The Royal Australian Historical Society offers members a calendar of activities.
These include:
This page was last updated on 10th July 2008.
Tuesday 15 July, 2008
Sydney Soiree
Revealing: Lord Sydney and his role in the foundation of the United States, Canada and Australia.
Tommy Townshend was a strong parliamentary opponent of Britain's war against America. However following Britain's defeat at Yorktown, Tommy became Home Secretary, responsible for negotiating the peace. For his efforts, which ensured that modern day Toronto is in Canada rather than the United States, Tommy was created Baron Sydney in 1783. Thereafter, Sydney created New Brunswick and reorganized Canada (now Quebec) Cape Breton and Nova Scotia to resettle American loyalists. And with America now unwilling to receive British convicts, Sydney was responsible for sending the First Fleet to Botany Bay and for choosing Arthur Phillip as the first Governor.
Andrew Tink, the author of a book about Lord Sydney which awaits publication, will deliver the first lecture in the Sydney Soiree series.
Time: 5.30 for 6pm
Cost: $8.00 Includes light refreshments.
Venue: History House, 133 Macquarie Street, Sydney
Booking essential on (02) 9247 8001 or history@rahs.org.au
Tuesday 22 July, 2008
Evening Lecture: Central Railway Station: its politics, design construction, use and evolution 1906 to 2006.
Bob McKillop, an agriculturalist and historian, has worked in the international development assistance field for the past 45 years. His fields of historical interest include the role of railways in shaping Australia’s settlement patterns, industries, institutional culture and change within these industries. He has published widely on these topics and has been editor of Light Railways, Australia's magazine of industrial and narrow gauge railways for 20 years. Bob will present an illustrated talk on his most recent book, A Century of Central: Sydney's Central Railway Station 1906 to 2006, published by the Australian Railway Historical Society NSW Division. His talk will include the political context in which various proposals for a central station to enhance Sydney's vision of its place in the world between 1857 and 1901; the design and construction of its various components between 1901 and 1932; and the function and use of the station, both in the public realm and for the hundreds of employees who worked 'behind the scenes'. Particular attention will be given to the 'railway culture' of the traditional railway era and the fate of the many attempts to reform this culture to cope with new challenges and the restoration of the station to its original glory and its expected role in its second century. A joint RAHS and ASHET activity.
Time: 5.30 for 6 pm
Cost: $7.00 Includes light refreshments on arrival.
Venue: History House, 133 Macquarie Street, Sydney
Booking essential on (02) 9247 8001 or history@rahs.org.au
Wednesday 6 August, 2008
Day Lecture - Operation Python
In October 1943, six commandoes of Australia's secret "Special Unit" left Fremantle for Borneo, 3,500km north of Darwin. Three weeks earlier, Operation Jaywick had departed Exmouth on the Krait, for their well-known raid on Singapore. The objectives of Operation Python were to report on Japanese shipping movements in the Sibutu Channel to and from Tarakan, and liaise with the guerilla forces operating in the southern Philippines. In this talk, Kevin Smith will tell of this little known operation which was the forerunner of many other Bourneo incursions in 1945 by small groups of Australian commandoes, several of then as reconnaissance missions for a planned rescue at Sandakan. Mr Smith’s book “Escapes and Incursions” will be available for purchase after the lecture.
Time: 1.00pm
Cost: $5.00 members, $7.00 non-members
Venue: History House Auditorium
Booking essential on (02) 9247 8001 or history@rahs.org.au
Saturday 30 August, 2008
Seminar: Rum Rebellion Revisited
This event features new views on the events in Sydney in 1808 when Governor William Bligh was deposed by the NSW Corps.
Speakers include: Peter Cochrane, winner of the inaugural Prime Minister’s History Award in 2006 who is now writing a book on Bligh; Michael Duffy, media commentator and author of Man of Honour on John Macarthur; George Parsons, Honorary Adjunct Associate Professor at Macquarie University and an expert on the NSW Corps; Bruce Baskerville, Independent Historian; Alan Roberts, former RAHS Development Officer and author of Annandale and the Johnstons on Major George Johnston and his family.
Time: 10.30am -3.30pm
Cost: $25 members, $35 non-members, includes lunch
Venue: History House Auditorium, 133 Macquarie Street, Sydney
Booking essential on (02) 9247 8001 or history@rahs.org.au
Wednesday 3 September, 2008
Day Lecture - St Andrew's College, University of Sydney
The University of Sydney was a secular institution, but the major religious denominations were encouraged to provide collegiate accommodation for students on the periphery of the Grose Farm campus. The Anglicans started to build St Paul's in 1856 and the Catholics St John's in 1860. Disunity among the Presbyterians delayed the building of St Andrew's until 1874. No less than Paul's, John's and the University quadrangle, Andrew's makes a distinguished contribution to Australian institutional architecture and internal decoration of the mid-Victorian period. Dr Ian Jack, RAHS President and College Archivist, will speak the history of the College and the role it plays in the life of Sydney University today.
Time: 1.00 pm
Cost: $5.00 members, $7.00 non-members
Venue: History House Auditorium
Booking essential on (02) 9247 8001 or history@rahs.org.au
HISTORY WEEK:6-14 SEPTEMBER
Sunday 7 September 2008
Weekend Interlude
Freshie, the history of Freshwater Surf Life Saving Club
Professional historian Pauline Curby will give an illustrated talk on the history of Freshwater Surf Life Saving Club in its centenary year. Signed copies of her history of the Club, Freshie, Freshwater SLSC, the first 100 years, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2007, will be on sale for $60.
Time: 12 noon to approx 4.30pm
Cost:$23.00 members, $27.00 non-members
Venue: Reception Rooms, History House for a soup and damper lunch before the talk.
Booking essential on (02) 9247 8001 or history@rahs.org.au
There is a limit on numbers so please book early.
Thursday 11 September 2008
Evening Lecture, Devastation, Disaster and Distress - Living with floods in the lower Hunter Valley.
Ever since 1818, when Europeans settled in the Maitland area, locals have battled flooding from the Hunter River. They put up levees, installed floodgates and established water brigades for rescue. However floods rose highter, forced up by the inability of the water to spread on the floodplain. There were drownings, stock and crop losses and houses were washed away. Finally the increased economic impact of flooding and the political pressure which came with more intense development, forced the formation of the Hunter Valley Conservation Trust in 1950. As part of the strategy and following the great flood of 1957, on both the upper and lower river. Michael Clarke, retired Chief Engineer of the NSW Public Works Department, was its first resident engineer in the lower Hunter. In this lecture he will describe from his first hand experience, the history of flooding and the measures that have enabled the inhabitants of the Lower Hunter to live more comfortably with the flood hazard. A joint RAHS and ASHET activity.
Time: 5.30 for 6 pm
Cost: $7.00 Includes light refreshments on arrival.
Venue: History House, 133 Macquarie Street, Sydney
Bookings essential on (02) 9247 8001 or history@rahs.org.au