About Helen and Bill Henderson

Dr. Helen Henderson AM, PhD (Anthropology), FRWAHS, was born in Bridgetown, Western Australia in 1934. She had a distinguished professional career with the WA Museum before joining the WA Health Department where she was the State Co-ordinator of Aboriginal Health Promotion, then a Project Officer for Aboriginal Policy and finally Senior Research Officer of Epidemiology at the Health Department of WA. She eventually retired in 1997 and immediately began work on the autobiography of Augustus Oldfield.

She has been a Councillor for the Royal Western Australian Historical Society since 1996 and was Vice-Chairperson from 2001 to 2017. She represents the Society on the Federation of Australian Historical Societies of which she was President from 2004 through to 2008.

The late Bill Henderson LS, FISA, was born in West Perth on 15 October 1928 and served his survey cadetship under F. G. Medcalf in Albany. From 1953 he was in the Lands and Surveys Department (WA) as Staff Surveyor and undertook many surveys across the State. A distinguished career culminated in him serving as the Acting Surveyor General of Western Australia, from 1984 to 1986.

He retired in 1986 and commenced development of a protea plantation at Toodyay which he operated until 1997. Since then and until 2013, he has focused on mapping Augustus Oldfield’s travels and other community activities including being a member of the Royal Western Australian Historical Society Council from 2000 to 2003.

It was with great sadness that we learned of the news of Bill’s passing in September 2018, a mere month after the release of “A Greater Prize Than Gold”. All at Book Reality offer their deepest condolences to Helen and her extended family.

Books by Helen and Bill Henderson