Derwent Valley
Writers’ Festival

May 27—29 2022
The Barracks, New Norfolk

Dianne Snowden

Dr Dianne Snowden AM is an historian and genealogist. Dianne was a founder member of the Female Convicts Research Centre and is currently President. She is also President of the Friends of the Orphan Schools, which she founded in 2007, and the peak-body Australasian Association of Genealogists and Record Agents. She chairs the PAHSMA Cascades Community Advisory Committee and is a member of the PAHSMA Conservation Advisory Committee. She is a former Chair of the Tasmanian Heritage Council.

She is the author or co-author of several publications about convict women and the children of the Orphan Schools. Her publications include White Rag Burning. Irish Women Committing Arson to be Transported (2018); Voices from the Orphan Schools. The Children’s Stories (2018); Van Diemen’s Women. A History of Transportation to Tasmania (with Joan Kavanagh, 2015; winner of Australian Historical Association (AHA) Kay Daniels Award 2018); and Patchwork Prisoners (with Trudy Cowley, 2013; shortlisted for the AHA Kay Daniels Award, 2014). Her most recent publication is, 200 Years of Showing. The Oldest Agricultural Society in Australia (2021).

Dianne was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2017 for significant service to the community as an historian and genealogical researcher, to higher education, and to heritage groups. She was admitted to the Tasmanian Honour Roll of Women in 2017.