Samuel Doering Named History Council of South Australia’s ‘Emerging Historian’ At SA History Festival 2024 Finale

The historic North Adelaide ‘The Piccidilly’ beautifully and faithfully restored to it’s former glory by its current owners the Wallis’s was the scene for the SA History Festival 2024 Finale on Friday the 31st of May 2024.

Pre Event drinks & nibbles gave everyone a chance to catch up and talk about the busy month of May as the History Festival Month Celebrations. Here we caught up with Samuel Doering who was really happy to have his Mother Carolyn who had flown in from New South Wales and was able to come along and to meet up with Penny Pratt, MP for Frome.

History Council of SA President, Prof Matt Fitzpatrick introduced the first category,
“The first category for tonight’s awards is The Emerging Historian Award.

“This award recognises those who have only recently begun engaging with historical research and I am very pleased to announce that this year’s winner is Samuel Doering.

“Samuel has complied an outsanding body of work in a few short years, it has included work on military, on his personal passion for writing history on German and Lutheran migration in the Barossa Valley and in his process of learning German in the translation of historic documents (something I can sympathise with) Samuel also attends the passion of others for history with engaging presentations and tours of history, so once again – Congratulations!”

Samuel spoke later of his award,
“I was honoured to receive the 2024 Emerging Historian of the Year Award from the History Council of South Australia.

“Working in history has taken me to many weird and wonderful places and allowed me to undertake exciting projects, not to mention it has given me the chance to meet some incredible people. Every part of the journey has been great fun, so to receive recognition is a delight!

“Thank you to the History Trust of South Australia for hosting the evening and making the Festival happen.

“Thank you also to the many friends and colleagues who support my wild passion for all things history. I am so lucky.”

It was great to also hear at the same celebrations that Burra’s historian Meredith Satchell was jointly awarded the ‘Life Long Historian Award 2024’ along with fellow historian Martin Walker. Sadly Meredith could not attend the awards that night to celebrate.

Prof Fitzpatrick spoke of the great work Meredith has done,
“She has been integral to the development of Burra’s popular history presence over many years, this includes working closely with community and council in preparing a World Heritage Nomination on the Australian Cornish Mining Sites in Burra and Moonta an important project which began in 2011.

“Meredith has researched and published many fascinating works on the Burra region and created a range of self guided history walks. Her passion and knowledge together with her detailed research into local history makes Meredith a worthy recipient of this lifelong history award.”

Another highlight of the evening was when The Right Honorable The Lord Mayor of Adelaide Dr Jane Lomax-Smith AM introduced ‘The Wakefield Companion to South Australian History (Revised Edition)’ produced by the Wakefield Press. She extolled the importance of the book for South Australia’s history, which has about 1/3rd of the original companion being updated, 28% were completely new from the 220 people who added to it. Jane told how it has been researched properly and can be relied on for it’s facts; as opposed to many sources on the internet and social media which have false or misleading information and she urged everyone to purchase a copy.

The final speaker for the evening was South Australia’s History Advocate, Dr Kiera Lindsey who eloquently introduced us to the South Australia’s History Festival 2025 Theme which will be:-
DECISIONS.