Committee

President: Maj. Gen. (Rtd) Mike O’Brien, CSC

Mike’s extensive military career from 1968 to 2001 ranged from commanding an infantry platoon in Vietnam to many senior roles, culminating in his appointment as Support Commander-Army. He has also run an antiquarian bookstore and writes local and military history. Mike is currently President of the Royal United Services Institute of Victoria, for whom he manages the State’s premier collection of military books.

Vice President: Shane Carmody

Shane is an historian with an interest in the history of collections. He has worked at the National Archives of Australia and the State Library Victoria.

He leads an annual tour of The Great Libraries of England for Austrailians Studying Abroad.

Treasurer: Jonathan Burdon AM

Jonathan Burdon is a respiratory physician with a long interest in military history. He comes from a bookselling family and married Kay Craddock in 2004. As a result of his particular interest in military history and interest in Kay’s bookshop, he now oversees the shop’s militaria section and acquisitions. He is a member and past president of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Antiquarian Booksellers (ANZAAB). Jonathan is a former co-convenor of Melbourne Rare Book Week.

Secretary: Chris Browne

Chris is a retired medical researcher who spent most of his working life at Monash University. He has been a book collector for more than 50 years and has put together during that time a personal library of nearly 15,000 books. His main interests are 19th and early 20th century English literature, children’s books and fine illustrated books. He has particularly strong collections of Jane Austen, Lewis Carroll, Charles Dickens, and Rudyard Kipling.

Founder: Kay Craddock AM

Kay has been a secondhand/antiquarian bookseller for more than 58 years. She is a founding member, and former president, of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Antiquarian Booksellers (ANZAAB). In 1996 she was elected to the committee of the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB), later becoming the first bookseller from the Southern Hemisphere to be elected President of ILAB. Kay is the founder and a former co-convenor of Melbourne Rare Book Week.

Des Cowley

Des is a former Principal Librarian at State Library Victoria, where he had more than 25 years’ experience working with rare books. He is currently the series editor of the Red Letter series of poetry chapbooks; and publishes regularly on books, art and music for a range of journals. From 2005 until 2021, he co-curated State Library Victoria’s permanent exhibition World of the Book and is co-author of The World of the Book, published by Melbourne University Press in 2007.

Anna Welch

Anna Welch (PhD, 2011) is a rare books curator specializing in medieval and early modern books and graphic culture, both manuscript and printed. She has worked in the Rare Books Collection at State Library Victoria since 2011 and is co-curator of the annually refreshed World of the Book exhibition.

Daniel Wee

Daniel is Senior Librarian, History of the Book and Arts at State Library Victoria and former Special Collections Librarian at Monash University. He is currently an Adjunct Lecturer at Charles Sturt University, teaching collections. At Monash University he has curated several exhibitions, including, Tall Tales and True. He is currently, co-curator of the annually refreshed World of the Book exhibition at State Library Victoria.

Susan Millard

Susan is the Curator of Rare Books at the University of Melbourne. She has previously worked in public libraries and at State Library Victoria in the Manuscripts and Rare Printed collections. At the University of Melbourne, she has curated a number of exhibitions, including Libri: Six Centuries of Italian Books (2013) and Art on the Page (2017). Most recently, she created the online exhibition Meanjin in Archives and Special Collections in 2021. She has a strong interest in the Book Arts, as well as various areas of Australiana and printing history.