Committee Members

President: Lindsay Bamfield

Lindsay came to Melbourne from London in May 2019 having retired from her career as a specialist speech and language therapist. She began writing after completing an Honours degree in Literature in 2006. She cofounded a local peer-critiquing writing group with three others which expanded into four groups with around 25 members in total. They ran three international short story competitions and held five local literary festivals in north London with an amazing range of literary speakers. Finding a writing group in Melbourne was a priority and after a couple which didn’t fit the bill, Lindsay joined SWWV in June 2020.

Vice President/Newsletter Editor – Paula Wilson

Paula joined the Society of Women Writers Victoria in the mid-1990s while studying Professional Writing and Editing at RMIT and has been an active member ever since. While still studying she attended a gathering of 400 women for the magazine Karios, where the former Premier of Victoria Joan Kirner said ‘For a claim on the future there must be an understanding of our achievements in the past, the names of men live on and women become lost.’ These words had a profound impact on Paula and from that day on she set out to discover the lost stories of Australian women in history. These stories have been published in magazines and online. Paula also writes short stories inspired by her grandchildren and her travels around Victoria in her caravan.

Company Secretary – Lindsay Ferguson

Lindsay has always loved words. She avidly read labels on sauce bottles and cereal packets, her spelling was stunningly accurate, and her mother had to replace her Little Disney book of Cinderella three Christmases in a row, such a workout did she give it during the year. Her childhood heroines were Jo March, Anne Shirley and Katy (What Katy Did). In middle age, Lindsay came to the conclusion that the only things that mattered in life were family, friends, art and politics. In her golden years, she clings to that view. Art, of course includes her quilting, but also engagement in the joy of words, the music of language, the deep wells of meaning that words add to our lives.  Lindsay looks forward to contributing to the work of the Society of Women Writers Victoria which in her brief membership has enriched her life markedly.

Treasurer– Breda Hertaeg  

Meeting the committee of SWWVic was quite an experience. So many members go the next mile to help all of us enjoy a terrific writing group. Unlike me, some have expert accounting or bookkeeping skills or experience, knowledge of legal requirements for running a meeting, taking minutes, writing reports and numerous minutiae which have never been part of my work as a midwife. And, these outstanding people are all women! Since being on the committee I have learned a great number of things and I am pleased to be taking over from Del as the Treasurer but nervous about the size of the boots I have to fill.

Membership Secretary/Assistant Treasurer – Lindsay Bamfield

Lindsay came to Melbourne from London in May 2019 having retired from her career as a specialist speech and language therapist. She began writing after completing an Honours degree in Literature in 2006. She cofounded a local peer-critiquing writing group with three others which expanded into four groups with around 25 members in total. They ran three international short story competitions and held five local literary festivals in north London with an amazing range of literary speakers. Finding a writing group in Melbourne was a priority and after a couple which didn’t fit the bill, Lindsay joined SWWV in June 2020.

Website Manager – Bhavna Khanna  

Bhavna is an artist with a keen interest in painting, mural painting and  book illustrations. She created the painting which is on the cover for the Sparx issue 8. She also dabbles in writing. Bhavna enjoys volunteering with the Society, all the way from NSW where she lives in South Sydney with her husband and two children.

Assistant Company Secretary – Karen Meyers  

Although trained as a secondary teacher in food and technology, Karen now spends her time helping with her two grandchildren and hopefully passing on skills and knowledge to them. Prior to this, she lived and worked in London for a couple of years working at a Cooking School before setting up her own in Melbourne in the 1980s. Karen has published eight recipe books, in the days before the celebrity Chefs put out their popular glossy coffee table versions. She loves writing and is currently working on a rather continuous ‘letter to her Grandchildren’ detailing all the small but meaningful events in their lives that the Instagram photos will forget.

Committee Member – Del Nightingale  

Del has lived in Melbourne from day one. Training to teach was the stepping off point for a varied career. Slipping easily from the educational environment into welfare work, Del coordinated support programs and delivered client services. As a business owner/operator she managed a computer bureau, provided vocational training and completed writing contracts for clients. This year Del’s place on the committee will be coordinating the Society’s history project and overseeing the publication of a book to mark its first fifty years.  

Committee Member – Tracee Spiby  

Undeniably a country girl, Tracee has lived all her life in central Victoria, working in various fields  including as a small business operator, Adult Education, community development and Child Protection.  With no formal writing background but a love of family history and research, she is learning through doing  and has commenced writing her grandfather’s story of two world wars.  

Tracee joined the society before the For the Love of Writing Festival and has gained so much from the  Society that she has now joined the committee in order to give something back.