Australian history

a man with pirate eye mask, painting by daniel boyd

Daniel Boyd’s solo exhibition Treasure Island, now at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, is a deeply political and personal interrogation of Australia’s colonial history.

Portrait of Elizabeth Macarthur by unknown artist

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.

Aerial view of hills forest and the Hawkesbury River at Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park

A list of Aboriginal names for places on Dyarubbin, the Hawkesbury River, has unlocked a wealth of new information.

Hawkesbury River at sunrise

UNSW Sydney's Grace Karskens reveals the complex and controversial history of the Hawkesbury River in her latest book People of the River.

henry parkes

Parkes is known as the 'Father of Federation'. His tireless championing of a united Australia brought the colonies together and set them on a course for nationhood.

Vincent Namitjira's Close Contact

For too long, Cook was a promise recollected in pigment, bronze and stone. Contemporary First Nations artists are challenging this imagery.

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Grace Karskens is Professor of History in the School of Humanities and Languages at UNSW. Her research areas include Australian colonial history, urban history, cross-cultural history and environmental history.

clay bowl Sydney

Though the Indigenous inhabitants were using white clay long before them, Sydney-made pottery helped colonists maintain different aspects of 'civilised' behaviour.

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Discover why male-dominated sex ratios in Australia’s history could still be affecting attitudes today.

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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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