In this profile, the PHA NSW & ACT membership officer, Judith Godden (PhD Macq, BA(Hons) UNE, MPH (a.e.g.) USyd, Dip Ed. UNE, FACN(hon), MPHA) talks about her forays into medical history. What is your current position/area of historical interest: I’m into pain at the moment! I specialise in the history of medicine and my commissioned history, … Read more
One of my day jobs is teaching plain English to public servants. I encourage them to embrace accuracy, brevity and clarity and therefore to abandon tautologies. I’ve given up suggesting that you can’t have a new initiative and that, if you have to voice an opinion in government writing, it does not have to be personal. … 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
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
by Joy Hughes At the beginning of December 2013, Dr Alex Byrne, the State Librarian, announced an appeal for funds for the ‘revitalisation’ of the Mitchell Library. The appeal’s ritzy brochure outlines exciting plans on a grand scale for a large below ground auditorium and for current office spaces on the first floor to become … Read more
Katherine Knight alerts us to an historical perspective to the Royal Commission into Institutional Response to Child Sex Abuse. On 31 January, Bonney Djuric posted on Facebook “See ABC 7.30 Report NSW, tonight Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse Parramatta Girls Home”. For over a decade, the former “Parramatta Girl” Bonney has … Read more
Bruce Baskerville, the PHA NSW’s 13th President, addressed the PHA NSW Christmas party. He spoke about the mission of public history. The following is an abridged version of his speech. I recently read a collection of essays edited by one of a former PHA (NSW) president, Dr Paul Ashton, Australian History Now (http://www.newsouthbooks.com.au/books/australian-history-now-provisional-title) The opening … Read more
North Sydney Council’s historian, Ian Hoskins, writes about staging an exhibition of local history and cartography at the North Sydney Heritage Centre/Stanton Library, North Sydney. Custodianship of a public collection brings with it both the urge to care and cosset and the desire to display. The latter is typically driven by a fascination in the … Read more