Details

News

21 January 2026

Details are now available about the official conference dinner on Saturday evening. Please visit this article for details (restricted access to PSI members - please sign in!).

Details

News

21 January 2026

Our Saturday conference dinner will be held at the Old Melbourne Gaol (jail), in keeping with Australia's prison history and Foucauldian themes of power and punishment.

 The Gaol is especially well known in Australian lore as the site of the hanging of Ned Kelly, folk hero bandit or villainous outlaw (depending on your viewpoint). Ned's armor appears in the State Library of Victoria, on Swanston Street. If you want to come armed (so to speak) with knowledge of the history, you can check out one or more of the many film representations of the story of the Kelly Gang--see the bottom of this page. That said, the evening will feature small-group tours and a historical speaker, so you don't need prior study to appreciate the venue.

The evening begins at 6:30pm with welcome drinks and canapes. At 7:15 we'll transition to seating for a relatively informal dinner, with a speaker joining at about 7:45. Small (20-person) tours of the gaol will run in parallel to the eating and drinking throughout the evening. We'll wrap up at 9:30pm; for those who like late nights at conferences, you'll find lots of great spots nearby to continue socializing. Please note that drinks are hosted by the conference for the first hour, and cash bar afterward.

 If you are coming to Melbourne with family and you'd like to bring them along to dinner, you can purchase a dinner-only ticket on our conference registration page at Eventbrite. The cost is A$125 (about US$84 on Jan 21), which represents the actual breakeven cost to the conference.

The Gaol is extremely convenient to Zagame's and still close to Veriu QVM and MBS--at most a 13-minute walk from any location:

To learn more about the Ned Kelly story (and if you do watch/read, you may be interested to know that Redmond Barry is the namesake of the building housing the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, i.e., the University of Melbourne psych department):

FILMS

The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906)
World's first feature-length film, directed by Charles Tait
https://archive.org/details/TheStoryOfTheKellyGang

The Kelly Gang (1920)
Directed by Harry Southwell

When the Kellys Were Out (1923)
Directed by Harry Southwell

When the Kellys Rode (1934)
Directed by Harry Southwell
https://www.nfsa.gov.au/latest/ned-kelly-australian-cinema-1906-2019

The Glenrowan Affair (1951)
Directed by Rupert Kathner, starring Bob Chitty

Ned Kelly (1970)
Directed by Tony Richardson, starring Mick Jagger
https://www.amazon.com/Ned-Kelly-Mick-Jagger/dp/B001EYLZSM
https://tubitv.com/movies/663310/ned-kelly

The Last Outlaw (1980 miniseries)
Directed by Kevin James Dobson and George Miller, starring John Jarratt
Four-part miniseries (379 minutes total)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081033/

Ned Kelly (2003)
Directed by Gregor Jordan, starring Heath Ledger, Orlando Bloom, Naomi Watts, Geoffrey Rush
Based on Robert Drewe's novel Our Sunshine
https://www.netflix.com/title/60033337
https://www.amazon.com/Ned-Kelly-Heath-Ledger/dp/B00622B9XC

True History of the Kelly Gang (2020)
Directed by Justin Kurzel, starring George MacKay, Russell Crowe, Nicholas Hoult
Based on Peter Carey's Booker Prize-winning novel
https://www.netflix.com/title/81170705
https://www.amazon.com/True-History-Kelly-George-MacKay/dp/B086KKNVK2

BOOKS

Our Sunshine (1991) by Robert Drewe
A vivid reimagining of Ned Kelly's final days, shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award
https://www.penguin.com.au/books/our-sunshine-9781742283524
https://www.amazon.com/Our-Sunshine-Robert-Drewe/dp/1743140126

True History of the Kelly Gang (2000) by Peter Carey
Winner of the 2001 Booker Prize and Commonwealth Writers Prize. Written in Kelly's vernacular voice
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/24049/true-history-of-the-kelly-gang-by-peter-carey
https://www.amazon.com/True-History-Kelly-Gang-Novel/dp/0375724672