… Naomi Malone is a consulting historian, currently interested in Australian history and in doing oral history. She is also undertaking communications and events work for the PHA (NSW & ACT). What made you decide to pursue a career in history? I love history! The challenge of delving into the past to tell informed stories … Read more
… by Lisa Murray, Continuing Professional Development officer at the PHA NSW & ACT Want to get more out of the State Library of NSW’s single search catalogue? Our members certainly do! Seventeen PHA members attended a two-hour workshop convened especially for professional historians on Thursday 22 February at the State Library of New … Read more
… by Francesca Beddie and Minna Muhlen-Schulte, Public History Prize officer, who can be contacted at <prizeofficer.phanswact@gmail.com>. Last year ABC Radio National did a program about art prizes. Are they worth the effort? As the introduction to the discussion answered: They might prove welcome cash to impoverished artists but they dash the hopes of … Read more
… by Peter Hobbins One of the great joys in writing history lies in making myself perennially uncomfortable. Nowhere is this more true than when employing that vexed verb ‘imagine’. I was trained as an empiricist. I have an honours degree in science, earned by killing multitudes of small creatures. It explains why I … Read more
… Before we talk about the best date for our national day, let’s get a better understanding of its history and what it means to all our citizens and what we want to commemorate. Ebony Bennett, Deputy Director of the Australia Institute, observed when launching the institute’s December 2017 poll on Australia Day: The national … Read more
…In this occasional series about members’ blogs, we introduce HistoryMatrix, the electronic journal of Dr Bruce Baskerville. Bruce maintains four blogs – HistoryMatrix is the ‘history’ blog; mrbbaskerville is the place he opines; Sepia Green is a blog for reviews; and, Green Plaques is a grant project to create an archive of commemorative plaques … Read more
Thank you to all those who contributed to the PHA NSW & ACT blog in 2017. The year’s 25 posts covered: Aboriginal history surprising resources for historical use such as knitting and the Botanical Gardens issues in the practice of history, history tourism and memorialisation (this post received more comments than any other) discussions on … Read more
… by Sue Castrique, author of One Small World: The History of the Addison Road Community Centre. Some PHA members may recognise the photographs that make up this panorama. They were once identified as being in Kensington; the tall building thought to be the Old Tote Theatre. They are, however, the Addison Road army depot in … Read more
…by Stephen Gapps Recently there have been calls for historians to consider ways of writing ‘deep time’ into Australian history. These include pleas to write more interdisciplinary history, especially to work with archaeologists dealing with the long Australian human past prior to colonisation. We now have a Deep History Research Centre that ‘aims to … Read more
…by Michael Bennett The Nawi Symposium, the second National Gathering of Indigenous watercraft custodians and cultural practitioners, was held at the National Maritime Museum on 9 November. Over 70 traditional owners, researchers and community supporters gathered to hear a range of presentations about the history of Indigenous watercraft use and current projects to reinvigorate … Read more