Cockatoo Island

  PHA (NSW & ACT) member Sue Castrique’s long-awaited history of the convict period on Cockatoo  Island was launched at History House in Sydney on 26 November. This work deals with corruption, patronage and intrigue, constant features of NSW politics in colonial times just as they are now. Under the Colony’s Eye tells the story … Read more

The evolution of the professional historian

Bruce Baskerville, Chair of the PHA NSW & ACT reflects… As public historians I often think we are not particularly aware of our own history. The professional historian, in the sense of the historian who could earn a living from their vocation, only really came into being in the later 19th century with the creation … Read more

Edward Gough Whitlam – a friend of our profession

On the eve of Gough Whitlam’s memorial service, Guy Betts reminds us of Whitlam’s respect for the historical perspective. One of the treasures of the Whitlam Institute’s collection is a remarkable series of school reports. These school reports comment on Gough Whitlam’s character and his intellectual development from the age of seven. In them, we … Read more