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Film has played a seminal role in Australian environmental history, as an instrument of advocacy to shape political disputes and government actions. Such cinematic activism originated in the 1960s with the dispute over the damming of Tasmania's iconic Lake Pedder. Here, documentary filmmaking was used by the protagonists to influence public opinion and convey rival views of the remote wilderness lake. For conservationists, film helped build an emotional connection and sense of place, whilst for pro-dam proponents, film helped curate an ideology of economic progress. The protagonists' mutually reinforcing tactics, especially the intermediary role of the Tasmanian Department of Film Production, combined with the outstanding beauty of Lake Pedder, drove the turn to cinematic activism. Understanding how these films were produced and screened is also important to appreciating their significance for cinematic activism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The expansion of home ownership in Australia in the second half of the twentieth century was accompanied by a new vernacular geography – the mortgage belt. From the 1970s, such belts around major cities were frequently said to be crucial to federal and state elections. This article examines where political commentary located mortgage belt areas in Sydney and Melbourne and finds that it encompassed a diverse range of places often, but not always, on their urban edges. Their residents were believed to be particularly sensitive about interest rates but also other risks. While the politics of outer suburbia has often been posited as conservative, it is argued that such areas were electorally nuanced and reflected longstanding contingency in Australia around expectations of government that stands in contrast to conservatism elsewhere. These areas also highlight the continuing significance of popular access to property ownership as a theme of Australian political history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the most significant data breaches in Australia's history, targeting Optus and Medibank, in November 2022 Australia's Minster for Home Affairs and Cybersecurity Clare O'Neil announced 'a new model of policing' involving a collaboration between the Australian Federal Police and Australian Signals Directorate. This collaboration would result in a new taskforce focused on 'hacking the hackers' or disrupting criminal groups responsible for high-profile cyber-attacks against Australian entities. Since this announcement, significant discussion has ensued regarding the meaning of state-implemented 'disruption' and questions have been raised about the potential mandate and operations of the newly announced taskforce. This paper explores the concept of disruption as it applies to cyber-criminal groups. It then turns to considerations for policy and practice regarding the pursuit of disruption. The paper aims to advance existing understanding of disruption and encourage further research and policy debate into the policing of cybercrime as the Australian government commences work on the 2023–2030 Australian Cyber Security Strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the activities of naturalist John Lhotsky, who lived in Sydney and Hobart Town between 1832 and 1836, as a means of examining the imagined and material stakes that British settler colonialism held for German-speaking naturalists. For outsiders like Lhotsky, natural history was a means of securing social recognition and financial stability. It was also an ideological minefield, deeply entangled in class politics, with great potential for misinterpretation of social interactions by outsiders. Lhotsky’s dealings within this minefield eventually earned him the reputation of an impostor among some of his contemporaries. Rather than attempting to verify or falsify such assessments, the article attends to these moments with the aim of mapping the complex ‘multidirectional sets of imperial relations’ that he and other German-speaking naturalists inhabited in the mid-nineteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sports betting has risen dramatically in prominence over the past 20 years and is now one of Australia’s most popular, and fastest growing, gambling activities. The practice has a long and gendered history in Australia, with almost 9 out of 10 regular sports bettors today being men. This article offers a short cultural history of sports betting that outlines its growth, along with several key reasons for its popularity among men specifically. In the early colonial period, gambling on racing and sports was a masculine pursuit from which women were largely excluded until the late 20th century. Contemporary sports betting’s focus on male-dominated football codes, along with advertising campaigns that objectify women and emphasise masculine narratives, continue to reinforce the idea that sports betting is primarily a men’s practice in modern Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dyarubbin (also known as the Hawkesbury-Nepean River) is an urban river, which has been cared for by Darug custodians for millennia and has, in recent years, experienced substantial change through new plans and developments. This paper contributes to crafting an understanding of contested Dyarubbin, drawing on qualitative research completed in 2021 which included a survey, document analysis and semi-structured interviews, to discuss how the historicisation of Indigenous water values in ‘Our River’ marginalises Dyarubbin’s place as (part of) Darug Country. The paper discusses how the marginalisation and historicisation of Indigenous water values can be read as water colonialism in an urban setting. By building on recent research in the area of water justice, the paper illustrates how planning initiatives have so far persistently failed to incorporate Indigenous water values. While water colonialism in early settler colonial Australia and rural Australia has been well established, the paper provides insight into how such practices endure in urban planning practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coasts of Australia are bestowed with place names (toponyms) that offer great cultural insights into the Australian history and its European connections. This paper focusses on the 598 place names set up by the authors of the narratives and atlases of the French voyage of discovery captained by Nicolas Baudin who undertook the surveying and exploration of parts of the South and West coasts of New Holland, and of the east and north coasts of Van Diemen's Land between 1801 and 1803. These names have been gathered into a database where they have been categorised, for example, according to the endeavour of personalities (scientific, military, administrative among others) or members of the expedition. The article shows that the French toponyms mirror the building up after the turmoils of the French Revolution of a new national narrative which gives pride of place to the men of science, cultural figures, and military officers dear to the French emperor, Napoléon I, and whose work and actions were portrayed as great examples for the nation. This retroactive reading of the French nomenclature discloses an Australian early nineteenth century French background with around half the names still recognised today. • Place names bestowed along the Australian coast mirror the successive or consecutive episodes of Australian history. • The Australian place names attributed by the Baudin expedition outlines a national narrative developed during the Napoleonic period. • These place names reflect a period of 'nation building' when France was reinventing itself after the turmoils of the Revolution. • The French narrative behind the names' selection remains poorly understood, hampering their appreciation in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Premise: Showy mistletoes are obligate hemiparasites of woody plants. Host specificity is therefore a fundamental determinant of mistletoe diversity, persistence, geographic distribution, and abundance. Investigations of host specificity in Australian Loranthaceae have focused mostly on host range (taxon counts), but additional insights into specificity are gained by quantifying mistletoe prevalence on taxa in their host range and by exploring specificity in a phylogenetic context. Methods: We estimated measures of host specificity to characterize mistletoe–host interactions at a continental scale by using occurrence records in the Atlas of Living Australia. We calculated host taxon richness, mistletoe prevalence, and phylogenetic diversity, and used rarefaction curves to evaluate sampling coverage. Results: Many mistletoe taxa were represented by few records that listed the host, which often was identified to genus only. Mistletoe genera were recorded on 29 orders and 80 families, and no association was observed between host richness and number of records per genus. Rarefaction curves suggested that additional host orders and families remain to be discovered for Amylotheca, Decaisnina, Dendrophthoe, and Muellerina. Four mistletoe genera were most prevalent on Myrtales, one on Fabales, and one on Laurales. Rosids were most often the recorded hosts (84.3% of all records). We found evidence of significant phylogenetic clustering in host use by Amyema, Amylotheca, and Decasinina. Conclusions: Our results, particularly the high prevalence on rosids, suggest that relationships of mistletoes with rainforest lineages may have been established early in the history of Australian Loranthaceae and that some lineages co‐diversified with their hosts in arid regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Australian state and much of the settler polity maintain an unresolved contradiction between fully acknowledging Indigenous people and upholding a system predicated on the assumption of their socio-political inferiority. This tension inflects a public sphere in which Indigenous people frequently deploy truth-telling as an epistemic strategy, albeit one that involves a balance between challenging cultivated silences and/or colonial triumphalism and the costs of repetitive epistemic labour. The landscape of communicative exchange thus outlined suggests the need for a more nuanced assessment of the decolonial potential of truth-telling about colonial violence in Australia, given a contemporary context wherein settler individuals and institutions increasingly attempt to elicit such testimony from Indigenous people. Discourse analysis of media items published in 2020 about 26 January, Australia's national day, reveals Indigenous people's resistance against both colonial untruths and the racialised epistemic power differential enabling their circulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, the role of the history discipline as part of the architecture of colonization has become more visible and better understood. Such acknowledgement reflects foundational shifts in historical practice and theory prompted by transdisciplinary and transnational scholarship in fields such as postcolonial and settler‐colonial studies, First Nations knowledges, and historical perspectives and practices contextualized by transatlantic slavery. Their intervention in turn prompted a vital question: How do we map settler‐colonial historiography if the discipline has been complicit in the settler‐colonial project? Using Australian historiography as a case study, this article explores how History has been part of the architecture of colonization, policing whose stories can be told and by whom. Drawing on the work of Indigenous history‐makers and knowledge‐holders, it also points to ways that researchers might reach outside the traditional scope of historiography to map and contemplate the range of history‐making that comprises history in the settler colony. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia is home to an incredible diversity of spiders, but much of their biology remains unstudied. The orb-weaving spiders (family Araneidae) are especially diverse and frequently encountered, yet the ecology of very few species has been explored. The common name "Australian garden orb-weaver" refers to several species, including Hortophora transmarina (Keyserling, 1865), found mostly along Australia's east coast, and Hortophora biapicata (L Koch, 1871), found mostly along Australia's south and south-eastern coasts. These two similar species are large, nocturnal orb-weavers that occupy a wide range of both natural and anthropogenically disturbed habitats. Here, I describe the general morphology, habitat use, diet and foraging behavior, key predators, laboratory rearing, and mating dynamics of these common but understudied spiders. This information was gathered via field observations, laboratory experiments, and literature reviews. These spiders provide a useful system for studying a number of aspects of spider biology, including mating systems, predation, anti-predator defences, and nocturnal behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A national postal service is an essential nation-building institution; it integrates distant regions into a national community and fosters the extension of the public sphere. But in the first decades of colonial Australia, the material conditions of sending letters were precarious and uncertain, the rhythm of exchange was slow and the cost expensive. Australia had to learn how to write letters and how to send them; by the 1890s, it had completed its apprenticeship. Using postmaster-generals' reports on one hand, and autobiographical sources on the other, I explore the experience and difficulties of epistolary exchanges in the nineteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the Charles Todd Oration 2024, delivered by Will Irving on 17 October 2024 in Sydney. It outlines, from a Telstra-internal viewpoint, the various proposed network enhancements that eventually led to Australia's National Broadband Network. It then draws lessons for the future from this history and the current state of telecommunications in Australia. The question-and-answer session after the Oration is also summarised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the effective management and governance of World War II shipwrecks with a particular focus on two Australian wartime wrecks in Timor-Leste, HMAS Voyager and HMAS Armidale. With reference to international frameworks such as the 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage, as well as Timor-Leste's evolving domestic regulations, this article explores the challenges in managing these shipwrecks and seeks to broaden the protection and preservation paradigm that defines approaches to other forms of underwater cultural heritage. Particular attention is given to balancing the interests of states, local communities and international actors, while addressing the legal, moral and environmental complexities and sensitivities associated with WWII wrecks. The article aims to contribute to the broader discourse on maritime heritage governance by providing insights into the complex and multiple challenges of managing WWII wrecks, within the context of a nation that only achieved lasting independence relatively recently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Fossilized plant–insect herbivore associations provide fundamental information about the assembly of terrestrial communities through geologic time. However, fossil evidence of associations originating in deep time and persisting to the modern day is scarce. We studied the insect herbivore damage found on 284 Eucalyptus frenguelliana leaves from the early Eocene Laguna del Hunco rainforest locality in Argentinean Patagonia and compared damage patterns with those observed on extant, rainforest‐associated Eucalyptus species from Australasia (> 10 000 herbarium sheets reviewed). In the fossil material, we identified 28 insect herbivory damage types, including 12 types of external feeding, one of piercing‐and‐sucking, five of galls, and 10 of mines. All 28 damage types were observed in the herbarium specimens. The finding of all the fossil damage types on extant Eucalyptus specimens suggests long‐standing associations between multiple insect herbivore lineages and their host genus spanning 52 million years across the Southern Hemisphere. This long‐term persistence, probably enabled through niche conservatism in wet eucalypt forests, demonstrates the imprint of fossil history on the composition of extant insect herbivore assemblages. Although the identities of most insect culprits remain unknown, we provide a list of Eucalyptus species and specific population locations to facilitate their discovery, highlighting the relevance of fossils in discovering extant biodiversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The historiography of the Great War in Australia tends to emphasise the ostracisation of the Irish Australian Catholic community from the dominant discourse of imperial loyalty espoused by Australia’s Anglo-Protestant majority. Such readings have neglected the Catholic elite, whose support for the war, and later conscription, aligned with the higher-status Protestant elite. It was from the latter group that established Catholics sought acceptance and in whose ranks they sought inclusion. The navigation between those ambitions and the loyalty demanded by the church and its working-class following effectively bifurcated the Catholic community along class lines during the Great War in Australia. This article examines the attitudes of the Catholic professional and commercial elite to the war and conscription to determine the extent to which those attitudes were shaped by the cultural hegemony of Protestant elites in wartime Australia. It argues that Catholic elites adhered to Protestant norms of Britishness and imperial loyalty to combat the perceptions of Irish and Catholic treachery and to secure their positions within elite society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia has had several severe droughts in its recent history. Most studies have linked these droughts to large‐scale modes of variability, whereas few studies have investigated droughts from the perspective of weather systems. The current study examines a wide range of weather systems focusing especially on heavy rainfall events, which are important to meteorological drought. Two distinct phases (development and recovery) are identified for the Millennium Drought based on the cumulative standardized precipitation index. Differences in precipitation from heavy rainfall events between the two drought phases are most pronounced in autumn and summer. The pronounced reduction in precipitation from autumn heavy rainfall events during the development phase is due to fewer, less intense, faster‐moving warm conveyor belts. In contrast, increased precipitation from autumn heavy rainfall events in the recovery phase is explained by an interaction between warm conveyor belts and upper‐level anticyclonic potential vorticity with a persistent anticyclonic circulation over the Tasman Sea acting to slow the eastward propagation of rainfall‐producing weather systems. In summer, however, the difference in precipitation from heavy rainfall events in the two drought phases is due to changed moisture content within warm conveyor belts. In the recovery phase, the higher moisture content is associated with greater moisture transport over the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand. Plain Language Summary: This study aims to understand how the Millennium Drought, the longest drought in recorded history for southeast Australia, is associated with changes in various weather systems. There are two different phases of this drought: development and recovery. Comparing these two phases, there is a reduction in precipitation from heavy rainfall events during the development phase particularly in autumn and summer. For autumn, this is because more slow‐moving and intense warm conveyor belts occur in the recovery phase, whereas the systems are less frequent, weaker, and faster‐moving during the development phase. The slow‐moving systems are due to strong and persistent high‐pressure systems over the Tasman Sea. For summer, the reduced precipitation during the development phase is due to drier warm conveyor belts as a result of reduced moisture transported from the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand. Key Points: Heavy rainfall events are responsible for precipitation deficit (surplus) during the development (recovery) of the Millennium DroughtReduction in precipitation from autumn heavy rainfall events is due to fewer, less intense, and faster‐moving warm conveyor beltsReduction in precipitation from summer heavy rainfall events is due to drier warm conveyor belts [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lionel Lindsay still troubles Australian art history. An illustrator and etcher of undeniable skill, he voiced conservative aesthetics, including his anti-modernist and antisemitic polemic Addled Art of 1942. However, Lindsay was also philo-Arab, as he demonstrated in his 1929 visit to the Maghreb to meet Etienne Nasr’Eddine Dinet, the Islamophile Orientalist whose 1889 Snake Charmer was Lindsay’s favourite painting at the Art Gallery of NSW. During two months in Bou Saada and Kairouan, Lindsay made dozens of watercolours, drawings and meticulous etchings of ‘local character’, studied here as a group for the first time. Drawing on Lindsay’s unpublished diaries, letters and memoirs this article shows that this anti-modernist Anglo-Australian’s ‘Orientalism’ ignored the settlers and chose favourites among the peoples of the Maghreb. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Where are Chinese Australians in Australian history? Australia's Chinese past is persistently framed as 'forgotten' in public debate, a perpetual newness which ignores forty years of scholarship in the field. Contemporary works on Sino-Australian relations proliferate, resurrecting Cold War mentalities but avoiding Australia's colonial history of Chinese migration and settlement. This article accounts for this forgetfulness while also drawing attention to a spate of recently unearthed Chinese-language sources written by Chinese Australians. These sources, newly translated, invite us to see Australia's past in a Chinese context, revealing a propensity in Australia to organise historical time along European lines, obscuring ties of causality between events in Asia and Australia. Multilingual archives challenge the primacy of English-language sources in the narration of Australia's past, humanising Chinese Australians and destabilising China as the proxy for Australian security fears. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are currently very few brass bands in schools in Australia, however they were the predominant music ensemble in Australian schools up to the 1970s. The aim of this article is to document the popularity of British-style brass bands in Australia, and the corresponding development of brass bands in schools during the 20th century. The history of the brass band in Australia and its decline is explored, drawing significantly on the historical research of Dr Duncan Bythell, Dr Thomas Fraschillo, Dr Dave Russell, and Dr John Whiteoak. In addition, various primary sources are examined, such as newspaper articles and photographs. British immigration to Australia played a significant role in shaping the brass band movement, which was distinctly male-dominated and had strong links to the military culture of the first half of the 20th century. These societal trends followed into the school brass band setting. The article concludes with an overview of the factors that influenced the shift away from the all-brass ensemble in schools. This research provides a better understanding of the brass band tradition within the context of the school environment in Australia and calls for further research and scholarly inclusion in the literature of music education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Earthquakes remain a rare yet constant risk to communities around the world. In Australia, these have the potential for significant consequences such as the Newcastle earthquake in 1989, the Meckering earthquake in 1968 and the Adelaide earthquake in 1954, which was the most destructive earthquake recorded in Australian history until the Newcastle event. This year marks the 35th anniversary of the Newcastle earthquake and the 70th anniversary of the Adelaide earthquake. It provides an opportunity to reflect on the systems and processes available to emergency managers for prevention, preparedness, response and recovery from emergency events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1847 a pastoralist in southern New South Wales experimented with the use of indentured Chinese labourers. This article reveals the identity of this pastoralist to be Leopold Fane de Salis and examines his use of indentured Chinese labourers in his employ in the late 1840s and early 1850s. We argue that de Salis’ initial sourcing of Chinese labour illuminates the importance of local experimentation and transnational colonial trading networks in the iterative development of those larger indentured migration schemes which soon followed. Further, we interrogate the public representation of this experiment by analysing the experience of Chinese labourers as revealed through de Salis’ station ledgers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Khmer Nationalist: Sơn Ngọc Thành, the CIA, and the Transformation of Cambodia" by Matthew Jagel is a book that explores the life and political career of Sơn Ngọc Thành, an important Cambodian nationalist. The book focuses on Thành's influence on international relations, his ties to U.S. intelligence operations, and his role in navigating the Cold War geopolitical structures. It examines Thành's involvement with the Khmer Serei, an anti-Communist and anti-monarchist group, and his participation in the 1970 Lon Nol coup. The book sheds light on Thành's contributions to Cambodian political history and highlights his significance as a political figure. [Extracted from the article]

The article urges for history teaching to move beyond telling the truth about the colonisation, genocide and dispossession of First Nations Australians towards a context of justice in the Australian history classroom. It cautions the risks of capturing narratives that rely on mistrust and the balance between documenting and interpreting the truth. It suggests a questioning of the curriculum by creating a false balance and interrogating the language used to frame and shape historical events.

The Journal revisits an historic paper from 1970 detailing the introduction of a computer-based Subscriber Installation Management Control System. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a book titled "Perfect" and its significance for both media scholars and young people. The book explores the impact of social media on young people, particularly young women, and their experiences of being constantly scrutinized and judged. It challenges the notion that social media is solely responsible for young people's distress and instead focuses on the complexities of mediated identity. The book provides a space for scholars to engage with young people's concerns and offers young people the opportunity to see themselves reflected in a new light. It also raises questions about the moral implications of failing to achieve perfection and the affective reinforcement of individual responsibility in feminist and anticolonial scholarly knowledge. [Extracted from the article]

Dingoes are culturally and ecologically important free-living canids whose ancestors arrived in Australia over 3,000 B.P., likely transported by seafaring people. However, the early history of dingoes in Australia--including the number of founding populations and their routes of introduction--remains uncertain. This uncertainty arises partly from the complex and poorly understood relationship between modern dingoes and New Guinea singing dogs, and suspicions that post-Colonial hybridization has introduced recent domestic dog ancestry into the genomes of many wild dingo populations. In this study, we analyzed genome-wide data from nine ancient dingo specimens ranging in age from 400 to 2,746 y old, predating the introduction of domestic dogs to Australia by European colonists. We uncovered evidence that the continent-wide population structure observed in modern dingo populations had already emerged several thousand years ago. We also detected excess allele sharing between New Guinea singing dogs and ancient dingoes from coastal New South Wales (NSW) compared to ancient dingoes from southern Australia, irrespective of any post-Colonial hybrid ancestry in the genomes of modern individuals. Our results are consistent with several demographic scenarios, including a scenario where the ancestry of dingoes from the east coast of Australia results from at least two waves of migration from source populations with varying affinities to New Guinea singing dogs. We also contribute to the growing body of evidence that modern dingoes derive little genomic ancestry from post-Colonial hybridization with other domestic dog lineages, instead descending primarily from ancient canids introduced to Sahul thousands of years ago. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the findings of an experiment in the use of Artificial Intelligence text generation processes to convert historical 'big data' into narrative text. Using an extensive collection of records pertaining to the Australian colonial settlement of Norfolk Island in the South Pacific (1788–1814), we investigate Generative Large Language Model technology for converting tabulated data from the site into short pieces of novel text, describing the lives of transported convicts and free individuals recorded in our databases. These personalized stories are assessed for fluency and factual correctness. Using this process, we uncover some instructive problems and caveats. We detect AI's inherent tendency toward bias and uncritical perspectives, including potentially offensive stereotypes. We also discover an unwelcome tendency to summarize data. So, whilst the outputs are for the most part effective and functional, we find that the best results still require artful human intervention to fully capture the most human aspects of history and heritage research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grain production in the early years of the British colonisation of Australia was characterised by a lack of expertise of farmers, a paucity of farm animals and equipment and the poor work ethics of convicts. In 1803, just when wheat production was increasing and becoming less risky, stem rust of wheat caused by the fungus Puccinia graminis f.sp. tritici was discovered by an exiled Irish rebel Joseph Holt, on Captain William Cox's Brush Farm. Stem rust became an intermittent and often serious disease culminating in a series of epidemics in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Growing varieties less prone to rust was a key recommendation from a series of rust-in-wheat conferences held from 1891 to 1896. It was William Farrer who was the first in Australia to develop new wheat varieties that resisted the ravages of rust principally by maturing earlier. The rust outbreaks were also catalysts for the New South Wales and Victorian governments to employ Australia's first plant pathologists, Nathan Cobb and Daniel McAlpine, respectively. A year later, Henry Tryon was employed by the Queensland government as its first vegetable pathologist, although he had conducted plant disease investigations as early as 1889. Grain production in the early years of colonisation in Australia was hampered by poor farming practices, lack of livestock, and belligerent, unenthusiastic convict labour. In 1803, just when the situation began to improve, stem rust of wheat was discovered by the exiled Irish rebel 'General' Joseph Holt on Brush Farm, owned by Captain William Cox. The disease, which has remained a threat to wheat production ever since, found its way into ironic Australian literature, including Ned Kelly's Jerilderie letter. Photograph from an original picture in the possession of Sir William Bentham painted in 1798, Day & Haghe lithrs. to the Queen, Trove, . Accessed August 2021. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the relationship between reparations as compensation and reparations as transformation in settler colonial Australia. Much of the global reparations debate on colonization and slavery has focused on important demands confronting the historic damages and ongoing accumulation of disadvantage from colonization in ex‐colonies or from plantation slavery. Much less has been said about reparations for settler colonialism which is a specific form of ongoing colonization in the here and now. Drawing on long‐standing work around reparations for colonization by Indigenous peoples in Australia, and the woeful compensatory responses the state and judiciary have offered, this article argues that reparations for ongoing colonization could consider options beyond monetary compensation. This includes the critical domain of reparations as transformation that aim less to offset damage and reconcile suffering, but rather to comprehensively transform colonial relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia's colonial era is formally over. Yet the legacies of structural inequality, dispossession, exploitation and racism against Indigenous Australia remain alive and well. In 2021, Victoria established the Yoorrook Justice Commission, culminating in a formal truth-telling and treaty process. Seeking to address harm since colonization, the state process is unprecedented both nationally and abroad. This article considers the relevance of the commission to truth recovery, accountability and structural reform in Australia. To date, national efforts to deal with the colonial past have been piecemeal and relatively ineffective. The Yoorrook Justice Commission departs from previous single-issue inquiries as well as from reconciliation policies driven by white-Australian federal institutions. While the Commission is not a panacea for resolving colonial injustice, it provides an important means of relational and structural truth-telling towards more just relations and righting racial wrongs. Ultimately, the Yoorrook Justice Commission sets a valuable precedent for Australia and other postcolonial nations. Its level of Indigenous ownership, its authority as a Royal Commission and the breadth of its inquiry make it a significant transitional justice project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the historical evolution of Australia's motor mechanic trade from 1900 to 1970, exploring its impact on Australian society, economy, and the emergence of a new workforce segment. Topics include the transformation of landscapes due to the introduction of motor cars, the socio-economic role of mechanics within Australia's working class, and a critical examination of their evolving professional identity amid societal changes and technological advancements.

This essay explores early modern European records of fire behaviours on the Australian continent. In particular, it analyses the perspectives provided in hitherto relatively unexplored records of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and situates these in relation to contemporary English and later French and British accounts of fire practices. It argues that knowledge, use and textual record of fire practices constituted a key form of power for Europeans, a site of invasion and a tool of violence. Fire produced knowledge of people, of their resources and of their technologies, particularly their weaponry. Fire could be harnessed for European possession. Fire communicated distinctiveness in these records, marking a boundary between Aboriginal peoples and Europeans, and, on some occasions, interactions around fire with Indigenous people aimed to transition local peoples to new technologies and to presumed civilisation. In their own practices, in their perceptions of Aboriginal fire behaviours and in the written accounts that they produced from their experiences, Europeans form part of the story of early modern histories of Antipodean fire. Understanding what such sources reveal and what they obscure can assist in situating them appropriately in modern discussions about historic fire behaviours on the Australian continent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the under-examined history of how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities responded to HIV and AIDS in the 1980s and 1990s. When HIV emerged as a public health threat in Australia, Indigenous healthcare workers and community leaders developed and delivered health promotion programs that were highly successful in preventing the spread of the virus among their communities. These programs drew on the political principles of self-determination and community control, fought for by the Black activism of the preceding decades. This article follows the story of one healthcare worker, Aunty Gracelyn Smallwood, who was instrumental in advocating for and implementing the grassroots Indigenous response to the virus. A proud Birrigubba, Kalkadoon and South Sea Islander woman and registered nurse, Aunty Gracelyn's outspoken advocacy took her from her hometown of Townsville all the way to the highest offices of Australia's AIDS response, where she helped shape and implement a world-leading approach to HIV and AIDS prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sentencing an aged pensioner to nearly six years imprisonment for perjury in 1910, the Victorian Chief Justice denounced a man 'as dangerous ... as the law could contemplate'. The prisoner had procured a number of others to give false evidence in a civil suit for libel launched by an ex-politician against another still serving in the Commonwealth Parliament. The denunciation expressed judicial abhorrence of what judges regarded as a detestable crime, undermining the administration of justice. This first study of the historical prosecution and sentencing of perjury in Australia explores the characteristics of cases that were committed for trial in the Supreme Court in colonial Victoria. Those prosecuted, and sometimes convicted, included witnesses swearing to alibis in the course of trials for murder, women alleging sexual assault or suing for maintenance of a child, men and women seeking damages or redress in the civil courts over unpaid debts or angry words, and police frustrated by the failure to obtain convictions in sly grog cases. In addressing the prosecution of perjury in Australian colonial courts this article examines what was at stake when private citizens as well as public officials sought to punish those perceived as failing to tell the truth under oath. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides an overview of the history and importance of sports in Australian culture. It emphasizes the significant role that sports play in shaping Australian popular culture and national identity, as well as their economic contribution. The article acknowledges the development of impressive sporting arenas and the presence of statues honoring sporting heroes. It also addresses the role of sports in fostering social cohesion and national identity, especially in the absence of a shared history or religion. The article recognizes the historical exclusion of Indigenous people from mainstream sports and the subsequent efforts to include them. It highlights the success of Australian cricket teams in the late 19th century as a symbol of national cooperation and achievement. The concept of "sportive nationalism" is introduced, which links sporting success with national pride. The article acknowledges criticisms of Australian sporting culture, particularly in relation to male sports, but notes the positive growth and acceptance of women's team sports. It concludes by discussing the limited academic attention given to Australian sport history and the importance of teaching and researching this topic. [Extracted from the article]

This article provides a concise history of Australian popular culture since World War II, focusing on the shift from traditional historical narratives to the social and cultural dimensions of everyday life. It explores the role of mass media in shaping a shared national popular culture and the challenges faced by Australia in maintaining a strong local popular culture in the face of dominant global media industries. The article concludes by discussing the efforts of Australian governments to support and promote local cultural industries through public sector investment and regulatory interventions. Despite challenges posed by globalization and digital media, Australia already has a robust and diverse popular culture that should be preserved and connected to the everyday lives of Australians. [Extracted from the article]

Australia's harsh policy response to asylum seekers appears to be an extreme measure for a country that thinks of itself as a liberal democracy. Confining analyses of this regime to refugee law and policy overlooks the ways that Australia's colonial history, Indigenous dispossession, and contemporary race relations interact with one another. This article argues that these historical dynamics are essential to understanding the Australian government's response to asylum seekers in the present day, with asylum-seekers and Indigenous peoples in Australia both being utilized as tools of modern statecraft to shore up the legitimacy of the Australian state. Attention is drawn to parallels between the treatment of both Indigenous peoples and asylum seekers by the Australian government, with the increasingly harsh response to asylum seekers in Australian politics coinciding with the expansion of land rights for Indigenous Australians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reviews the web site The South Australian Frontier and Its Legacies, which documents the nature, extent and duration of violent interactions between the Aboriginal people of South Australia and colonists.

The Australian higher education system has its origins in the "Oxbridge" model, and while traces of its Eurocentric heritage persist, the system has evolved through a blend of continuity and change. To grasp the trajectory of Australian higher education, it is essential to delve into its historical development and the pivotal events that have shaped its current form. This article explores significant milestones in the establishment of Australian higher education, all within the backdrop of Australia's history as a colonized nation transitioning to Federation in the 20th century. Embedded within this commentary is a recognition of the intricate challenges faced by academics within the realm of higher education. Historically, academia has remained an exclusive and elitist sphere, marked by imperial and patriarchal norms that have favored white, heterosexual men. These norms have perpetuated the perception of their superiority, consequently influencing how minority groups have navigated academia, both as students and academics. The institutionalization of political, economic, and symbolic ideologies has further exacerbated the obstacles encountered within academia. Therefore, it becomes paramount to consider the impact of the higher education system's operations on academics and how it has perpetuated the influence of colonialism and imperialism on the shaping of scientific knowledge and practices throughout history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This issue of Australian Historical Studies focuses on the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea (PNG). The articles aim to recover PNG as a part of Australian history and explore the historiography that has created a division between the two nations. The issue highlights the shared history and unique status of PNG within the Australian state. It also discusses the revival of interest in studying the history of Australia's former territory, facilitated by Deakin University's research and symposia on the PNG-Australia relationship. The articles provide insights into Australian colonialism, memories of Australian rule, and expand Australian history beyond the continent. [Extracted from the article]