Digital resources tagged with ‘Australian History’

A Land of Milk and Honey and English Lessons

Australia needs new migrants to populate the country and build a more prosperous nation. English lessons are available everywhere, including through correspondence and radio courses.

A Passionate Collector

Through his passion for collecting, New Zealander Rex Nan Kivell invented a new aristocratic identity.

A Successor for Harold Holt

With Prime Minister Holt's definitive disappearance a new leader had to be appointed. John McEwan was sworn in as Prime Minister by the Governor General on December 19, 1967 on the understanding that he would have this role until the Liberal party appointed its new leader.

A Telegraph Line across the Continent

The story of the struggle to cross a vast continent and build the telegraph line that would bring Australia to the world and the world to Australia.

Aboriginal people and the colony of NSW

On January 26, 1788 the British arrived at what is now known as Sydney, New South Wales, with the intention of taking possession of the land in the name of the British Government and the King, and of staying.

Aboriginal People in the Gibson Desert

Aboriginal People in the Gibson Desert is an excerpt from the film Desert People (51 mins), produced in 1966. In 1966 a few Aboriginal families were living nomadic lives in the heart of Australia's Gibson Desert.

Aboriginal People Make a Canoe and Hunt a Turtle

Arnhem Land in Australia's Northern Territory is the home of coastal Aboriginal People. On the beach it's time to play out one of the dramas of daily life - the return of the hunters.

Albert Namatjira

Northern Territory Art Gallery Curator Franchesca Cubillo talks about the life of acclaimed Arrente artist Albert Namatjira (1902-1959) and his citizenship granted in 1957.

An Australian Greek Wife

Toula, an Australian-born Greek wife, is a Workers' Compensation officer. Breaking free from traditional Greek women's roles, she desires a career and creative freedom.

An Australian Wedding, 1968

Powerhouse Museum Curator Dr Kimberley Webber looks at how collections bring to life Australian stories in museums.

An Outback Policeman's Life

In the remote outback, a policeman sets out with two Indigenous stockmen to inspect the many hundreds of kilometres he patrols. His duties cover everything from punishing lawbreakers to acting as postmaster.

Andrew Fisher’s Lunch Box

Andrew Fisher’s tin lunch box reminds us that humble beginnings informed his political career: he went from union organiser to three-time Prime Minister, inventing the Australian ideal of a ‘fair go’ along the way.

Anna Naupa on Vanuatan heritage

Ni-Vanuatu writer and historian Anna Naupa discusses different views of South Sea Islander labour trade history.

Anzac Day

General John Monash strived to ensure soldiers that had fought in the Great War received due honour, recognition and assistance. He played a pivotal role in creating Anzac Day commemorations.

Armistice Day, 1918

By 1918 General John Monash and the AIF (Australian Imperial Forces) played a crucial role in defeating Germany on the western front.

Augustus Earle and his Dog, Jemmy

Misadventure turned to good fortune when young English artist Augustus Earle was rescued after being marooned on a remote island and accidentally became the colony’s first trained artist.

Australia's First Nuclear Reactor

Prime Minister Robert Menzies opens the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor, and marvels at nuclear energy being a relatively new phenomenon in the world.

Australian Biography - Sir Marcus Oliphant

The first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Sir Mark Oliphant helped to create the bomb, but even though it ended the war he can never reconcile himself to the loss of civilian life.

Australian Soldiers on Patrol in Vietnam

What does it feel like to be a soldier at war? Tense young Australian soldiers creep through the Vietnamese jungle, ever on the alert for the Viet Cong.

Australian South Sea Islanders Discover the Past

Joe and Monica Leo are the descendents of ni-Vanuatu who helped build Queensland's sugar industry.

Axemen Fell Giant Trees

The axemen established camps throughout the eucalypt forests in the early 20th century. Their job was a combination of skill and stamina, harvesting giant trees for the rapidly growing hardwood industry.

Ben Chifley - The Aftermath of the Miners' Strike

The coal strike of 1949 would come to exemplify the new cold war world, and drive the Chifley government from power.

Ben Chifley's Australia

For most of the 1940s Australian Labor Party had managed to be the automatic choice for those wishing for an intelligently progressive future.

Ben Chifley’s Pipe

Possibly our best loved Prime Minister, and a former train driver, Ben Chifley was rarely seen without his pipe, as he guided the country through the austere post-war years.

Bligh, Macarthur and The Rum Rebellion

On January 26, 1808 troops from the New South Wales Corps march on Government House to place Governor William Bligh under arrest.

Bradman's Bats

Donald Bradman’s bats are a reminder of how this cricket legend played himself into the record books, earning the status of Australian icon.

Bruce Dawe - Anti War Poet

This encounter with highly regarded Australian poet Bruce Dawe allows us an insight into the motivation and methods of a very fine writer. His ability to express the drama and beauty of everyday life has made his work readily accessible to the general public.

Bruce Dawe Reads "Little Red Fox"

Bruce Dawe reads his poem "Little Red Fox". This encounter with highly regarded Australian poet Bruce Dawe allows us an insight into the motivation and methods of a very fine writer. His ability to express the drama and beauty of everyday life has made his work readily accessible to the general public.

Building the Bridge

In 2007 Australia celebrated the 75th anniversary of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, a giant steel arch resembling a coat hanger that has became one of world's most recognised structures and an engineering triumph.

CAAMA & Indigenous Broadcasting

A broadcast studio at Radio Redfern in the late 80s. Christina Spurgeon talks about the importance of providing media services to remote Indigenous communities to the culture, identity and language of Aboriginal Australians.

Cane Cutters and Mateship

A group of men get together in a pub and form a cane - cutting gang. Five million tons of sugarcane have to be cut by hand in back breaking conditions in North Queensland.

Captain Cook - Cook Claims New South Wales

After spending some time observing an Aboriginal tribe, Cook claims the entire east coast of New Holland for Britain.

Captain Cook - Great Southern Continent

In his first great voyage of discovery, James Cook is chosen to find and explore the 'Great Southern Land'.

Captain Cook - In Search of the North West Passage

Cook’s obsession with discovery continues as he searches for the mythic North West Passage, but is it a journey too far? Now retired and promoted to Post Captain, James Cook is bored. He jumps at the chance to take on a third great voyage: to find a fast route to China to secure Britain’s place in the lucrative tea trade.

Captain Cook - James Cook Joins the Navy

Influential patrons help the bright boy James Cook to an apprenticeship in the merchant navy that would make him a ships’ master. But with an eye for the main chance Cook switches to the Royal Navy.

Captain Cook - The Death of Cook

James Cook’s temperament has become unstable during the long and unsuccessful hunt for the North West passage. He picks a fight with the Hawaiians after a series of thefts by them from the ships and dies on the beach after a fierce battle.

Captain Cook - The Polynesian Tupaia Joins the Endeavour Voyage

Cook takes on board an additional passenger, Polynesian priest and fellow navigator Tupaia. Tupaia shares his remarkable navigational skills, convinced that the notion of a great land mass is a European fantasy.

Captain Cook’s Tragic Death

Captain James Cook’s untimely return to Hawaii ended with his violent death, the details of which are portrayed in numerous conflicting illustrations.

Censorship in Media

John Safran discusses censorship in Australian media.

Charles Perkins - Freedom Ride

Charles Perkins’ involvement in the Freedom Ride through rural New South Wales in the early 1960s played a crucial role in demonstrating that Aboriginal people could begin to stand up for themselves.

Constructing the East-West Rail Link

Rare archival footage from 1910 shows camels carrying heavy supplies across the desert. Railway labourers are building the 1400 km railway that will finally link Western Australia with the Eastern States.

Cuc Lam's Suitcase

It may be just a small red vinyl suitcase but for Vietnamese refugee Cuc Lam it’s a symbol of a new beginning in a new country.

Darwin meets Aborigines from the Darug Nation

In 1836 Charles Darwin visited Australia. He observed at first hand the impact of the onset of invading humans on the indigenous population.

David Williamson's Gallipoli

David Williamson wrote the film Gallipoli in collaboration with director Peter Weir. It has greatly influenced modern Australians’ view of this iconic event from Australia's past.

Democracy and the Colony of NSW

In 1819 British Commissioner John Thomas Bigge investigates accusations that the colony of NSW has become a land of opportunity for convicts under Governor Lachlan Macquarie.

Dreamings, Through Indigenous Art

Indigenous art is like topographic mapping of land and culture. Michael Nelson Tjakamarra works at painting concentric circles which represent sacred sites.

Edmund Barton and the Velvet Soap Advertisement

The Velvet Soap advertising campaign is a tongue-in-cheek reminder of Edmund Barton’s hand in formulating the White Australia policy.

Endeavour Journal

Written on board the Endeavour during his trip down under in 1770, James Cook’s journal records the beginning of Australia as we know it today.

Faith Bandler - 1967 Referendum

Civil rights activist Faith Bandler has made an enormous contribution to the peace movement and indigenous politics.

Faith Bandler - Activist

Civil rights activist Faith Bandler has made an enormous contribution to the peace movement and indigenous politics.

Federation and Defending Our Shores

Federation was a time of jobs and opportunities. With our 12,000 mile coast Australia needed a defence force.

First Surfboard

Huge, heavy and finless, the first Aussie surfboard was actually handmade by a visiting Hawaiian in 1914 using a piece of local wood.

Fletcher Jones and Staff

As the door on imports widened at a rapid rate in the 1980s, the Fletcher Jones clothing business struggled to remain competitive. But the company and staff were determined to have a go and keep the factories busy.

Gallipoli Boat

A small lifeboat, retrieved from the shores of Gallipoli, is a direct link to the first Anzacs and the day that helped forge Australia’s identity.

Giovanni's Tile Business Grows

Well-paid but back-breaking sugarcane work in North Queensland provided the initial resources for Giovanni's business. He and his family went on to create a now highly- successful imported tile business.

Gold Rush in the West

Gold, more than any other single factor, transformed the Australian colonies.

Governor Bligh - Hero or Coward?

Governor William Bligh destroys important documents as he hides from the New South Wales Corps troops who storm Government House and place him under "arrest". It is January 26, 1808.

Governor Bligh arrives in NSW

In 1806 William Bligh, accompanied by his daughter Mary Putland arrives as the new Governor of the colony of NSW.

Harold Holt becomes Prime Minister

One of the hardest working of Australia’s Cabinet ministers and after 32 years as a parliamentarian, Harold Holt reached the prime ministerial office in 1966.

Harold Holt's Australia

Harold Holt’s prime ministership represented a major social shift from the tradition and conservatism of the Menzies era, to that of the ‘swinging sixties’.

Harold Holt’s Briefcase

The disappearance of our seventeenth Prime Minister, Harold Holt, during a beach holiday sparked countless conspiracy theories. The items left in his briefcase are a significant time capsule of his last days as Prime Minister.

Helping Children in War-Torn Countries

Moira Kelly begs for funds from international charities to bring children from war-torn Albania to Australia for medical treatment. One of the children almost dies, but the results are worth the risks.

HMAS Sydney's Carley Float

A tiny, war-ravaged liferaft from the HMAS Sydney is our only physical link to Australia’s worst-ever naval disaster.

Holt Government in Crisis

The disappearance of our seventeenth Prime Minister, Harold Holt, at Cheviot Beach in 1966 during a beach holiday sparked countless conspiracy theories and ultimately overshadowed his political accomplishments.

Ideology and the Curriculum

Who decides what is taught in Australian History in schools?

In My Father's Footsteps

In 1988, Meg Taylor began walking across the Highlands of Papua New Guinea to retrace the journey her father had made 50 years earlier.

Indigenous Business - A Cattle Station

The Yugal Cattle Co was given a grant of $336,000 to go into business running a cattle station. Their dreams of making money from cattle and beef export are big but there are problems. Traditional Indigenous laws are different from white man's law.

Indigenous Rights - Repatriation

The repatriation of aboriginal remains is an issue close to Aboriginal peoples' hearts and spirit and play a significant part of the reconciliation process.

Indigenous Rights - Representation

Deputy Chief Minister Marion Scrymgour and Aboriginal Tent Embassy representative Robert Craigie discuss the representation of Aboriginal people in Australian political institutions.

Jack Hazlitt - World War 1 Digger

A World War 1 digger reflects on his work as a runner in the trenches at Gallipoli. Hopping across the trenches in full view of the Turkish snipers, the average life of a runner was 24 hours.

James Scullin And The GCMG

James Scullin inspired the people when he offered to rent out The Lodge during the Depression, but his fierce nationalism is best revealed in his campaign to install an Australian-born Governor General.

John Curtin’s Australian Journalists’ Association Badge

John Curtin’s journalistic instincts came in handy during World War Two when he kept the media onside with secret press briefings. He wore his AJA badge every day he was in office.

John Macarthur - Rogue or Hero?

When John Macarthur arrives back in NSW from a failed court marshall in London with a land grant, he takes the best grazing land in the colony. No one can stop him now!

Joseph Lyons’ Love Letters

Politics rarely produces impassioned romantics, which makes the hundreds of letters Joseph Lyons wrote to his adored wife and confidante, Enid, as fascinating as they are unexpected

Journalist's Diary of a Conflict

Veteran ABC journalist, Sean Dorney, looks back on his time in Papua New Guinea covering the Bougainville crisis.

Journey Back in Time

In 1938 Jim Taylor lead an epic 15 month exploratory patrol through the Highlands of Papua New Guinea.

Kokoda - War on Film

Alister Grierson, director of the 2006 feature film "Kokoda" talks about historical accuracy and representing war experience on film.

Lowitja O'Donoghue - Reunion

Aboriginal leader and founding chairperson of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, Lowitja O’Donoghue has worked tirelessly for her people.

Lowitja O'Donoghue - The Stolen Generation

Lois O’Donoghue was born in 1932 in a remote Aboriginal community. She never knew her white father and, at the age of two, was taken away from her mother, who she was not to see for 33 years.

Mawson's Expedition to the Antarctic

In 1912, Mawson's expedition arrived in the Antarctic. Little did they realise it was the windiest place on the globe.

May O'Brien

May O'Brien discusses growing up in a bush camp and her early years on a remote mission.

Menzies - Early life and the Empire

In 1941 Australia’s Prime Minister Robert Menzies, like most Australians, would have thought of England as the ‘home country’.

Menzies and Churchill

Menzies traveled to London during the dark months of 1941 where he took on British Prime Minister Churchill over the strategic direction of the war.

Menzies' Forgotten People Speech

With the “Forgotten People” radio talks, Robert Menzies begins reaching out, pitching himself in more domestic, family friendly, homely terms.

Mining Bougainville

Gregory Kopa, a Bougainville villager describes how he felt when geologists started to look for copper on Bougainville in the 1960s.

Monash and Billy Hughes

John Monash was a most unlikely Digger hero. Of Prussian-Jewish extraction, cultured, he was a middle-aged, overweight citizen-soldier with no active war experience when hostilities broke out in 1914.

Monash at Gallipoli

The terrible defeat suffered by the Australian and New Zealand forces under British command at Gallipoli changed General John Monash's attitude to how to fight the Great War.

National Peak Indigenous Body?

Students and the Honorable Mal Brough look at how best peak bodies work for the community they represent.

Neville Bonner - Beginnings

Neville Bonner grew up on the banks of the Richmond River and started his working life as a ringbarker, canecutter and stockman. He spent 16 years on the repressive Palm Island Aboriginal Reserve where he learned many of the skills that would help him later as a politician.

Neville Bonner - Change

By the early 1960s, it was clear that Indigenous people were not being assimilated — discrimination against Indigenous people continued and many Indigenous people refused to surrender their culture and lifestyle. The assimilation policy had failed.

Noel Tovey

Noel Tovey survived a childhood of poverty, neglect, sexual abuse and racial prejudice to become a leading light in the arts as an actor, choreographer, writer and theatre director.

NSW 1819 - convict gulag or place of opportunity?

In 1819 the life of the working class in newly-industrialised England is harsher than the life and opportunities open to the children of convicts in the colony of NSW.

Nuclear Fall Out

Strontium 90, one of the deadliest poisons known, is a by product of the nuclear testing which Great Britain conducted in Australia in the 1950s and 1960s.

O'Connor's Dream for Water

In 1890 C. Y. O'Connor was recruited to work as Chief Engineer in the newly self-governing colony of Western Australia, where he formed a dynamic partnership with the colony's larger-than-life Premier, John Forrest.

Origins of the Bougainville Conflict

The story of how long-standing local opposition to a copper mine in Bougainville erupted into full-scale civil war.

Outwork - A Vietnamese Refugee's Story

Migrant women work long hours sewing garments at home for a few dollars an hour. Many are refugees and have little understanding of their rights or the chance of alternative employment.

Parliamentary Representation

The strength of democracies is founded on the breadth of the representation of it's parliamentarians.

Phar Lap's Hide

In the 1930s, a New Zealand-born horse called Phar Lap won the hearts of Australians and became one of our most loved and enduring icons.

Remembering Eddie Mabo

Aboriginal Elder and teacher Douglas Bon remembers Eddie Mabo and the landmark land rights case he fought.

Remembering Mark Worth - Janet Bell interview

Producer Janet Bell looks back on the life and work of the director of Land of the Morning Star, Mark Worth.

Return to the Thai-Burma Railway

Weary Dunlop and his elderly comrades return to the site of the Thai-Burma railway. As prisoners of war they each had to dig three cubic metres of earth a day, virtually with their bare hands.

Robert Menzies’ Camera

Robert Menzies’ lifelong passion for home movies resulted in a surprisingly personal record of the war years, including footage of a young Princess Elizabeth.

Rosalie Kunoth Monks - Speaking Out

Rosalie Kunoth-Monks is an actor, ex-nun and Aboriginal activist.

Sense of Belonging

Joe and Monica Leo embark on a journey to Vanuatu to recover a small part of their past.

She Wanted To Fly

In the 1930s Nancy Bird Walton became known as the "Angel of the Desert", working with the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Some tried to discourage a woman flying on her own in the turbulent conditions of the outback.

Song for the King -- Vika and Linda Bull interview

Vika and Linda Bull talk about the importance of their heritage and connection to Tonga.

South Sea Islander in London

Omai, a young Tahitian warrior who joined Captain James Cook’s second voyage, had his portrait painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds and inspired a spectacular pantomime at Covent Garden.

Stanley Melbourne Bruce's Cigarette Case

Stanley Melbourne Bruce treasured Turkish President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s gift of a gold cigarette case throughout his life.

Stuart Crosses the Continent

There was enormous public and media speculation about whether the Victorian backed Burke and Wills or South Australia's Stuart expedition would be the first to cross the continent's interior.

Stuart encounters Outback Aborigines

When John Stuart crossed the interior of Australia, he did so in ignorance of the complex set of boundaries and rules for the use of shared resources that existed among the Aboriginal people.

Test Tube Babies

An egg is collected from a woman's ovary and placed in a test tube to be fertilised by her husband's sperm. Once the embryo is growing normally it is placed back in the uterus.

The Art of Cattle Droving

An artist and two drovers capture the beauty of 1200 head of cattle making their way across the outback in the last great Australian cattle drive.

The Bark Petition

In 1963 the Aboriginal Elders at Yirrkala presented the Federal Government with a bark painting, the title deed to their country.

The Bridge Workers

The construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge was a massive investment for the NSW government. The cost was not only in monetary terms but also the destruction of significant areas of Sydney’s heritage and the loss of lives.

The Death of Harold Holt

With Australia at war in Vietnam in 1967, suddenly Prime Minister Harold Holt disappeared without a trace—an event unparalleled in the history of western democracy.

The Effects of World War 1 on the Australian Economy

When our troops were sent off to war in 1914, industry in Australia boomed. Steel was necessary for guns and ships.

The Flower Hunter

Victorian flower painter Ellis Rowan rocked the Australian art establishment when she won the Centennial Art Prize in 1888.

The Forgotten People

The Indonesian province of Papua has a turbulent history and rich culture. Yet it remains largely unknown.

The Founding of Canberra

In 1913 the Basic Living Wage of 2 pounds 8 shillings a week is introduced. Politicians, including William Morris (Billy) Hughes, lay the Foundation Stone for the new National Capital in Canberra.

The Magic Pudding Illustrations

Norman Lindsay’s The Magic Pudding is one of our best-loved children’s books and the central character, one of our great Australian anti-heroes.

The New Curriculum

Talkback Classroom participants argue that students have a say in developing curriculum.

The Post War Wool Boom

125 million sheep are spread across Australia. 90 thousand tons of lamb and 3 million tons of wool are exported annually. Australia truly rode to prosperity on the sheep's back.

The Sentimental Bloke Film

The classic 1919 silent movie The Sentimental Bloke is regarded as one of the greatest Australian films.

The Sugar Labour Trade

Phyllis Corowa's father and grandmother were taken from Vanuatu to work on a Queensland sugar plantation.

The West and Federation

Some sort of federation of the Australian colonies had been suggested as early as 1846. Ferocious political struggles over the shape of the new nation continued to the eleventh hour.

Todd completes Telegraph

In 1870 Charles Todd, using explorer John McDouall Stuart's maps, organised and lead three teams to lay the overland telegraph wire.

Todd's Telegraph Dream

Charles Todd dreamt of constructing a telegraph line through the heart of the continent.

Tom Roberts' Bailed Up

With its revolutionary approach to depicting the landscape and light, Tom Roberts’ Bailed Up is a painting that helped define Australia’s national identity.

Tommy McRae & Mickey of Ulladulla

Working at the end of the 19th century, Aboriginal artists Tommy McRae and Mickey of Ulladulla drew the world around them with an extraordinary vitality and sensitivity to detail.

Two convicts steal a place in history

Two soldiers in colonial NSW steal a piece of cloth, with the intention of getting caught.

William Hughes and the 1916 Conscription Badge

William Hughes, “The Little Digger”, campaigned twice for national conscription to boost an Australian army decimated by World War One.

William Wentworth - "currency lad"

William Wentworth, the colonial born son of a convict, is destined to become a loud, charismatic press baron, publicist, barrister and patriot.

World War 1 and the Conscription Referenda

Prime Minister William Morris (Billy) Hughes' Conscription Referendum failed twice, in 1916 and 1917.

Writing Historical Fiction, Nadia Wheatley

Author and Historian Nadia Wheatley writes about historical events in her fiction because history is a great story.