Is it possible to plan 100 years into the future? What are enlargers and punishers and what influence have they had on Australia’s past, present and possible futures? Richard Denniss delivers the 2015 Manning Clark lecture and asks what can economists learn from one of Australia’s most influential historians.
Access the lecture here.
Research by Melbourne’s homelessness support organisation, Homeground, has found that almost one in ten people who sleep rough in Melbourne each night are Australian war veterans.
Homeground claims that most have served in Iraq or Afghanistan. Continue reading Study finds nearly 10% of rough-sleepers in Melbourne are veterans
The ABC radio series ‘The Great War: Memory, Perceptions and 10 Contested Questions’, first broadcast on 28 and 29 June, will be repeated on Radio National from Monday 22 December to Friday 2 January, 12.00pm – 1.00pm. Continue reading ABC RN: The Great War: 10 Contested Questions
In an interview with Ashley Hall on the ABC’s AM program, Geoff Evans, the younger veterans’ advisor with RSL LifeCare, reveals that an accommodation service for young veterans in the Northern Beaches was over-subscribed even before it had been widely advertised.
Geoff is familiar with the difficulties war veterans can face when they return home. Continue reading Veterans facing homelessness epidemic
Prof Joan Beaumont has been awarded the 2014 NSW Premier’s Australian History Prize for her book Broken Nation: Australians in the Great War published by Allen & Unwin. More information about the book and the judges’ comments can be accessed here. Continue reading Joan Beaumont awarded NSW Premier’s Australian History Prize
Dissent and opposition to the war, and to preparations for war, are highlighted in a World War 1 centenary exhibition at the Quaker Meeting House, 119 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills, Sydney.
Quakers are presenting the exhibition, entitled ‘World War 1: Quaker witness to peace and non-violence’, as part of NSW History Week, 6-14 September. Continue reading Quakers’ Exhibition on WW1
Peter Underwood, Governor of Tasmania, died on Monday 7th July, a month after having a tumour removed from his kidney. Aged 76, he was appointed Tasmanian Governor in 2008, after serving as chief justice of the Supreme Court of Tasmania between 2004 and 2008.
In his Anzac Day speech this year, he called for Australia to drop the “sentimental myths that Anzac Day has attracted” and called for this centennial year to be declared the Year of Peace. Continue reading Peter Underwood – Governor of Tasmania – dies
ABC Radio National marks the centenary of World War One with 10 hours of special broadcasting on Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 June (12.00pm to 5.00pm each day). The Great War: Memory, Perceptions and 10 Contested Questions places the conflict within its global context and focuses on ten critical questions about the war. Listen to each of the ten episodes here.
The play ‘Kandahar Gate’ by playwright Stephen Sewell and directed by Jeff Janisheski is loosely inspired by Akira Kurosawa’s 1950 film Rashomon. It transplants the drama to contemporary Australia and centres on the death of a soldier in Afghanistan. At the heart of the play is an exploration of how ‘truth’ gets distorted – by governments, the military and one’s own memory. Continue reading Kandahar Gate – a play
Marrickville Residents for Reconciliation organised a candlelit walk along the Marrickville Indigenous Interpretive Trail to commemorate National Sorry Day on Monday 26th May. Over 60 people attended the evening’s event. Participants stopped briefly at Indigenous signage and story poles located in Steel Park and Warren Park before completing their journey at Richardson’s Lookout overlooking the Cook’s River. Continue reading Sorry Day Walk