Ian Willis visits an artistsâ retreat⊠What has history got to do with an artistsâ 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 Artistsâ 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 âthe 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 dividendâ. 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 âexpertâ in public life. I became interested in this part of Sydneyâs 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 âas time goes by, the memories tend to over-glorify the past, and under-comprehend how it came about.â … 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 Smithyâs 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. Â 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 OâDwyer was appointed Minister for Small Business as part of new Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbullâs 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
…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, Macquarieâs decision … Read more
âŠLisa Murrayâs launch speech (17 June 2015)⊠Fractured Families: Life on the margins in colonial New South Wales by Tanya Evans was supported through the City of Sydney Councilâs History Publication Sponsorship Program. Over the years, the program has helped authors and publishers bring to the public over a dozen books about Sydneyâs history. … Read more