Imogen Dixon-Smith (Master of Museum & Heritage Studies, University of Sydney) explains how her prize-winning essay came to be… The development of the paper I submitted to the Public History Prize in 2015 started in a university subject I was taking titled ‘The Idea of Heritage’. I was set the task of pursuing a … Read more
…by Stephen Gapps… The 17th of April 1816 is not a date etched in wider Australian memory nor even that of Sydneysiders concerned about their past. However it is imprinted in the memory of descendants of Dharawal and Gandangarra people who were massacred by a military expedition sent out on the orders of Governor … Read more
Ian Willis visits an artists’ retreat… What has history got to do with an artists’ retreat you might ask? Quite a bit as it turns out. I was recently invited to address such a gathering at Varroville in New South Wales; it was quite an enlightening and stimulating occasion. The three-day 2016 Artists’ Retreat was … Read more
…Birgit Heilmann reports The 2015 Public History Prize was awarded to Imogen Dixon-Smith (pictured right) for her essay, Keeping up with the times: Complicating understandings of gender at the historic house Meroogal. The judges, current chair of the PHA NSW & ACT, Dr Mark Dunn, and Dr Catherine Bishop, Historical Studies Research Concentration Coordinator … Read more
by Francesca Beddie On 22 February the Sydney Morning Herald ran a story saying ‘the National Library of Australia has launched a major review of services, with key programs to be curtailed or cancelled amid staff cuts, as management struggles to deal with the Turnbull government’s efficiency dividend’. It reported that the library expects to … Read more
by Christa Ludlow… Bubonic plague in Sydney in January 1900 infected 303 people and by August had killed 103. The outbreak coincided neatly with the beginning of the Edwardian era and the rise of the “expert” in public life. I became interested in this part of Sydney’s history while I was researching for my … 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
… 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