Australian history

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A new book by Ian Tyrrell reveals the history of Sydney’s Cooks River and the role it has played in our dreams of prosperity and pleasure.

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World-leading historian Alison Bashford has always been interested in how the past shapes our present. 

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A little-known incident 100 years ago reminds us that Australia at the time was riven by class, religious and political divisions, writes Jeff Kildea.

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UNSW's Professor Grace Karskens has won a major fellowship that will enable her to use State Library of NSW archives to research Aboriginal names and stories about the Hawkesbury River.

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The President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, has called on Australia to consider revisiting events of its past, such as the treatment of Indigenous Australians, in a way that recognises and includes the voices of people previously marginalised.

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Ending the silence and recovering memories of modern Aboriginal history is a prerequisite for national healing, writes Joanna Mendelssohn.

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Melbourne Museum’s new exhibition, with its well chosen artefacts, tells the human stories of Australians in WWI, writes Peter Stanley.

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British historian Peter Barton’s The Lost Legions of Fromelles tells a familiar story – of slaughter in the ditches and marshes of Word War One – but it also warns us to be wary of popular legend, writes Peter Stanley.

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There is now a large disparity between the responsibilities of the Commonwealth and the states and their relative capacities to fund those responsibilities, writes Shipra Chordia.

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The City of Sydney's Working Harbour collection is a brilliant portal to our maritime past and connects us to a very old history, writes Grace Karskens. 

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