In 1881, a Pacific Islander woman brought here to work on a sugar cane plantation ran away. She was violently retrieved by her employer. Her story sheds moving light on a dark history of exploitation.
Academic rigor, journalistic flair
Articles on Australian history
Displaying 41 - 60 of 315 articles
Cultural policy has scarcely featured in the 2022 campaign – when Whitlam campaigned in 1972, the arts were centre stage.
In 1895 the Wynne Prize was proposed as an award for a ‘landscape painting of Australian scenery’. Today it is more likely to be given to an Indigenous artist’s explanation of Country.
Joan Beaumont’s latest book offers a deeply conservative reading of a pivotal moment in Australian history.
The British atomic tests at Emu Field in South Australia pre-dated Maralinga by three years. Largely forgotten, they remind us the costs of harmful political decisions are borne by the most powerless.
A chance encounter in the National Library of Australia’s digital archive holds clues about an 1843 cookbook published in Parramatta.
It has been tradition for soldiers to have a drink with Chloé at the Young and Jackson Hotel since the first world war.
In finding new ways to commemorate Anzac Day, we should learn a lesson from the rise of the Gallipoli pilgrimage.
Kate Grenville suggests we read Elizabeth Macarthur’s letters as ‘a wonderful piece of fiction, sustained over sixty years’. They were exercises in doubleness, concealment, and delicious irony.
From the Easter Show to the ‘busy lady’ competition in the Australian Women’s Weekly, we’ve been competitive cookers for over 100 years.
Tadeusz Kościuszko was a revolutionary thinker who was Commander in Chief of the Polish-Lithuanian armed forces.
Two books on historical gay hate crimes – the murder of George Duncan in Adelaide, 1972, and army officer Warwick Meale in Townsville, 1942 – aim to create positive change by revealing past injustice.
Scott Morrison’s pitch to voters that the election is about “you” is a potentially powerful one. But Labor has one available that is even better: it’s about “us”.
The First Astronomers shares the extensive star knowledge of First Peoples worldwide, stretching back millennia to reclaim so-called Western discoveries and highlight the strength of oral traditions.
Can a poem tell us more about the past than a history book?
Anna Clark’s latest work scrutinises the role History has played in nation building and the shaping of Australian culture, but her book has an absent philosophical centre.
The final work of a gifted historian charts the rise and fall of the Communist Party of Australia.
Australia’s political economy was built on the primacy of (white) male labor, male power and male control, writes Julianne Schultz. Women have changed this culture - but still risk abuse when speaking out.
The Tasman map, dating from the 1600s, was promised to the Commonwealth – but NSW got it instead. Here’s how it happened.
Pubs like the John Curtin Hotel are more than just buildings – the loss of the hotel would also be a loss of our living cultural memory.
Top contributors
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Professor of History, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National University
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Professor in Public History, University of Technology Sydney
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Professor of History, La Trobe University
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Research Professor in the Australian Centre for the Study of Armed Conflict and Society, UNSW Sydney
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ARC Laureate Fellow, Monash University, Director of Global Encounters Program., Monash University
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Senior Lecturer in Linguistics, Monash University
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Professor of Linguistics, Monash University
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Lecturer in History, La Trobe University
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Head of Knowledge, Australian National Maritime Museum and Honorary Affiliate, University of Sydney
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Joanna Mendelssohn is a Friend of The Conversation.
Honorary (Senior Fellow) School of Culture and Communication University of Melbourne. Editor in Chief, Design and Art of Australia Online, The University of Melbourne
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Professor of Law, University of Technology Sydney
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Emeritus Professor of Media and Culture, Griffith University, Griffith University
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Wesfarmers Chair of Australian History, The University of Western Australia
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Professor, Indigenous Studies and Director of The Centre for Global Indigenous Futures, Macquarie University
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Matthew Flinders Professor, Flinders University
