Series: Australian History

One of Australia’s leading scholars and a highly distinguished professor of history, Marilyn Lake forged a career that spanned several decades across a number of universities. Her books and other scholarly writings have significantly advanced our understandings not only of Australian social, cultural and political history but also of the interdependence of that history with those of Britain, the US...

Geoffrey Blainey is often described as Australia's greatest living historian, a writer whose prolific output includes such iconic books about the country's past as The Tyranny of Distance and Triumph of the Nomads. However, Blainey has also been a controversial figure. His 1984 comments about Asian immigration triggered a major political controversy. In turn, the reaction of his critics raised...

Fifty years ago, a group of striking Aboriginal stockmen in the remote Northern Territory of Australia heralded a revolution in the cattle industry and a massive shift in Aboriginal affairs. Now, after many years of research, A Handful of Sand tells the story behind the Gurindji people's famous Wave Hill Walk-off in 1966 and questions the meanings commonly attributed to...

Asbestos in Australia presents for the first time a multi-dimensional view of Australia's asbestos story, featuring contributions from experts in the disciplines of history, journalism, medicine, law, and public health. It also includes first-hand accounts of those whose lives have been touched by the mineral, such as workers, asbestos disease sufferers, and lawyers and campaigners directly engaged in the struggle...

The story of the Dunera Boys is an intrinsic part of the history of Australia in the Second World War and in its aftermath. The injustice these 2000 men suffered through British internment in camps at Hay, Tatura and Orange is well known. Less familiar is the tale of what happened to them afterwards. Dunera Lives tells that story, in...

The changes we have made will remain—like all great Labor legislation—permanent landmarks in our history. Gough Whitlam The Whitlam government propelled Australia out of the presumptions and certainties of twenty-three years of conservative government and changed it irrevocably. It passed a record number of bills into law and became the most successful reformist government in Australia's history. Making Modern Australia...

Beyond the generalisations of national and colonial history, what can we know about how Aboriginal nations interacted with the British settlers who invaded their country, the men appointed by the imperial and colonial governments to protect them, and each other? In The Good Country Bain Attwood makes a major contribution to our knowledge of this period by providing a superbly...

A Historian for All Seasons highlights Geoffrey Bolton as the most versatile and widely travelled historian of his generation in Australia. As a scholar, teacher, and commentator, Bolton enriched the understanding of the country's regional mosaic, notable figures, and others equally revealing. His work explored the natural environment, social patterns, and political life, making significant contributions to the field. Bolton...

Exiles, lost souls, remnants of a dying race. The fate of the First Nations peoples of Van Diemen's Land is one of the most infamous chapters in Australian and world history. The men, women, and children exiled to Flinders Island in the 1830s and 40s have often been written about, but never allowed to speak for themselves. Me Write Myself...