Book Launch: The First Wave

Gillian Dooley is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at Flinders University, South Australia. Gillian is also a journal editor and the author of books and articles on literary subjects from Jane Austen to J.M. Coetzee. In this guest post she writes about the launch of The First Wave: Exploring early coastal contact history in Australia, and the book's importance in our understanding of Australian history. On 20 June, The First Wave: Exploring Early Coastal Contact History in Australia,…

Extract: The Australian War Memorial

In The Australian War Memorial: A century on from the vision, Steve Gower, the highly successful director of the Australian War Memorial from 1996 to 2012, gives a comprehensive account of the development of the Memorial from its inception just over a century ago. The book recounts the many challenges in establishing the Memorial and then in developing further its galleries and displays, the extensive collection, associated events and the overall supporting facilities. It also goes behind…

ANZAC Day titles for the historian in us all

ANZAC Day is a solemn reminder to generations young and old of the pain and loss of war. But with the number of surviving veterans declining, it's important for younger generations to keep their memory alive. With that in mind, here are five historical titles to read this ANZAC Day. Don Longo, Pens and Bayonets: Letters from the Front by soldiers of Yorke Peninsula during the Great War Pens and Bayonets gives voice to the young Australia…

Stephen Orr on growing up in suburban Adelaide

The #tenyearchallenge has been dominating social media for the past few weeks, but today author Stephen Orr looks even further back in this 2006 article about his childhood in the suburbs of 1970s Adelaide. Keep an eye out for Stephen's next novel, This Excellent Machine, which will be released in April 2019. Smith Street I want to tell you about the street I grew up in. We’ll call it Smith…

Freda and Me: The Birth of CAAMA, Imparja and Indigenous media in Australia

By Philip Batty In this extract from our new book Kin, a co-founder of the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA), Philip Batty, recalls its roots, and the integral role of fellow co-founder Freda Glynn. CAAMA went on to operate Australia's only Aboriginal-owned satellite television service, Imparja Television, and trained a generation of young Indigenous people who went on to form the nucleus of today’s Indigenous media culture in Australia. * * * (above, From Left: John Macumba, FReda Glynn,…