Stuart Handley
President
Stuart’s background is in teaching and leading IT and business education. His 2023 Society profile describes a long involvement in community football and an interest in family and social history.
About & contact
Keeping the evidence and the stories.
Founded in 1960, the Berrima District Historical & Family History Society Inc supports historical and genealogical research, maintains its research library and archives, and operates Berrima District Museum.
Before the Society had a home of its own, members met in rooms in Bowral and Moss Vale. Foundation member Janet Cosh catalogued the growing collection and kept the archives at her home. In the 1970s a donated cottage was moved from Moss Vale to Market Place in Berrima; it became the district museum, opening to visitors in December 1976. The archives found a room in Berrima Court House before moving to Mittagong in 1982. Today the research centre and Max Rogers library are in Moss Vale, while the museum continues to welcome visitors in Berrima.
Much of what researchers can find today rests on years of volunteer work. Clarice Boyd read through old local newspapers and created a card index of district stories. Other members later entered that index into a searchable database, preserving a path into the lives and events recorded in the papers.
Read about Clarice Boyd’s work · Explore research indexes
The linked constitution is the Society’s May 2026 document; confirm that it remains current before relying on it.
People behind the Society
Roles below follow the Society’s October 2026 newsletter. Contact the Society for current office-bearer details.
Linda Emery OAM
Senior Vice President; Archivist
Linda is a local historian, author and archivist who has been a Society member since 1989. The Governor-General’s 2026 honours notes record her Medal of the Order of Australia for service to the Wingecarribee community, including her heritage and research work.
Ian Mackey
Junior Vice President
Ian was Society president in 2019 and collaborated with Philip Morton on a history of the Bowral RSL Sub-Branch, published in 2021 using Society and local records.
Rhonda Brown
Honorary Treasurer
Rhonda ran a retail business for 23 years before moving from Melbourne to the Highlands. Her 2023 profile describes joining the Society through her interest in history and volunteering at the archives.
Philip Morton
Acting Secretary; Newsletter Editor
Philip researches and writes about district history. He collaborated with Ian Mackey on a Bowral RSL Sub-Branch history in 2021 and has contributed historical articles to the Society’s newsletter.
John Schweers
Museum Manager
John joined the Society in 2010 as a museum volunteer. A 2012 member profile describes his background in television service and his interest in local history and the museum’s work.
Janet Black
Membership Secretary
A trained librarian, Janet was chief researcher for Tallong a Heritage, published in 2009. Her 2023 Society profile records her work with the research team and cataloguing photographs for the Image Library.
Denise Mackey
Conservation Officer; Family History Group Convenor
Denise convenes the Society’s family history group. A 2016 conservation report describes her work on artwork and photograph preservation in the archives; her group shares research methods, sources and family-history discoveries.
Robyne McKinnon
DNA Interest Group Convenor
Help improve the record.
Have a name for someone in a photograph, a source for a local story, or a correction? Contact the research centre with the page or collection reference and the evidence supporting your suggestion.