This year’s annual Perth Heritage Days program features a myriad of fascinating speakers who will reflect on different element of our heritage including; cultural, botanical, architectural and even archaeologically. The speakers will bring the characters that ‘made it happen’ come to life! As we celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the opening of the second Causeway Bridge, engineer Lloyd Margetts, who joined the Main roads as a cadet in 1967, will present his talk, “Over to the Other Side – a History of Perth Bridges”. He has been closely involved in bridge management issues, specialising in timber bridge maintenance since 1986, which makes him the perfect presenter for this subject. Retired Senior Lecturer from The University of Western Australia and honorary life member of the Friends of Battye Library, Pamela Stratham-Drew will give a talk about a widowed young clergyman, John Burdett Wittenoom, who nearly two-centuries ago stepped ashore in Perth. “On We Go: The Wittenoom Way” is a truly courageous, inspiring and epic story which will be told in our wonderful Old Court House Law Museum. Internationally respected historian and archivist Joanna Sassoon will present a lavishly illustrated talk about one of nineteenth century Perth’s most prolific photographers, Ernest Lund Mitchell. Whilst many of us would recognise his photographs, few of us know about his life, or the importance of his work which promoted this State internationally. “Picturing WA through the lens of E.L Mitchell” is a must for photographic history buffs. From picture to post, Sue Hobson will present the findings of her research on an interesting aspect of our social and postal history, “Cast Iron Pillar Boxes of WA”. There is also a talk about our first female property tycoon in “The Story of Mary Raine”, and a look at the “Cathedral Gardens: past, present and future”. Crime historian and writer Leigh Straw will present “The First Step Forward: the early years of the Women’s Police Unit in Perth’ and Fiona Hook, vice-president of the Australian Archaeological Association and Honorary Research Fellow at the University of WA, will take people under world with “Barges to Gentlemen’s Yachts: the archaeology of the Port of Perth 1830-1900”.