David Stephens* ‘That diversity trumpet sounding louder: Australian Foreign Affairs, Meanjin, and the Australian Dictionary of Biography’, Honest History, 28 March 2019 updated Update 12 April 2019: Henry Reynolds in this edition of Meanjin: now open access The announcement of a…
ABC RN Late Night Live: Everyone loves Trove
ABC RN ‘Everyone loves Trove‘, Late Night Live, 20 March 2019 Phillip Adams talks to Liz Stainforth, visiting researcher from the UK, and Alison Dellit, National Library officer in charge of Trove, described as a ‘digital heritage aggregator, which is…
Daley, Paul: ‘A big jump’: people might have lived in Australia twice as long as we thought
Paul Daley ‘“A big jump”: people might have lived in Australia twice as long as we thought‘, Guardian Australia, 11 March 2019 Extensive archaeological research in southern Victoria has again raised the prospect that people have lived in Australia for…
Cashen, Phil: Spanish flu. Part 1
Phil Cashen ‘Spanish flu. Part 1‘, Shire at War, 29 October 2018 A well-researched piece on the flu pandemic as it crept up on Australia (and devastated the world as a whole) in the closing months of 1918 and after.…
Searle, Rick: Charles Ulm: The Untold Story of One of Australia’s Greatest Aviation Pioneers
Rick Searle Charles Ulm: The Untold Story of One of Australia’s Greatest Aviation Pioneers, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2018 Charles Ulm and Charles Kingsford Smith were two of the most important pioneers of Australian aviation. Together they succeeded in a…
Myrtle, John: Charles Ulm’s vision and determination made him a pioneer of Australian aviation
John Myrtle* ‘Charles Ulm’s vision and determination made him a pioneer of Australian aviation’, Honest History, 20 August 2018 John Myrtle reviews Charles Ulm: The Untold Story of One of Australia’s Greatest Aviation Pioneers by Rick Searle More than 80…
Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (36): Schools and a Smoke Social in South Gippsland 1918
‘Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (36): Schools and a Smoke Social in South Gippsland’, Honest History, 1 June 2018 This occasional series has often drawn upon the work of Phil Cashen of the Shire at War blog, about how the…
Mitchell, Adrian: Peat Island: Dreaming and Desecration
Adrian Mitchell Peat Island: Dreaming and Desecration, Wakefield Press, Adelaide, 2018 For just over 100 years an institution for the mentally ill has stood on little Peat Island, in the lower Hawkesbury. It was decommissioned in 2010; quite empty now,…
Myrtle, John: Removing the cloak of mystery from an island in the Hawkesbury
John Myrtle* ‘Removing the cloak of mystery from an island in the Hawkesbury’, Honest History, 18 May 2018 Adrian Mitchell’s Peat Island: Dreaming and Desecration is reviewed by John Myrtle Anyone travelling by road or rail north from Sydney to…
Griffiths, Billy: Deep Time Dreaming: Uncovering Ancient Australia
Billy Griffiths Deep Time Dreaming: Uncovering Ancient Australia, Black Inc., Melbourne, 2018; electronic version available Soon after Billy Griffiths joins his first archaeological dig as camp manager and cook, he is hooked. Equipped with a historian’s inquiring mind, he embarks…
Goreng Goreng, Tjanara: This book about Australian archaelogy and archaelogists is a gift to all of us
Tjanara Goreng Goreng* ‘This book about Australian archaelogy and archaelogists is a gift to all of us’, Honest History, 10 April 2018 Tjanara Goreng Goreng reviews Deep Time Dreaming: Uncovering Ancient Australia, by Billy Griffiths This book reaches into the…
Molony, John: Captain James Cook: Claiming the Great South Land
John Molony Captain James Cook: Claiming the Great South Land, Connor Court, Brisbane, 2016 In a unique and compelling matching of Cook’s journal entries with the journals of others on the voyage, including Joseph Banks, Sydney Parkinson and James Matra,…
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Myrtle, John: Another look at Cook
John Myrtle ‘Another look at Cook’, Honest History, 12 December 2017 John Myrtle* reviews Captain James Cook: Claiming the Great South Land by John Molony In mid-2018 the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich near London will be launching Pacific Encounters,…
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Cornering posterity: support for the Internet Archive, a way in to a breathtaking amount of information
Honest History has always been taken with the suggestion that postings to the Internet are the 21st century version of what used to be said of journalism – ‘the first draft of history’. But who makes sure all the good…
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Coleborne, Catharine: The concept of ‘western civilisation’ is past its use-by date in university humanities departments
Catharine Coleborne ‘The concept of “western civilisation” is past its use-by date in university humanities departments‘, The Conversation, 21 November 2017 Critiques moves driven by the new Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation to revamp BA courses around the idea of ‘Western…
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Collins, Alan, Bo Yang & Grant Cox: What’s Australia made of? Geologically, it depends on the state you’re in
Alan Collins, Bo Yang & Grant Cox ‘What’s Australia made of? Geologically, it depends on the state you’re in‘, The Conversation, 21 November 2017 Tracks back billions of years to show that the western part of Australia is older than…
Online Gem No. 14: Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet: an Australian Nobel Prize winner
‘Online Gem No. 14: Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet: an Australian Nobel Prize winner’, Honest History, 12 November 2017 According to Wikipedia, 16 Australians have been awarded a Nobel Prize since 1915, with the majority of these being in physiology or…
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Stephens, David: Here we go again: complaints about history curricula, this time tertiary
David Stephens ‘Here we go again: complaints about history curricula, this time tertiary’, Honest History, 25 October 2017 updated There’s been another sprouting of what commentators with a horticultural background once used to call ‘a hardy perennial’ – complaints about…
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Bowen, Chris; The case for engagement with Asia
Chris Bowen ‘The case for engagement with Asia‘ (speech to the Asia Society), Chris Bowen, 29 September 2017 updated Labor Shadow Treasurer says: Australia needs a step change in our economic relationship with Asia. Our economic relationship with Asia has…
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Cryle, Denis: Behind the Legend: The Many Worlds of Charles Todd
Denis Cryle Behind the Legend: The Many Worlds of Charles Todd, Australian Scholarly Publishing, Melbourne, 2017 “Telegraph” Todd [the man behind the Overland Telegraph through Central Australia] became a legend in his own lifetime for introducing Australian colonists to a…
Abbott, Derek: Worlds behind the legend of Charles Todd, the Overland Telegraph man (review of Cryle)
Derek Abbott* ‘Worlds behind the legend of Charles Todd, the Overland Telegraph man’ (review of Cryle), Honest History, 19 September 2017 Derek Abbott reviews Denis Cryle’s Behind the Legend: the Many Worlds of Charles Todd Denis Cryle is to be…
Clarkson, Chris, Ben Marwick, et al: Buried tools and pigments tell a new history of humans in Australia for 65,000 years
Chris Clarkson, Ben Marwick, Lynley Wallis, Richard Fullagar & Zenobia Jacobs ‘Buried tools and pigments tell a new history of humans in Australia for 65,000 years‘, The Conversation, 20 July 2017 updated A report of work in the Kakadu area…
The Conversation on cancer, comrades and cyber warfare: helping Dear Reader to keep up
Honest History has often sung the praises of The Conversation because it provides readable, evidence-based material from people who know their stuff. We suspect that many of our readers also read The Conversation. But we still think it is worth…
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Hayes, Sarah: Gold Rush Victoria was as wasteful as we are today
Sarah Hayes ‘Gold Rush Victoria was as wasteful as we are today‘, The Conversation, 29 June 2017 Archaeological excavations across Melbourne have uncovered masses of rubbish dating back to the Gold Rush era of the 1850s and 1860s. Artefacts recovered…
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Talking about The Conversation: five easy pieces in just a few days
Update 22 June 2017: and, lo, just as we ruled a line and settled on the headline, The Conversation came good again with: three charts on looming differential access to the National Broadband Network (digital divide, another form of inequality);…
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Munday, Bruce: Those Wild Rabbits: How They Shaped Australia
Bruce Munday Those Wild Rabbits: How They Shaped Australia, Wakefield Press, Adelaide, 2017 Those Wild Rabbits highlights not only the damage done but also Australia’s missed opportunities for real rabbit control. It recognises the bush’s paradoxical love affair with an…
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Myrtle, John: How wild rabbits shaped the wide brown land (review of Munday)
John Myrtle* ‘How wild rabbits shaped the wide brown land’, Honest History, 13 June 2017 John Myrtle reviews Those Wild Rabbits: How They Shaped Australia by Bruce Munday It is strange but undoubtedly the fact that animals brought from Europe…
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Reed, Liz & Lee Arnold: Naracoorte, where half a million years of biodiversity and climate history are trapped in caves
Liz Reed & Lee Arnold ‘Naracoorte, where half a million years of biodiversity and climate history are trapped in caves‘, The Conversation, 6 June 2017 About the Naracoorte Caves in South Australia, one of the world’s best fossil sites, where…
Lee, Nicole: Three charts on: Australia’s changing drug and alcohol habits
Nicole Lee ‘Three charts on: Australia’s changing drug and alcohol habits‘, The Conversation, 1 June 2017 updated Australians are using less alcohol, tobacco and other drugs than they did a decade ago, according to the Australian Institute of Health and…
Hudson, Marc: Who tilts at windmills? Explaining hostility to renewables
Marc Hudson ‘Who tilts at windmills? Explaining hostility to renewables‘, The Conversation, 29 May 2017 Looks at the history of why Australian policy makers have opposed solar and wind energy options. In a search for explanations for this, my paper…
Baker, Phillip: Fat nation: the rise and fall of obesity on the political agenda
Phillip Baker ‘Fat nation: the rise and fall of obesity on the political agenda‘, The Conversation, 26 May 2017 Tackling obesity should be a political priority but it is a tough challenge: many causes, no quick fix, lack of regulatory…
Haslam, Nick: Aussies don’t always copy the US – unlike Americans, our self-esteem has stayed the same since the 70s
Nick Haslam ‘Aussies don’t always copy the US – unlike Americans, our self-esteem has stayed the same since the 70s‘, The Conversation, 11 May 2017 An article about Australian psychology over the decades, reviewing 141 studies of Australian self-esteem between 1978…
Pender, Margaret: High flying and capital crime between the wars: The Fabulous Flying Mrs Miller (review of Baxter)
Margaret Pender* ‘High flying and capital crime between the wars: The Fabulous Flying Mrs Miller’, Honest History, 2 May 2017 Margaret Pender reviews The Fabulous Flying Mrs Miller, by Carol Baxter This is the story of Jessie ‘Chubbie’ Miller, the…
Baxter, Carol: The Fabulous Flying Mrs Miller
Carol Baxter The Fabulous Flying Mrs Miller, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2017 When the young Jessie left suburban Melbourne and her newspaperman husband in 1927, little did she know that she’d become the first woman to complete an England to…
Taylor, Rebe: Into the Heart of Tasmania: A Search for Human Antiquity
Rebe Taylor Into the Heart of Tasmania: A Search for Human Antiquity, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 2017 In 1908 English gentleman, Ernest Westlake, packed a tent, a bicycle and forty tins of food and sailed to Tasmania. On mountains, beaches…
Goreng Goreng, Tjanara: Into the heart of Tasmania with Mr Westlake (review of Taylor)
Tjanara Goreng Goreng* ‘Into the heart of Tasmania with Mr Westlake’ (review of Taylor), Honest History, 21 March 2017 Tjanara Goreng Goreng reviews Into the Heart of Tasmania: A Search for Human Antiquity by Rebe Taylor We First Nations people…
The National Film and Sound Archive has a Sydney Harbour Bridge online exhibition as the Coathanger turns 85
The NFSA has a small but slick exhibition to mark the 85th anniversary of the opening of the bridge on 19 March. The segments are People’s Bridge, Connecting Sydney, Building the Bridge, Star of the Screen, and Trivia. Like Sydney…
Godden, Judith: Crown Street Women’s Hospital: A History, 1893-1983
Judith Godden Crown Street Women’s Hospital: A History, 1893-1983, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2017 Crown Street Women’s Hospital was the largest women’s hospital in NSW. Located in the heart of Surry Hills, it was a referral hospital for women throughout…
Myrtle, John: Ninety years of midwives, mothers and babies in Sydney (review of Godden)
John Myrtle* ‘Ninety years of midwives, mothers and babies in Sydney’ (review of Godden), Honest History, 8 March 2017 John Myrtle reviews Judith Godden’s Crown Street Women’s Hospital: A History, 1893-1983 Crown Street Women’s Hospital was deeply immersed in the…
Ashcroft, Linden, David Karoly & Joelle Gergis: Delving through settlers’ diaries can reveal Australia’s colonial-era climate
Linden Ashcroft, David Karoly & Joelle Gergis ‘Delving through settlers’ diaries can reveal Australia’s colonial-era climate‘, The Conversation, 10 February 2017 ‘To really understand climate change’, the authors say, ‘we need to look at the way the climate behaves over…
Beeson, Mark: Trump triggers overdue policy debate
Mark Beeson ‘Trump triggers overdue policy debate‘, The Conversation, 8 February 2017 Whatever else Donald Trump’s election may have done, it’s had at least one welcome effect: it has finally sparked a long-overdue debate about the possible costs and benefits…
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O’Callaghan, Judith, Paul Hogben & Robert Freestone, eds: Sydney’s Martin Place: A Cultural and Design History
Judith O’Callaghan, Paul Hogben & Robert Freestone, eds Sydney’s Martin Place: A Cultural and Design History, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2016 The history of one of Australia’s most iconic urban precincts, from bustling colonial thoroughfare to imposing address for global…
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Crocket, Grahame: Centre of Sydney Town (review of O’Callaghan, Hogben & Freestone, eds)
Grahame Crocket* ‘Centre of Sydney Town’, Honest History, 7 February 2017 Grahame Crocket reviews Sydney’s Martin Place: A Cultural and Design History, edited by Judith O’Callaghan, Paul Hogben and Robert Freestone Why Sydney’s Martin Place has not been the subject…
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Hochman, Zvi, David L. Gobbett & Heidi Horan: Changing climate has stalled Australian wheat yields: study
Zvi Hochman, David L. Gobbett & Heidi Horan ‘Changing climate has stalled Australian wheat yields: study‘, The Conversation, 25 January 2017 In this article, CSIRO researchers take a historical view of Australian wheat yields, concentrating particularly on the years since 1990.…
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Evans, Kevin: Koalas are at the centre of a perfect storm. The species is slipping away
Kevin Evans ‘Koalas are at the centre of a perfect storm. The species is slipping away‘, Guardian Australia, 16 January 2017 Climate change threatens koala habitat, adding to their usual problems with fire and drought. But more to the point…
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Honest History document: the primary schools – the teaching of history
‘Honest History document: the primary schools – the teaching of history’, Honest History, 13 December 2016 From The Catholic Press (Sydney), 31 January 1918, p. 14 From all sides we hear the complaint that history is a difficult subject both…
Productivity Commission: Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage: Key Indicators 2016
Productivity Commission Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage: Key Indicators 2016 This comprehensive report card measures where things have improved (or not) against 52 indicators across a range of areas including governance, leadership and culture, early childhood, education, health, home and safe and…
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Haigh, Gideon: Basic income for all: a 500-year-old idea whose time has come?
Haigh, Gideon ‘Basic income for all: a 500-year-old idea whose time has come?‘ Guardian Australia, 11 November 2016 Long article under the heading ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’, with links to other relevant material. Haigh looks at ‘the potential of ideas such…
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Lesh, James: Preserving cities: how ‘trendies’ shaped Australia’s urban heritage
Lesh, James ‘Preserving cities: how “trendies” shaped Australia’s urban heritage‘, The Conversation, 4 November 2016 updated Looks at the heritage history of the inner suburbs of Australian cities since the 1960s. Until the mid-to-late 20th century, the Australian inner suburbs…
De Moore, Greg & Ann Westmore: Finding Sanity: John Cade, lithium and the taming of bipolar disorder
De Moore, Greg & Ann Westmore Finding Sanity: John Cade, Lithium and the Taming of Bipolar Disorder, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2016 The first biography of the ground breaking Australian doctor who discovered the first pharmacological treatment for mental illness.…
Wilson, Janet: Finding sanity: John Cade, lithium and the taming of bipolar disorder (review of De Moore and Westmore)
Janet Wilson* ‘Finding sanity: John Cade, lithium and the taming of bipolar disorder’ (review of De Moore and Westmore), Honest History, 3 November 2016 Janet Wilson reviews Finding Sanity, a new book by Greg de Moore and Ann Westmore John…
Braganza, Karl & Steve Rintoul: State of the Climate 2016: Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO
Braganza, Karl & Steve Rintoul ‘State of the Climate 2016: Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO‘, The Conversation, 27 October 2016 Summarises the main points in the report and provides links to it, to a summary video and the portal Climate…
McQueen, Humphrey: ‘A material triumph and an aesthetic calamity’: the work of Australian architect Robin Boyd’
McQueen, Humphrey ‘“A material triumph and an aesthetic calamity”: the work of Australian architect Robin Boyd’, Honest History, 11 October 2016 Humphrey McQueen wrote this article in 2002 on the 50th anniversary of the publication in 1952 of Robin Boyd’s…
‘A material triumph and an aesthetic calamity’: the work of Australian architect Robin Boyd
Humphrey McQueen ‘“A material triumph and an aesthetic calamity”: the work of Australian architect Robin Boyd’, Honest History, 11 October 2016 ‘A material triumph and an aesthetic calamity’ was how architect and cultural critic Robin Boyd summed up our domestic…
Behrendt, Larissa: Indigenous Australians know we’re the oldest living culture – it’s in our Dreamtime
Behrendt, Larissa ‘Indigenous Australians know we’re the oldest living culture – it’s in our Dreamtime‘, Guardian Australia, 22 September 2016 Responds to recent material on DNA-based research on Indigenous culture. More. ‘Scientific research often reaffirms what is in an oral…
Online Gem No. 12: David Scott Mitchell and his library, a Sydney icon
Online Gem No. 12: David Scott Mitchell and his library, a Sydney icon, Honest History, 13 September 2016 David Scott Mitchell, born in Sydney in 1836, has been described as Australia’s greatest book collector. He was an early undergraduate of…
Life and work in the city and suburbs adds up to lots of Australian stories: Honest History miscellany
The Australian story has always had a gumleaves and distance tone to it even though most of us for most of our history have lived in cities. Yet our cities have grown so big and spread so far – as…
Many facets of inequality revealed in online sources: Honest History miscellany
A current article in Guardian Weekly wonders if the abundance of online sources is killing memory. We don’t need to remember anything because we can look it up. Maybe. The upside is the ease of finding information online – information…
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Online Gem No. 11: The Airlines of Australia Stinson plane crash, 1937
Online Gem No. 11: The Airlines of Australia Stinson plane crash, 1937, Honest History, 12 August 2016 updated On 19 February 1937, an Airlines of Australia Stinson aircraft carrying five passengers and two pilots disappeared during a scheduled trip from…
Rizzetti, Janine: Graeme Davison on visions of the future
Rizzetti, Janine ‘Graeme Davison on visions of the future‘, The Resident Judge of Port Phillip, 31 July 2016 Nice piece from this excellent blog. It riffs off an exhibition in Melbourne (about to close) and an article by Graeme Davison…
Ashenden, Dean: The educational consequences of the peace (education policy over a century)
Ashenden, Dean ‘The educational consequences of the peace‘, Inside Story, 28 July 2016 Long article on the history of education policy from the nineteenth century, through the Labor Split of 1955, the Goulburn schools boycott in 1962 to the Karmel…
Sherratt, Tim: Unremembering the forgotten: Digital Humanities 2015 keynote
Sherratt, Tim Unremembering the forgotten: Keynote address, Digital Humanities 2015, University of Western Sydney, 3 July 2015 The article looks at some aspects of the history of science in Australia, including how we have been visited by scientists from overseas.…
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Viner, Katharine: How technology disrupted the truth
Katharine Viner ‘How technology disrupted the truth‘, The Guardian, 12 July 2016 updated More than 1500 comments on this article by Guardian editor-in-chief about how ‘[s]ocial media has swallowed the news – threatening the funding of public-interest reporting and ushering…
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Nicholls, Christine Judith & Dany Breelle: The voyage of Nicolas Baudin and ‘art in the service of science’
Nicholls, Christine Judith & Dany Breelle ‘Friday essay: The voyage of Nicolas Baudin and “art in the service of science”‘, The Conversation, 7 July 2016 On Baudin’s voyage commencing in 1800 to what is now Australia, during which he dealt…
Jennings, Garry: How Australians die: cause #1 – heart diseases and stroke
Jennings, Garry ‘How Australians die: cause #1 – heart diseases and stroke‘, The Conversation, 6 June 2016 First of five articles (they will link from this one) on the leading causes of death in Australia and on how death rates…
Macarthur, Sally, Cat Hope & Dawn Bennett: Why aren’t Australia’s female composers being heard?
Macarthur, Sally, Cat Hope & Dawn Bennett ‘The sound of silence: why aren’t Australia’s female composers being heard?‘ The Conversation, 31 May 2016 Since 1987, 47 composers have been commissioned to write for the nation’s leading chamber music ensemble. and…
van Otterloo, Jozua: Australia’s volcanic history is a lot more recent than you think
van Otterloo, Jozua ‘Australia’s volcanic history is a lot more recent than you think‘, The Conversation, 25 May 2016 The most recent volcanic activity in Australia was around 5000 years ago. More than 400 volcanoes have been identified in south-eastern…
Armstrong, Mick: The radicalisation of the (Australian) campuses 1967-74
Mick Armstrong ‘The radicalisation of the campuses 1967-74‘, Australian National University course material for ‘Marxist interventions’ course Based on a chapter from Armstrong’s (now hard to get) book, One, Two Three, What are We Fighting For? (Socialist Alternative, Melbourne 2001).…
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Bruns, Axel: A first draft of the present: Why we must preserve social media content
Bruns, Axel ‘A first draft of the present: Why we must preserve social media content‘, The Conversation, 16 May 2016 History is written on the basis of records that survive and are accessible. Even journalism has traditionally been described as…
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Curnoe, Darren: Ancient Australia: world’s first nation of innovators
Curnoe, Darren ‘Ancient Australia: world’s first nation of innovators‘, The Conversation, 11 May 2016 Discoveries of Indigenous Australian history discount the idea that pre-European society was ‘primitive’. Instead, ‘the continent’s Indigenous people were truly pioneers in the global (collective) journey…
Review note: Griffith Review 52 ‘Imagining the future’
‘Review note: Griffith Review 52 ‘Imagining the future’’, Honest History, 2 May 2016 updated This quick look at Griffith Review 52 ‘Imagining the future’ is more of an alert than a review. It is difficult to keep up with the…
ABC RN The Drawing Room: History of mental illness in Australia
ABC Radio National ‘A history of mental illness in Australia‘, The Drawing Room, 28 April 2016 Patricia Karvelas talks to Professor Katie Holmes of La Trobe and Professor Mark Finnane of Griffith on aspects of mental illness, including inter-generational impacts…
Daley, Paul: Canberra’s vision of the ideal city gets mired in ‘mediocrity’
Daley, Paul ‘Story of cities #17: Canberra’s vision of the ideal city gets mired in “mediocrity”‘, Guardian, 7 April 2016 Long article for London Guardian about the history of Canberra. Daley has written a book on the city also. This…
Fuller, Robert S.: Ancient Aboriginal star maps have shaped Australia’s highway network
Fuller, Robert S. ‘How ancient Aboriginal star maps have shaped Australia’s highway network‘, The Conversation, 7 April 2016 Fuller writes about the extensive network of trade routes used by Aboriginal people before 1788 for trading in goods and stories. Aboriginal…
Colebatch, Tim: Australia’s urban boom: the latest evidence
Colebatch, Tim ‘Australia’s urban boom: the latest evidence‘, Inside Story, 5 April 2016 Sometime over the next three months, Sydney’s population will reach five million. If Melbourne keeps growing at its current pace, by 2020 it too will have five million…
Review note: Kristen Alexander’s Taking Flight (Lores Bonney)
‘Review note: Taking Flight: Lores Bonney’s Extraordinary Flying Career‘, Honest History, 31 March 2016 It is rare that the word ‘extraordinary’ is justified in the writing of biography. Intrinsic to the craft are stories worth telling, lives less ordinary. In…
Bentley, Tom & Jonathan West: Time for a new consensus
Bentley, Tom & Jonathan West ‘Time for a new consensus: fostering Australia’s comparative advantages‘, Griffith Review 51 supplement, March 2016; available as pdf and electronically Australia has emerged from a spectacular resources boom without any clear approach to achieving growth…
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Online gem No. 7: Antarctica frozen in Canberra street names
Online gem No.7: Antarctica frozen in Canberra street names (26 February 2016) Suburbs and streets in the Australian Capital Territory acknowledge and commemorate the role of individuals or reflect the diverse nature of Australian culture. Mawson as a suburb is…
Einstein, gravitation and the scientists of the Empire c. 1919: highlights reel
‘Einstein, gravitation and the scientists of the Empire c. 1919: highlights reel’, Honest History, 16 February 2016 The recent announcement of the discovery of gravitational waves (described as the scientific discovery of the century) set Honest History in search of…
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Nicholas, Frank: Charles Darwin’s evolutionary revelation in Australia
Nicholas, Frank ‘Charles Darwin’s evolutionary revelation in Australia‘, The Conversation, 12 January 2016 Looks at the contributions of Darwin’s work in Australia (New South Wales, Tasmania and Western Australia) in 1836 to what ultimately became his famous work On the…
Eltham, Ben: for a new thing, innovation has been around for a while
Eltham, Ben ‘Malcolm “Boom Boom” Turnbull is an old ideas man‘, New Matilda, 10 December 2015 Anyone older than 40 should be able to remember at least three ‘innovation statements’ by Australian governments. They may also have a shelf of…
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Brown, Claire: effective note-taking
Brown, Claire ‘What’s the best, most effective way to take notes?‘ The Conversation, 22 May 2015 Education researcher gives some useful tips for students and researchers. Also links to a later piece by the same author on taking notes on…
Walker, Andrew: publish or perish or publication for public?
Walker, Andrew ‘Shift away from “publish or perish” puts the public back into publication‘, The Conversation, 4 December 2015 Article riffing off suggestions that governments will make research publication less important – and public engagement more important – in calculations…
Online gem No. 5: Medico-Legal Society of Victoria: experience of war
Online gem No. 5: Medico-Legal Society of Victoria: the experience of war (26 November 2015) Here are some more items from the extensive holdings of the Medico-Legal Society of Victoria (MLSV). Online gem No. 4 also included papers from the…
Cochrane, Peter: Keith Murdoch and the birth of a dynasty
Cochrane, Peter ‘Book review: Before Rupert: Keith Murdoch and the birth of a dynasty‘, The Conversation, 13 November 2015 Cochrane reviews this new book by Tom DC Roberts. The book starts with Murdoch’s ‘Gallipoli letter’ but goes much further. It is…
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Moses, John: Red professor in a cold war
John Moses* ‘Red professor in a cold war’ (review of Monteath and Munt), Honest History, 28 October 2015 John Moses reviews Red Professor: the Cold War Life of Fred Rose, by Peter Monteath and Valerie Munt In an extensively researched…
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Online gem No. 4: Medico-Legal Society of Victoria
Online gem No. 4: Medico-Legal Society of Victoria (26 October 2015) The Medico-Legal Society of Victoria, founded in Melbourne in 1931, was intended as a common meeting ground for the legal and medical professions and to promote discussion and understanding…
Adoniou, Misty, et al: meaning of changes to national curriculum
Adoniou, Misty, Bill Louden & Glenn C. Savage ‘What will changes to the national curriculum mean for schools? experts respond‘, The Conversation, 23 September 2015 We have been following this issue closely, particularly in relation to the history curriculum, ever…
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Cowlishaw, Gillian: anthropology and Aborigines
Cowlishaw, Gillian ‘Friend or foe? anthropology’s encounter with Aborigines‘, Inside Story, 19 August 2015 A reassessment of classical anthropological research (1890s to mid twentieth century). Condemnation of objectionable aspects of colonial power structures should not preclude appreciation of this research.…
Spurling, Tom & JM Webb: World War I and Australian science
Spurling, Tom & John Mark Webb ‘The Great War brought us tragedy but it also birthed Australian science‘, The Conversation, 13 August 2013 Shows how the war enabled Australia to embrace science and technology innovation in a national way. Traces…
Jones, Ann: 100 years of Australian lighthouses
Jones, Ann ‘Australian lighthouses in the spotlight‘, ABC Radio National ‘Off Track’, 6 July 2015 (audio and story) Australia’s first lighthouse (Macquarie Lighthouse in Sydney) lit up in 1818 (though it was rebuilt later) but 2015 marks the centenary of…
Terzis, Gillian: hashtag activism and online grief
Terzis, Gillian ‘Death trends: hashtag activism and the rise of online grief‘, Kill Your Darlings, July 2015 Our constant connection to the news and to the opinions of others means that grief can easily become a viral phenomenon … I…
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McQueen, Humphrey: Spanish flu pandemic Australia 1912-19
McQueen, Humphrey ‘The “Spanish” influenza pandemic in Australia, 1912-19’, Jill Roe, ed., Social Policy in Australia: some Perspectives 1901-1975, Cassell Australia, Stanmore NSW, 1976, pp. 131-147 (pdf of out-of-copyright material made available by the author) This article was originally delivered…
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Oppenheimer, Melanie: 100 years of Red Cross
Oppenheimer, Melanie The Power of Humanity: 100 Years of Australian Red Cross, Harper Collins, Sydney, 2014 This is the story of everyday Australians. It is a history of people helping people across “generations, united by a common passion and commitment…
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Tan, Monica: National architecture awards
Monica Tan ‘Australia’s national architecture awards 2014 – in pictures‘, Guardian Australia, 7 November 2014 The Australian Institute of Architects has named the winners of the country’s top architectural awards. The biggest winner is Brisbane’s UQ Advanced Engineering Building by…
Advice to Western Australians
Perhaps you will be content with a moderate and humdrum success, but I hope not. I hope that the more adventurous and enterprising spirits among you will be inspired by a golden vision of a possible future, and will be…
Goldsworthy, Anna: Voices of the land
Goldsworthy, Anna ‘Voices of the land‘, The Monthly, September 2014 updated Update 18 November 2016: Jane Simpson on some practical issues with teaching Indigenous language. Links to other material also. About the efforts of University of Adelaide, Israel-born linguist, Professor…
Chubb, Ian: No free rides to science future
Chubb, Ian ‘There are no free rides to the future: Australia’s Chief Scientist‘, The Conversation, 13 August 2014 and updated Speech mapping current state of play in science – Australia is in only the middle of the pack = and…
On being an independent scholar
Pamela Burton ‘On being an independent scholar’, Honest History, 25 July 2014 When Honest History asked me what it was like being an independent scholar, my first reaction was ‘lonely, sometimes frustrating, and very rewarding’. Traditionally, independent scholars are not…
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Inventing in Australia
Michelle Starr reports in CNet Australia that some of the best Australian inventions are the refrigerator, the (military) tank, the medical applications of penicillin, the Ford ute, the surf ski, budgie smugglers, and the splayd. Not just the Hills Hoist.
Burton, Pamela: Independent scholars
Burton, Pamela ‘On being an independent scholar‘, Honest History, 25 July 2014 The author, a former Canberra lawyer and now author of two books (From Moree to Mabo: The Mary Gaudron Story, The Waterlow Killings: A Portrait of a Family…
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University of Adelaide Library: e-Books
We are adding this to the Recommended links section of the site but just wanted to give it a plug along the way. The site is an alphabetical list of e-Books available all over the Net. From a quick glance…
Brumby, John: Federation for the future
Brumby, John ‘An Australian federation for the future‘, The Conversation, 19 May 2014 Former Victorian Premier and chair of the COAG Reform Council writes about how to achieve a better balance between the Commonwealth and States and Territories. He refers…
Gaita, Raimond: Why study humanities?
Gaita, Raimond ‘Why study humanities?‘ The Conversation, 21 March 2014 Revised version of a talk to students in which Gaita talks about Indigenous Australians, Socrates, philosophy, the importance of becoming acquainted with great thinkers from the past, and the significance…
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Campbell, Craig & Helen Proctor: Australian schooling
Campbell, Craig & Helen Proctor A History of Australian Schooling, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 2014 A social history of school education in Australia, from dame schools and one teacher classrooms in the bush, to the growth of private…
Turnbull, Malcolm: Reinventing the news model
Turnbull, Malcolm ‘Reinventing the news model in the digital era‘, Mumbrella, 2 March 2014 Launching a new weekly newspaper, The Saturday Paper, Turnbull describes changes in the nature of mass media consequent on the development of the internet. There is…
Starr, Michelle: Best Aussie inventions
Starr, Michelle ‘Best Aussie inventions of all time‘, CNet Australia, 24 January 2014 Illustrated with text. Some of the inventions are the refrigerator, the (military) tank, the medical applications of penicillin, the Ford ute, the surf ski and the splayd.…
Crowther, Philip & Lindy Osborne: Architecture
Crowther, Philip & Lindy Osborne ‘Building a nation: the state of play in Australian architecture‘, The Conversation, 1 November 2013 Brief historical survey, leading to the point where Australia now has seven of the 100 largest architectural practices in the…
University of Melbourne: Archives
University of Melbourne Archives The business collections include the records of wholesalers and retailers, factories and foundries, solicitors and architects, along with the records of some of Australia’s largest mining companies… [M]ore than one hundred trade unions are now represented…
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Austin, AG: Australian education
Austin, AG Australian Education, 1788-1900: Church, State, and Public Education in Colonial Australia, Pitman, Carlton, Vic., 1961; online version available Pioneering study of early education in Australia. Does not mention Aboriginal education. See also this on the Education Acts of…
Austin, AG & RJW Selleck, ed.; Australian government school
Austin, AG & RJW Selleck, ed. The Australian Government School, 1830-1914: Select Documents with Commentary, Pitman, Carlton, Vic., 1975 Pioneering study in education history.
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Ainley, John & Eveline Gebhardt: School education
Ainley, John & Eveline Gebhardt Measure for Measure: A Review of Outcomes of School Education in Australia, Australian Council for Educational Research, Camberwell, Vic., 2013 Looks at studies of reading, mathematics and numeracy, science and other subjects, with some historical…
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Australian Medical Association: More than just a union
Australian Medical Association More Than Just a Union: A History of the AMA, AMA, Canberra, 2012; downloadable A brief history, describing the development of the profession, changes in medicine and the role of the AMA in politics. 10 October 2013
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Medicine multiple authors: History of medicine
Medicine multiple authors ‘The history of medicine library‘, Royal Australasian College of Physicians Library Links to resources held in the library and elsewhere, including ‘a comprehensive focus on Australian material’. Membership of the library is open to the general public.…
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Education, health and welfare multiple authors: History of education, health and welfare
Education, health and welfare multiple authors ‘History of Australian education, health and welfare‘, University of Wollongong Library Portal site leading to bulk resources in this field, including journal and media articles, books, statistics and photographs.
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Higgins, Winton: Standards Australia
Higgins, Winton Engine of Change: Standards Australia since 1922, Brandl & Schlesinger, Blackheath, NSW, 2005 Traces the history of the national standards body and the contribution of standards to our standard of living and quality of life. Without standards, virtually…
ASHET multiple authors: Engineering history
ASHET multiple authors Australian Society for History of Engineering and Technology Links to material about aspects of this sector, including articles on aviation, locomotion, bridges, telephones, frozen meat and sheep shearing.
Australia: Australian inventions
Australia Australian Inventions Portal site linking to many resources about the history of Australian inventing. Australian inventions have assisted with everyday activities such as hanging out the clothes to dry on a rotary washing line, putting food into the fridge…
Smyth, John: Educational policy
John Smyth ‘Speaking back to educational policy: why social inclusion will not work for disadvantaged Australian schools‘, Critical Studies in Education, 51, 2, 2010, pp. 113-28 The Labor government in Australia has recently embarked on an extremely ambitious program of…
te Riele, Kitty: Raising educational attainment
te Riele, Kitty ‘Raising educational attainment: how young people’s experiences speak back to the Compact with young Australians‘, Critical Studies in Education, 52, 1, 2011, pp. 93-107 In the context of international consensus that the knowledge economy requires more highly…
Wheelahan, Leesa: Educational pathways
Wheelahan, Leesa ‘Do educational pathways contribute to equity in tertiary education in Australia?‘ Critical Studies in Education, 50, 3, 2009, pp. 261-75 A key assumption of equity policies in Australia, as in many countries, is that pathways from lower-status, vocationally…
Gale, Trevor & Deborah Tranter: Social justice in higher education
Gale, Trevor & Deborah Tranter ‘Social justice in Australian higher education policy: an historical and conceptual account of student participation‘, Critical Studies in Education, 52, 1, 2011, pp, 29-46 This article provides a synoptic account of historically changing conceptions and…
Moyal, Ann: Two cultures
Moyal, Ann ‘Two cultures in Australia: where do we go from here?‘ Council of the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (27 October 2011) A veteran science observer considers the history and prospects of science and the humanities in Australia. The paper…
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Academy of Science multiple authors: Science history and biographies
Academy of Science multiple authors ‘History and biographies‘, Australian Academy of Science Links to historical material on science, including interviews with distinguished scientists
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Ward, Colin, et al: CSIROPedia
Ward, Colin, et al ‘CSIROPedia‘, CSIRO For over 80 years, CSIRO has been helping Australia and the world through science. We work with our partners on a vast array of research into space, energy, health, climate change, manufacturing, materials, minerals,…
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Australia: Science and technology
Australia Science and Technology Web portal to official sites in this field, including the National Library’s list of science and technology sites, the CSIRO, Questacon, defence science, and links to material on all branches of science, including from a historical…
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Kenyon, Andrew T., ed.: TV futures
Kenyon, Andrew T., ed. TV Futures: Digital Television Policy in Australia, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic., 2007 Multiple authors consider legal, cultural and technical issues associated with the move to digital broadcasting after decades of analog technology.
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Given, Jock: Turning off the television
Given, Jock Turning Off the Television: Broadcasting’s Uncertain Future, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2003 Writing at the beginning of the digital age, the author addresses a range of issues arising from the move from analog to digital broadcasting. He takes a…
About Learning and improving
Click here for all items related to: Learning and improving This section covers education, science, medicine, research, communications and related topics. Here there are references on the early history of Australian education (Austin, Austin & Selleck) and on recent developments…
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Inglis, KS: Whose ABC?
Inglis, KS Whose ABC? The Australian Broadcasting Corporation 1983–2006, Black Inc., Melbourne, 2006; e-book available Takes the story of the national broadcaster into the 21st century, interweaving institutional, cultural and political history. The author talks about the book here and…
Inglis, KS: This is the ABC
Inglis, KS This is the ABC: The Australian Broadcasting Commission 1932-1983, Black Inc., Melbourne, 2nd edition, 2006; first published Melbourne University Press, 1983 The development of the ABC parallels that of Australia over these years. ‘Inglis shows us the ABC’s…
Manne, Robert: Murdoch’s Australian and the shaping of the nation
Robert Manne ‘Bad news: Murdoch’s Australian and the shaping of the nation’, Quarterly Essay, 43, September 2011 ‘The Australian sees itself’, the author believes, ‘not as a mere newspaper, but as a player in the game of national politics, calling…
Brockman, John, ed.: Is the Internet Changing the Way You Think?
John Brockman, ed. Is the Internet Changing the Way You Think? The Net’s Impact on Our Minds and Future, Harper Perennial, New York & London, 2011 From the Edge Foundation. Not explicitly Australian but global and included here as a…