Blue Mountains Historical Society
The Annual McLaughlin Lecture – Saturday 28 February 2026
Dr Catherine Bishop – ‘Fish Without Bicycles’
The Blue Mountains Historical Society (BMHS) will hold its annual McLaughlin Lecture on Saturday 28 February 2026 at the Lawson Mechanics Institute, 284 Great Western Highway, Lawson, commencing at 10.30am. Some car parking is available with entry from the rear via Orient Street and Yileena Avenue. Lawson Railway Station is only appox. 300 metres away. Please note the change of address and date this year.
Dr Catherine Bishop will speak on the topic “Fish Without Bicycles”. Australian feminist Irina Dunn coined the phrase ‘a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle’. This lecture focuses on local Blue Mountains women who earned their own money, independent of men, either through choice or circumstance. Some ran businesses in the Mountains, others, like Beryl McLaughlin, retired here.
Dr Bishop is an honorary Research Fellow at Macquarie University.
The talk is free to BMHS members, visitors entry is $5. Morning tea is available from 10am for a small charge.