• 'Highly Commended' for the Melbourne University Publishing Award, Fellowship of Australian Writers National Literary Awards 2007.
• Citation: [The author's] history of French Island is a model local history.  It is extremely well researched, the illustrations are excellent, and it is written with great warmth.

Seals Rocks; and Victoria's Primitive Beginnings, Warrangine Word, Hastings, 2008, ix, 160 p., ill., maps, ports, bibliography, index, 25 cm.

'This book is about more than [the] Seal Rocks that lie at the western end of Phillip Island.  They serve as a symbol for a wider examination of the coming of sealers to the Victorian coast, the relationships between sealers and indigenous women, the subsequent development of the fishing industry and its opposition to the claimed rise in seal numbers, and scientific studies of the protected species.  Well documented, indexed and illustrated'.  History News, no. 280, April/May 2009, Royal Historical Society of Victoria.

'Puzzling Over the Early Flinders' Charts', Victorian Historical Journal, v, 78, no. 1, May 2007, pp. 5-22.

From the introduction to the issue: 'The first two [articles] by Ruth Gooch and Trevor Lipscombe, concern the charting of the Victorian coastline and debates about who was the first to do so.  The focus of Gooch's piece is Western Port while that of Lipscombe is the Frenchman Baudin's mapping of the coast west of Port Phillip.  Both articles discuss in some detail problems arising from the sources, and, in addition to throwing new light on the main issue, concur on the confusion created by Matthew Flinders'subsequent accounts, as well as on the contribution of early sealers to contemporary knowledge'.

'Sandstone Island', Victorian Historical Journal, v 74, no. 1, April 2003, pp. 46-66.

 Sandstone Island is a little Western Port island comprising only about 22 hectares and is now only inhabited by wild goats, but it has been peopled in the past. One of the discoveries made by the author in her research for the article was that there were rabbits in Victoria long before the legendary release of rabbits by the Austin family at Barwon Park. 

The Wildest Bit Along the Coast; a History of Cape Schanck, Victoria' (Book )

Abstract: The focus is on the early grazing leases of the Cape Schanck area: Cape Schanck, Boneo, Barrabang.  There is also a focus on Victoria's early cattle industry as the historical emphasis to date has been on sheep. The building of the lighthouse and early shipping disasters are discussed.  Because the Cape is so picturesque, it was a Mecca for the artists of the day: von Guérard, Chevalier, La Trobe Bateman, Georgiana McCrae, Louisa Meredith - which means that the artistic record is of significance.  The story is told of the Cape Schanck clan of Aborigines, gone in 20 years; new theories are introduced in regard to some Aboriginal practices

First draft of Frontier French Island comprises some 180,000 words, and contains a significant amount of unpublished material, mainly family history, not included in the published book.

Minute Book of the French Island Progress Association, 1916-1924. Badly water stained, but some of it is legible. See attachment under 'Transcript' tab