by Helen Downey, with Lorraine Secen

In 2009, Helen Downey moved to Point Lonsdale and noticed that Thwaites Walk was named after all the Thwaites men. She heard someone reading a history of Queenscliff in the Museum ask, ‘Where are all the women?’ and began writing Making Herstory, based on the letters of Theodora Fitzpatrick, whose mother, Ethel Thwaites, was the sister of the Thwaites men. Helen Downey, the author of seven non-fiction books, was a volunteer Queenscliff Heritage Guide for three years until she moved to France with her husband Peter in 2012.