by Carol Roberts … A few years ago I began interviewing the earth-pastel artist Greg Hansell. My research led to me running several historical tours based on Hansell’s artistic representation of heritage sites in the Hawkesbury and close environs. Hansell says his attraction to painting farm implements, tools and industrial technology is ‘hard-wired’ from … Read more
Over the summer, Kate Bagnall created an online exhibition about the Chinese in NSW. Here’s how she did it: I used Trove lists and a nifty online exhibition framework built by Tim Sherratt. The list feature in [the National Library of Australia’s] Trove allows registered users to create their own collections of items. They’re a handy thing … Read more
… Francesca Beddie reviews Laura Tingle’s Quarterly Essay. In Political Amnesia How we forgot to govern Tingle uses the words ‘memory’ and ‘history’ interchangeably. This is a pity for the two are not the same. She herself acknowledges that ‘as time goes by, the memories tend to over-glorify the past, and under-comprehend how it came about.’ … Read more
… Christine de Matos discusses the work involved in editing a volume of essays. The year 2015 marked the centenary of Gallipoli, seen as the most important for Australia in a range of Great War centenaries that fall between 2014 and 2018. Less noticeably, 2015 also marked 70 years since the end of that … Read more
… Penny Edwell reviews a play in The Rocks. Set in an 1858 sandstone warehouse in The Rocks, this interactive theatrical experience focuses on the inhabitants of a boarding house on the day in 1935 when beloved aviator Charles Kingsford-Smith was pronounced missing. The breaking news of Smithy’s disappearance is woven through the performance … Read more
… introducing PHA NSW & ACT member, Katrina Kittel, whose interest in history was re-ignited when she started investigating her father’s wartime experiences. What made me pursue history? Three decades ago I completed my first tertiary qualification, a degree in history. I changed direction with studies in other disciplines and entered a career within … Read more
… by Catherine Bishop In late September 2015 Kelly O’Dwyer was appointed Minister for Small Business as part of new Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull’s Cabinet reshuffle. The appointment of a woman in this position is both significant and appropriate. Recent statistics show that one third of new small businesses are started by women, while … Read more
…the newly elected chair of the PHA NSW & ACT What is your current position? As with so many of our members I am involved in a range of projects. I was privileged to have been elected Chair of the PHA NSW& ACT at the last annual general meeting and am currently a member … Read more
… Virginia Macleod PHA (NSW & ACT) introduces a new book by Roslyn Burge, Callan Park: compassion and conflict in the asylum, Friends of Callan Park, Rozelle, 2015 When Professor Paula Hamilton, President of Oral History NSW launched this book in August she reflected on what Callan Park means: it is more than an assemblage of … Read more
…by Laila Ellmoos For almost 200 years, NSW has had a government-appointed architect to oversee the design and construction of public buildings in Sydney and across NSW. Emancipist convict Francis Howard Greenway was the first, appointed by Governor Lachlan Macquarie in 1816. Although later censured for his excessive spending on public works, Macquarie’s decision … Read more