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• [SOLD OUT] Newcastle Writers Festival Panel - Close to Home: Colonial Violence and Family Histories

  • When
    5 Apr 2025
  •  
    15:00 - 16:00
  • Location
    NUspace X301, Corner of Hunter St & Auckland St, Newcastle NSW 2300

  
  

  Close to Home: Colonial Violence and Family Histories

  Saturday 5 April 3-4pm

  NUspace X301

  
  

  Now, more than ever before, we seem more willing to acknowledge difficult histories in our family trees. At the same time, historians are increasingly writing about colonial violence and challenging long-held myths. What impact is this having on how we see Australia’s past, as well as our own? John Maynard, Mark Dunn, Stephen Gapps, and Kate Grenville speak with Julie McIntyre about their experiences of encountering dark moments in their research and how they've dealt with them in their work.

  This panel has been arranged by the History Council of New South Wales for the Newcastle Writers' Festival 2025.

  Cost: $25

  Booking Link: https://www.trybooking.com/CYEPN

  
  

  The HCNSW is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW

  
  

  The HCNSW is supported by the NSW Government through Crete NSW

  
  

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• Sydney Writers' Festival - Rethinking Migration Histories: Australian Perspectives, and Global Directions

  • When
    22 May 2025
  •  
    15:30 - 17:00
  • Location
    History House, 133 Macquarie St, Sydney NSW 2000
  • Spaces left
    13

  Register

  
  

  Rethinking Migration Histories: Australian Perspectives and Global Directions

  Australian migration stories have tended to represent specific experiences of coming to Australia over our relatively short national history. But what does rethinking stories about mobility to, from, and within Australia offer historians and fellow story tellers? Leading historians will discuss overlooked narratives to challenge traditional views of what migration means for Australian history. By connecting past and present, the diversity of migration stories and their implications for understanding identities, place, and belonging will offer fresh perspectives for nuanced research and storying of our collective past.

  
  

  Location History House, 133 Macquarie St, Sydney NSW 2000

  When: 22 May 2025, 15:30 - 17:00

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• History Week 2025: Water Stories

  • Start
    6 Sep 2025
  • End
    14 Sep 2025
  • Location
    All of New South Wales

  

  Stay tuned for more information about registering your event for History Week 2025. For more information, see:

  https://historycouncilnsw.org.au/history-week-nsw/history-week-2025/

  
  

  
  

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• Lauren Samuelsson: From boiled mutton to chicken chow mein - History Week 2025: Water Stories

  • When
    6 Sep 2025
  •  
    15:30 - 18:00
  • Location
    Blackheath Public School, Leichhardt Street, Blackheath NSW 2785

  

  Lauren Samuelsson: From boiled mutton to chicken chow mein

  When did Australians stop regarding water as their primary dietary ingredient, boiling their dinners until they turned grey? Between the 1930s and the 1980s, Australia’s food culture underwent a transformation. Boiled mutton was chivvied off dinner menus nationwide by a plethora of new and exciting dishes. The Australian Women’s Weekly, Australia’s longest running and most widely read women’s magazine, was at the forefront of this culinary revolution. It introduced generations of ‘everyday Australians’ to new tastes, taught them new techniques, and encouraged them to be creative and adventurous in the kitchen. This presentation will explore some of the myriad ways that the Weekly was able to inspire an eclectic, Australian way of eating.

  
  

  Dr Lauren Samuelsson holds a PhD in history from the University of Wollongong where she is an Honorary Fellow. Lauren’s research interests include cultural history, the history of food and drink, the history of popular culture and gender history. Her book, A Matter of Taste: the Australian Women’s Weekly and its Influence on Australian Food Culture was published in 2024. She has also published in The Conversation and is a regular guest on Australian radio, where she shares her love of food history with people nationwide.

  Cost: $10 waged; $5 unwaged.

  Afternoon tea from 3.30pm, $3 coffee/tea, $3 cake.

  Where: Blackheath Public School, Leichhardt Street, Blackheath (Blue Mountains)

  Organised by: Blackheath History Forum

  Link: https://events.humanitix.com/lauren-samuelsson-boiled-mutton-to-chow-mein-the-australian-women-s-weekly-and-food-culture

  https://blackheathhistoryforum.org.au/
  

  Image credits: Lauren Samuelsson, provided.

  

  The History Council of NSW is supported by a grant from the NSW Goverment through Create NSW.

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• Dangerous Passage: A Maritime History of the Torres Strait |History Week 2025: Water Stories

  • When
    10 Sep 2025
  •  
    13:00 - 14:00
  • Location
    History House, 133 Macquarie Street, Sydney

  

  Dangerous Passage: A Maritime History of the Torres Strait

  The reef-strewn passage between Australia and Papua New Guinea remains the most hazardous of all the major Straits in the world. The Torres Strait Islanders knew these waters well because voyaging and trade were part of their lives and livelihoods. Early navigators such as Torres, Cook, Bligh, and Flinders contributed to the charting of this dangerous passage. However, it was not until the completion of detailed hydrographic surveys by the British Admiralty in the 1840s, the advent of steamships, and the introduction of Torres Strait Pilots that it could ultimately be used as a major shipping route. Ian Burnet will discuss this history, which includes stories of murder, mayhem, mutiny, disastrous shipwrecks, desperate voyages of survival in open boats, headhunting and hurricanes.

  
  

  Cost: $Free

  Where: History House, 133 Macquarie Street Sydney.

  Organised by: Royal Australian Historical Society

  Link: https://www.rahs.org.au/shop/tickets/

  Image credits:  Alfred Street Press, 2024.

  

  The History Council of NSW is supported by a grant from the NSW Goverment through Create NSW.

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