Australian Verse with a wonderful celebration of contemporary Australian poets - established and emerging. Attendees mingled over wine and nibbles, and were treated to readings by some of the poets featured in the Anthology.
Bonfire Books won the 2022 ESU Major Project Grant. We are thrilled that their project has been completed successfully.
To order your copy of Anthology of Australian Verse 2023, visit https://bonfirebooks.org/product/anthology-of-australian-verse-2023/
APRIL
Meet an ESU Award Winner: Melbourne Maritime Heritage Network - Friday 21 April at 7 pm.
Dr Jackie Watts OAM, inaugural Chair of the Melbourne Maritime Heritage Network, and her fellow Board member Major General (ret.) Michael O'Brien CSC, spoke about the Network's establishment, roles, objectives, current progress and language. The Network has won several ESU awards.
Read about the speakers, HERE.
Anzac Day commemoration and BBQ lunch - Tuesday 25 April from 12:30 to 4 pm.
ESU members and friends attended ESU House for a free BBQ lunch followed by a commemorative afternoon service at 3:00 pm.
See the flyer for this event, HERE.
MAY
Friday Night Forum: Modern corporate governance and the Diversity, Inclusion and Equity agenda - Friday 5 May, from 6:30 pm.
JUNE
Myths about Shakespeare’s Language - Thursday 22 June at 6 pm (for 6.30 pm start).
A free lecture by Professor Jonathan Culpeper at State Library Victoria, organised by Monash Arts Events. Professor Culpeper's visit to Melbourne was supported by a Minor Project Grant, awarded by The English-Speaking Union (Victoria Branch). A recording of the lecture will be available in early July.
Click HERE to read our web page promoting the event.
JULY
Friday Night Forum: The Emerging Conflict With China - Friday 7 July, from 6:30 pm. This event was cancelled because insufficient bookings were received by the deadline.
AUGUST
"Poems we love" - Saturday 12 August from 2.00 to 4.00 pm.
This free event was held using Zoom, as part of Australia's national Poetry Month.
SEPTEMBER
Friday Night Forum: Publishing Confidential - candid insights for Australia on written culture’s future - Friday 8 September, from 6:30 pm.
This free event received a presentation from Jordan Grantham, ESU-VIC’s recent scholar to the Columbia Publishing Course in New York with support from the 2021 Oldham Wedlick Scholarship. Jordan shared insights bright and bleak from the publishing industry’s ‘West Point’ in the global capital of books and periodicals.
Viewing of exhibition: Garryowen's Melbourne - Monday 25 September, from 4 pm.
This free event was held at the Royal Historical Society of Victoria (RHSV), 239 A’Beckett Street, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000.
For more details, go to: https://esuvic.org.au/content/viewing-%E2%80%98garryowen%E2%80%99s-melbourne%E2%80%99
NOVEMBER
Friday Night Forum: Arrant Knave - a play-reading - Friday 3 November, from 6:30 pm.
Playwright and actor Tim Ferris introduced his new play, Arrant Knave, dramatising the story of Shakespeare's contemporary, the comic actor and dancer William (or Will) Kemp who morris-danced from London to Norwich across nine days during February and March 1600. Tim introduced Kemp's life and times, then read Kemp's account of his journey, the Nine Days Wonder. After the dinner break, Tim directed a reading of Arrant Knave.
The story & concept of the new play are by Tim Ferris and Liz King, who were jointly supported by an ESU Project Grant in 2022.
Annual General Meeting
The AGM for ESU members was held by videoconference at 2 pm on Sunday 26 November.
DECEMBER
End-of-year celebration - Saturday 9 December at The Last Jar, Melbourne.
This page was updated on 15 December 2023.