Bruce Baskerville gives a taste of his paper at the recent Australian Historical Association conference in Newcastle. The presentation was based on part of chapter three in his 80,000 word PhD thesis, so giving just a 20-minute talk was a challenge. As one speaker at the conference noted ‘constraint is enabling’, in other words, a field … Read more
by Deborah Beck Exactly one hundred years ago, Rayner Hoff was in France, serving in the British Army in the Great War. Eighty years ago, in 1937, he died in Australia, aged 42, at the height of his career as a respected and accomplished sculptor. As the Anzac Commemoration Service takes place this year, … Read more
Sue Castrique explains… Some of the surprising users of the National Library of Australia’s Trove are knitters. In 2012, Rose Holley at the NLA noticed that, while the most popular searches were for births, deaths, marriages and murders, there was a strong trend for knitting patterns. For a while, ‘knitting pattern’ and ‘knit + cast … Read more
Ian Willis writes about Sydney’s central parklands… The Domain and Royal Botanic Gardens are some of the most important open spaces in Australia’s urban landscape. The 29 hectares of gardens are surrounded by 51 hectares of parkland including the Sydney Domain. They were officially recognised as a botanic garden in 1816, while only becoming … Read more
Melbourne is abuzz in the lead-up to Christmas. The crowds are out in shops and eateries. Others have been watching 16 hours of Richard Wagner’s monumental Ring Cycle. This production by Neil Armfield accentuates the opera’s warnings about the adverse consequences, on relationships as well as on nature, of greed and material acquisition. Another … Read more
Pauline Curby, author of Independent Minds: a history of St George Girls High School (UNSW Press, Sydney, 2016) talks about the importance of writing the history of public schools… St George Girls High School opened at a critical juncture in the history of Australia. The year 1916 was a troubled time, with political unrest, and war … Read more
Anisa Puri has worked mainly in oral history, heritage interpretation and project management. She is President of Oral History NSW, and managed the Australian Generations Oral History Project from 2012-2015. She is currently working as a historian at a heritage consulting firm and is also involved in the HIV/AIDS Volunteers History Project at Macquarie … Read more
Ian Willis reports The Australian Red Cross Society is part of one of the world’s most important humanitarian organisations. It has provided relief in times of crisis for 100 years. The International Red Cross and Red Crescent movement has seven guiding principles: humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity and universality. The origins of … Read more
by Laila Ellmoos … A few weeks ago, I reflected on the 2016 AHA conference. This week my focus is on the Working History conference (#WHpha2016) organised by PHA (Vic) with support from Professional Historians Australia. The conference was held over two full days (19-20 August 2016) at the Graduate School within the Melbourne … Read more
by Francesca Beddie, blog editor… In his discussion of historians and their craft, Tom Griffiths (The Art of Time Travel, 2016) describes Geoffrey Blainey* as magpie. It is a metaphor Blainey has also used for his research. Griffiths explains: Blainey prods the earth inquisitively, feeds quirkily…he scavenges bright details and oddments that catch his … Read more