Professional historians who gathered at the annual History in July occasion in Sydney must have been heartened by the thoughtful words uttered in the second Peter Tyler Oration. Alan Atkinson, Emeritus Professor and literary prize winner, traced the origins – and rise and rise – of public history. He did so with rigour and … Read more
By Samantha Leah … The 2015 Australian Historical Association (AHA) conference was a combination of fascinating papers, talks and networking. Some delegates grasped the opportunity between sessions to connect and introduce, while others took the time to reflect on the implications of a paper for their own research. Most, like myself, did both. One … Read more
Ian Willis reports on the conference… The annual Australian Historical Association (AHA) conference has wound up for another year. This year it was held at the University of Sydney, with over 400 delegates attending from Australia, New Zealand, USA, UK, and South Africa. The classic architecture around the Quadrangle guided the sensibilities of delegates … Read more
Mark Dunn explains… For some time now, Laila Ellmoos and I have been talking up Sydney’s history on the radio. In fact we started doing this in June 2008 on Fbi 94.5 fm. It will be seven years this week since we first went on air, taking over the segment Scratching Sydney’s Surface when … Read more
Stephen Gapps comments on the first episode of the ABC TV’s The Secret River Last summer I sailed my dodgy old 23-foot yacht for the first time out of the heads up to Broken Bay. I’d been sailing on the harbour for a while and it was time to go blue water adventuring. Sneaking … Read more
By Bruce Baskerville The PHA (NSW & ACT) held a ‘Speeding Through History’ event in Canberra on Saturday 30 May 2015. This was one of our Pearl Anniversary 1985-2015 events. It was well attended by a diverse group of public historians working in the ACT and south-eastern NSW. Participants each had eight minutes to … Read more
Re-enactment by the NSW Light horse brigade at Addison Road Community Centre, May 2015. (Photograph courtesy of Peter Arfanis) … by Sue Castrique On Saturday 2 May 2015, Addison Road Community Centre celebrated its centenary as an army depot with ‘Tails from the Past’, a day of activities that included stalls, music, a re-enactment of tent … Read more
…from a distant historian, Caroline Adams MPHA South Australia As an opening comment I just want to make it clear that I think that no-one has a monopoly on writing history, nor is it owned by any particular group. I do think trained historians are in a better position, be they inside or outside of … Read more
PHA NSW& ACT member Michael Williams specialises in local Australian history and heritage and in Chinese Australian and diaspora history. Here we see him in south China, on a conference tour concerning Australia’s links with villages such as this one, the world-heritage listed Kaiping. What is your current area of historical interest? I am researching … Read more
The architect of the Republic of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew died on 23 March 2015, in the fiftieth year of the island nation’s independence. Yvonne Perkins recently interviewed Associate Professor Kevin Blackburn, an historian who has been working in Singapore for over twenty years. Her post reveals how history is evolving in the state over … Read more