The Sandhurst Mechanics’ Institute opened in 1854 and for more than fifty years held the largest book collection in Bendigo. In this lively conversation, Claire Knowles and Alexis Harley explore what the Mechanics’ Institute reveals about the history of reading and writing in the Goldfields. From handwritten marginalia to the suspiciously pristine pages of a 150-year-old book of verse, and from complex, ambitious literature to 1860s advertising jingles, this session uncovers the archival clues and newspaper records that tell us what readers and writers were up to during this formative stage of Bendigo’s history. The speakers are Claire Knowles, who has published three books on Romantic-era poetry and is the former president of the Romantic Studies Association of Australasia, joined by Alexis Harley, a lecturer at La Trobe University who researches the intersections of 19th-century literature and the history of science in colonial contexts. Recorded on 31st July, 2025.