…and to Samantha Leah, a PHA NSW member from regional New South Wales. Samantha is an historian and heritage consultant with nghenvironmental, based in Wagga Wagga but travelling far and wide! What made you decide to pursue a career in history? My Pop was a pilot with the RAF in Bomber Command during the Second … Read more
Our Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, is taking history books to read at the beach. One is Michael Pembroke’s biography of NSW governor Arthur Phillip. Pembroke’s book was on the shortlist in the history category of the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards. It did not win the $80,000 prize, which was shared by Joan Beaumont for Broken … Read more
Five minutes with a new PHA NSW & ACT member, Carol Roberts… Carol has a Master of History (UNE), Bachelor of Arts Majoring in Australian History (UNE), Advanced Diploma Local, Family & Applied History, Associate Diploma in Theory, Musicianship and Criticism (Trinity College of Music, London), Diploma in Community Cultural Development. What are your current … Read more
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
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
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
by Bruce Baskerville, PHA NSW & ACT Chair. The death of Jim Kerr on 15 October 2014 has received less attention in the mainstream media than that of Gough Whitlam, but for anyone working in cultural heritage his passing was the passing of a giant. Jim Kerr will have been known personally to many … Read more
by Bruce Baskerville, PHA NSW & ACT Chair. The death of Gough Whitlam on 21 October, Prime Minister between 2 December 1972 and 11 November 1975, has been marked by many obituaries and reminiscences in the media. Fine words have been printed and spoken, far finer than anything I can draw together. So, I … Read more
PHA member and librarian, Diana Wyndham, alerts us to the continuing threats to libraries, recalling that protests helped to reduce the cutbacks which were initially planned for Sydney’s Mitchell Library and which now threaten the staff and books at Sydney University’s Fisher Library. David Malouf and Bob Ellis spoke at a rally in front of Fisher on … Read more
It’s spring! Time to dust off our togs, thongs, hats and all the things that make us comfortable at the beach. This year, beach-going historians will have the perfect reading material. PHA (NSW) member Caroline Ford’s new book has just come out – Sydney Beaches: A History. Caroline offers her reader a fascinating analysis … Read more