Editorial: Place, imagination and the texture of Australian pasts

Samuel White

Read the Editorial to the RAHS Journal, Volume 112, Part 1, June 2026

Lessees and Tenants of the Parish of Thalaba, County of Gloucester, NSW

Narelle Borrott

The British colony of New South Wales included land areas allocated as Church and School Estates. The Estates were leased, with the funds used for the Church of England clergy and children’s education between 1826–1833, before reverting to the Crown. One of these estates, the Parish of Thalaba, in the County of Gloucester, is the area of study. The lessees and their families, from the British Isles and one German family, from predominantly agricultural backgrounds, settled at Thalaba from 1845. One of the lessees, Benjamin Marsh, tenanted some of his leased land to seven families. All were assisted immigrants who ultimately purchased their holdings.

Pleasure and Profit: Sir Thomas Mitchell and the ‘first house’ built in Stanwell Park

Kerry Heckenberg

Popular memory and local historical studies have cemented the notion that explorer Sir Thomas Mitchell built the first house in Stanwell Park, a picturesque coastal village south of Sydney in the northern Illawarra. Did he in fact do so? This essay looks at the European history of Stanwell Park and examines in detail the aesthetic response to the area by Mitchell and others, along with the history of settlement there as documented in newspaper advertisements, letters and other historical documents, including visual resources. Mitchell’s diaries and letters are a valuable source of information about his architectural ambitions, preoccupations and activities. A much more complex picture emerges with a changing array of characters and only a minor role for the famous explorer.

Desert Dreams: Valentino, Lawrence, and Sheik Fantasy in 1920s Australia

Kathryn M. Hunter

George Melford’s film The Sheik (1921) catapulted Rudolph Valentino to heartthrob stardom and was a box-office phenomenon. Beyond Valentino’s magnetism and E.M. Hull’s book upon which the film was based, the film resonated with other desert horsemen of the First World War and with the emerging legend of ‘Lawrence of Arabia’. Examining the emergence of these dual ‘sheik’ fantasies in Australia – Valentino and Lawrence – I suggest that wartime visual culture and the subsequent popularity of T.E. Lawrence’s story contributed to sheik-mania of all sorts in Australia in the 1920s and beyond.

Conserving Nature through Cinema: Tasmania’s Amateur Naturalist Filmmakers in the Early to Mid-20th Century

Benjamin J. Richardson

Film has played a seminal role in Australian environmental history in shaping public awareness of the value of nature conservation. This history is particularly relevant to Tasmania, where the pioneering cinematographers Herbert King and Frederick Smithies, during the early to mid-twentieth century, produced numerous films and photographs of scenic landscapes and their wildlife in their effort to engage the public in nature’s aesthetic, recreational and scientific values. Their reliance on illustrated lecture tours and community outreach made their approach particularly effective in engaging audiences and set a precedent for more recent environmental activists who have turned to visual media.

Interpreting an Image:

Florence Milson – Photographs from the State Library of New South Wales

Geoff Barker

This article covers the photographic work of pioneering Australian photographer Florence Milson held by the State Library of New South Wales. Although little-known today, Florence Milson was a highly regarded photographer in post-World War I Australia. She was born in 1871 and was the wife of Albert George Milson (of Milson’s Point) and Lady Mayoress of North Sydney in the years before World War I. She was the first female member of the elite ‘Sydney Camera Circle’ and was exhibited at the 1920 ‘International Exhibition of the London Salon of Photography’, alongside Harold Cazneaux and Cecil Bostock. Very few of her works have survived, and her photos held by the State Library of New South Wales are of great historical significance.

Book Reviews

Catharine Coleborne, Vagrant Lives in Colonial Australasia: Regulating mobility, 1840–1910, Bloomsbury Academic, London, 2024, 201 pages; ISBN 9781350252691.

Wendy Michaels, A Battle-axe in the Bear Pit: Millicent Preston Stanley MP, Connor Court Publishing, Redland Bay, Qld, 2025, 235 pages; ISBN 9781923224568.

Robert Macklin, with John Gray, The Man who Planted Canberra – Charles Weston and his three million trees, National Library of Australia Publishing, Canberra, 2025, 240 pages; ISBN 9781922507778.

Peter Bradley, The Convict and the Compass: The untold story of James Meehan, Ventura Press, Edgecliff, NSW, 2025, 600 pages; ISBN 9781920727420.

John Ramsland, Australia’s Player King: The life and films of Peter Finch, Brolga Publishing Pty Ltd, Torquay, Vic, 2024, xv + 443 pages; ISBN 9780645815894.

Henry Reynolds, Looking from the North: Australian history from the top down, NewSouth Publishing, Sydney, 2025, 229 pages; ISBN 9781761170119.

Martin Thomas, Clever Men: How worlds collided on the scientific expedition to Arnhem Land of 1948, Allen & Unwin, Cammeraygal Country, NSW, 2025, xxxviii + 458 pages; ISBN 9781761069321.

John Seymour, Australia’s Naval Alliances: Lessons of history, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne, 2025, xvii + 216 pages; ISBN 978036448790.

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Editorial:

Truth, memory, and the public work of history

Samuel White

Read the Editorial to the Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, Volume 111, Part 2, December 2025

Guarding against the guardian: Reassessing revisionism at the Australian War Memorial

Mark Clayton

Revision is a cornerstone of historical scholarship, the welcome consequence of open discussion typically supported by rigorously tested new evidence. This case study examines one such instance concerning the Australian War Memorial’s Wirraway aircraft, which famously shot down a Japanese Zero fighter aircraft in late 1942, the only one ever to do so. It presents a detailed analysis of the evidence for both the revision and status quo cases, finding overwhelmingly in favour of the latter.

‘One of the few international journalists in Australia’: Andrew Melville Pooley in Tokyo and Sydney

James Cotton

As Foreign Editor of Sydney’s Evening News from 1922 until 1931, Andrew Melville Pooley was instrumental in transforming the popular reporting of foreign news in Australia, while also lecturing to a wide variety of audiences, including the NSW chapter of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, of which he was a founding member. Drawing upon his extensive and continuing international travels, he continued to provide incisive contributions to debate on world affairs in publications and commentary in the 1930s. However, he first gained international notoriety as a correspondent in Japan, where his exposure of corrupt collusion between international arms manufacturers and the Navy led to the fall of the government in Tokyo.

AIF Padre, Captain Father Thomas Joseph O’Donnell: His court-martial – beyond all reasonable doubt

Des Lambley

Father Captain Thomas Joseph O’Donnell, an Irish Australian, led by Christian example. He was assertive, positive in his religion, pragmatic, and patriotic to the people of Australia. O’Donnell lectured to support the government’s call for enlistments and the conscription referendums. The newly appointed Archbishop of Melbourne, Dr Daniel Mannix, refused to grant him permission to join the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) as a chaplain until a frustrated O’Donnell defiantly joined up as a private soldier. Within the military, he preached and practised his faith with a dedication to humanity.

While visiting his relations and friends in Ireland post-war, his Irish accent and AIF uniform saw him arrested for using disloyal words about the Sovereign. It marked him as a person of interest to British military intelligence, who saw things in the context of suppressing the Irish Republican movement. A court-martial followed. The Irish Republican Army later murdered O’Donnell’s British accuser, Lieutenant Stewart Chambers. Australia was drawn into this sensational event at the highest level. There were tensions between the AIF and the War Office, the British and the Irish independence movement, and sectarianism. Captain O’Donnell’s voice and agency are captured in this paper.

Protesting the End of the World: The WA nuclear disarmament movement of the 1980s

Rhys Knapton-Lonsdale

In late 1981, in response to escalating Cold War tensions and the buildup of arms that accompanied it, Western Australian peace activists formed the People for Nuclear Disarmament (PND (WA)). PND (WA) was part of the broader Australian disarmament movement and brought together a wide range of disarmament groups while maintaining a commitment to grassroots organising. In 1984, WA disarmament activist and Nuclear Disarmament Party (NDP) senate candidate, Jo Vallentine, was elected. Shortly after its electoral victory, the NDP split, with Vallentine leaving the party to sit as an independent. In the aftermath of the NDP split, the WA disarmament movement rallied around Senator Vallentine, providing the groundwork for the emergence of the WA Greens.

Picturing Civilisation

Bruce Pennay and Yalmambirra

We argue that a picture titled ‘Civilisation’ by Yakaduna, better known as Tommy McRae, is a key piece of visual evidence that helps viewers glimpse something of the challenges faced by First Nations people and by colonists in negotiating coexistence. We explore some of the interpretive possibilities of the picture, drawing on surveys of the artist’s life and times and giving attention to representations of the Lake Moodemere encampment/reserve where McRae lived. We summarise scholarly appraisals made of his work and trace newspaper reports of his achievements. We draw on recent work by scholars to suggest the importance of visual storytelling and of McRae’s work to Wiradjuri people and to residents in the border district region. We argue the picture points to stories of resilience, survival, cultural resistance and present-day cultural resurgence. It triggers investigations of the reasons for the Lake Moodemere encampment/reserve and what the place means for First Nations people.

Book Reviews

Santilla Chingaipe, Black convicts: How slavery shaped Australia, Scribner, Sydney, NSW, 2024, xxiii + 308 pages; ISBN 9781761107238.

Kristen Alexander, Kriegies: The Australian airmen of Stalag Luft III, Ad Astra Press, Mawson, ACT, 2023, xvii + 220 pages; ISBN 9780645792515.

Peter Crowley, Townsend of the Ranges, National Library of Australia, Canberra, ACT, 2024, 352 pages; ISBN 9781922507693.

Peter Woodley, ‘We are a farming class’: Dubbo’s hinterland, 1870–1950, Australian National University Press, Canberra, ACT, 2025, xix + 346 pages; ISBN 9781760466756.

Megan Brown and Lucy Sussex, Outrageous Fortunes: The adventures of Mary Fortune, crime writer, and her criminal son, La Trobe University Press, Collingwood, Vic, 2025, 341 pages; ISBN 9781760645052.

Jacqueline Kent, Inconvenient Women: Australian radical writers 1900–1970, NewSouth Publishing, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney, NSW, ix + 303 pages; ISBN 9781742237503.

Trish FitzSimons and Madelyn Shaw, Fleeced: Unraveling the history of wool and war, Rowman & Littlefield, New York, 2025, xiv + 246 pages; ISBN 9798881803803.

Stephen Gapps, Uprising: War in the colony of New South Wales, 1838–1844, NewSouth Publishing, Sydney, NSW, 2025, vi + 320 pages; ISBN 9781742238029.

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Editorial:

Challenging Narratives: New perspectives on authority, identity, and colonial Australia

Samuel White

Read the Editorial to the Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, Volume 111, Part 1, June 2025

The spearing of Governor Phillip at Manly

Keith Amos

The spearing of Governor Phillip on a Sydney Harbour beach in 1790 is a significant incident in Australian history. Was it a spur-of-the-moment act, a premeditated ‘payback’, or is there another explanation? Though the incident is factually well known, why it happened has ample scope for further consideration. This paper questions the ritualistic explanations of Governor Phillip’s spearing characteristic of most historical interpretations of the incident since 2001. It concludes that Phillip’s assailant acted defensively of his own volition in the heat of the moment.

John [Milner] Clark 1824–76: The fortunes of a fugitive

Mark St Leon

This article traces the life and career of an identity of early Wagga Wagga, John Clark (1824–76). Held in high esteem throughout the town and district, Clark was a publican, alderman and entrepreneur. Yet, unbeknownst to everyone, including his own family, he was also a fugitive from justice.

Frederick G. G. Rose, the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies and academic freedom

Geoffrey Gray

The Australian Government established the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (AIAS) in 1961 and made it permanent through an Act of Parliament in 1964. It was to record and collect the remaining cultural knowledge of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living a traditional lifestyle in all its aspects: ‘before it was too late’. AIAS had a veneer of academic independence, and so long as it dealt with bona fide researchers and their research projects, their political orientation was not considered. Nevertheless, when confronted with funding a research application by Frederick G. G. Rose, it was the applicant rather than the research project that was problematic. This paper examines Rose’s dealings with the AIAS, the difficulties it faced in supporting academic and political freedom, and pressure from government to deny Rose funding.

Brigadier José Bustamante’s 1796 plan to attack NSW: New documents from the first foreign delegation at Sydney − the Malaspina and Bustamante expedition

Chris G. Maxworthy

In 1788 the King of Spain, Carlos III, authorised an enlightenment voyage by two Captains of the Spanish Royal Navy, Alejandro Malaspina and José de Bustamante y Guerra. This political-scientific expedition took four years. This paper explores the Malaspina-Bustamante expedition, the first official foreign delegation to visit Port Jackson following the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788.

With anticipation of war against Britain, in mid-1796 Bustamante wrote a plan for the defence of Spanish America and Spain’s interests in the Pacific. One part of his plan was the destruction of the Sydney colony with gunboats from Peru, Chile and Montevideo. The inhabitants of Sydney and Norfolk Island would become prisoners of war and be transported to South America. It was hoped that some of these colonial prisoners might populate the Spanish Americas. Bustamante was tasked by senior Spanish ministers to develop his plan.

In parallel with Bustamante’s work was the rapidly expanding British southern whale fishery that had commenced its operations in the Pacific Ocean from 1789. While first a peaceful activity, once war between Britain and Spain commenced then these whalers were also privateers – operating against Spanish colonial ports and shipping.

For Spain the elimination of the colony at Sydney was important for the preservation of Spanish control in the Pacific and the suppression of whaling privateers. This essay describes the Bustamante plan and its aftermath as British interests in the Pacific Ocean transformed what had been a silent backwater before 1788. Additional information on Spanish language sources for a view of Australian history is also explored. This paper should add to the understanding of one European power’s strategic response to the new British colony in the southwest Pacific.

Book Reviews

Lucy Frost, Convict orphans: The heartbreaking stories of the colony’s forgotten children, and those who succeeded against all odds, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, NSW, 2023, 296 pages; ISBN 9781761067686.

Lucas Jordan, The Chipilly Six: Unsung heroes of the Great War, NewSouth Publishing, Sydney, NSW, 2023, xi + 307 pages; ISBN 9781742238098.

Hannah Forsyth, Virtue Capitalists: The rise and fall of the professional class in the Anglophone world, 1870–2008, Cambridge University Press, New York, 2023, xii + 299 pages; ISBN 9781009206488.

David Dufty, Charles Todd’s Magnificent Obsession: The epic race to connect Australia to the world, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2024, vii + 354 pages; ISBN 9781761471353.

John Kennedy McLaughlin, The Immigration of Irish Lawyers to Australia in the Nineteenth Century: Causes and Consequences, Alexandria, NSW, The Federation Press, 2024, xxv + 292 pages; ISBN: 9781760024536.

Anne Coote, Knowledge for a Nation: Origins of The Royal Society of New South Wales, Royal Society of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2024, xiii + 304 pages; ISBN 9780645859409.

Robert Cox, Breakout! The Tasmanians who terrorised Victoria, Wakefield Press, Mile End, SA, 2024, xv + 278 pages; ISBN 9781923042728.

Bob Crawshaw, Battle of the Banks: How ad men, barristers and bankers ended Ben Chifley’s boldest plan, Australian Scholarly Publishing, North Melbourne, Vic, 2023, xi + 223 pages; ISBN 9781923267275.

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Editorial:

The military history of Sydney Town

Samuel White

Read the Editorial to the Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, Volume 110, Part 2, December 2024

Liberty not Licence: The Hyde Park Riots of 1878

Jeff Kildea

In March 1878, two riots occurred in Hyde Park in protest against the anti-Catholic preaching of Pastor Daniel Allen, a Baptist minister who on Sundays held open-air services in the park. In the wake of the riots, mounting public opinion led the government to ban public meetings there. As a result, soap-box orators and open-air preachers relocated to the Domain, where they have continued to operate ever since. This article examines the Hyde Park riots in the context of the need to balance the right of free speech and the right of people not to be subjected to ‘hate speech’.

The News of War: How Australians learned that their nation was at war with Germany in August 1914

Lindsay Close

In August 1914, Australia stood half a world away from the rumblings of war in Europe. In an era before the internet, satellites, television and where telephone and radio were short-range communication devices, how did Australians discover that their nation was at war? This article examines the role that the telegraph played in disseminating the news that the conflict in Europe had started. It will also study the limitations of telegraph technology and the difficulties, such as censorship, print deadlines, ministerial errors and British Foreign Office mistakes that contributed to the delay of the Australian public getting the full and correct story.

A Retrospective of Military Law and Justice in the Australian Imperial Force

Des Lambley

Australian military law was comparatively sophisticated but a complicated dictum boiler-plated during Federation from the British laws. It had evolved throughout the modern history of war with an emphasis on discipline to ensure adherence to orders necessary to accomplish the Army’s given task. The physical environment in World War I and the stresses of the work caused many soldiers to break the rules. It was essential to have a system of laws enabling the offenders to be punished and set an example to others that orders were to be obeyed.

A ‘Nursery of Martial Law’: Proclamations of Martial Law in the Australian Colonies 1790–1853

Ben Hingley

Martial law was declared seven times in pre-Federation Australia, playing a part in some significant historical events. Yet very little has been written on the topic, and no comparative study has so far been made. This paper gathers, for the first time, brief accounts of all of the martial law events in the early colonies into one document and draws some initial comparisons. It will be seen that martial law was an adaptable doctrine. In the years between 1790 and 1853, it was used to fend off starvation, quash two rebellions, overthrow a government, and wage two wars against First Nations peoples.

Interpreting an Image: Did the Collector’s Chests become an embarras des richesses to Governor Macquarie because of their images of Christ Church Newcastle?

Sue Rabbitt Roff

This Interpreting an Image analyses the earliest image of the first Christ Church at Newcastle in 1817. I argue that the Governor, Commandant, Commissioner, Minister for the Colonies, surveyors and a convict forger colluded in circulating exaggerated images of Christ Church’s superstructure to attract investment and immigrants to the newly free settlement of Newcastle. The Macquarie and Dixson Collector’s Chests misrepresented the church’s grandeur. The tower, steeple and spire of the church were largely dismantled due to structural failures.

Book Reviews

Anne Sarzin, The Angel of Kings Cross: The life and times of Dr Fanny Reading, Australian Scholarly Publishing, North Melbourne, Vic, 2023, viii + 357 pages; ISBN 9781922952509.

Hugh Tranter, Southern Signals: Stories of innovation, challenge and triumph in Australia’s communication history, National Library of Australia Publishing, Canberra, ACT, 2023, vii + 280 pages; ISBN 9781922507563.

Rose Ellis, Bee Miles, Australia’s famous bohemian rebel, and the untold story behind the legend, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 284 pages; ISBN 9781761069130.

John Cary, Frontier Magistrate: The enigmatic Foster Fyans, Australian Scholarly Publishing, North Melbourne, Vic, 2023, ix + 283 pages; ISBN 9781922952639.

Toby Raeburn, The Remarkable Mr and Mrs Johnson: Founders of modern Australia’s first church, schools and charity, and friends of Aboriginal people, 1788–1800, Australian Scholarly Publishing, North Melbourne, Vic, 2023, xv + 311 pages; ISBN 9781922952790.

Cassandra Pybus, A Very Secret Trade: The dark story of gentlemen collectors in Tasmania, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 2024, xviii + 318 pages; ISBN 9781761066344.

Anna Johnston, The Antipodean Laboratory: Making colonial knowledge, 1770–1870, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2023, xii + 313 pages; ISBN 9781009186902.

Bronwyn Hughes, Lights Everlasting: Australia’s Commemorative Stained Glass from the Boer War to Vietnam, Australian Scholarly Publishing, Melbourne, 2023, viii + 235 pages; 197 illustrations; ISBN 9781922669827.

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Lieutenant Charles Jeffreys and the Kangaroo: Was he totally unfit for command?

Ian Dodd

Governor Lachlan Macquarie expressed the opinion that Lieutenant Charles Jeffreys was totally unfit for command of the armed Colonial Brig Kangaroo. Earlier scholarly work has not challenged that opinion. This article examines previously unpublished records, mainly from the British Transport Commission, and some aspects of the voyage to New South Wales to determine whether Macquarie’s harsh opinion was justified.

Railway Navvies and Grog Shops 1878–85: Promoting Law, Order and Sobriety through Crown Land Management

Terry Kass

Riotous drinking and hard physical labour have been synonymous with the labouring workforce who provided the raw muscle for constructing public infrastructure during the nineteenth century. As a highly mobile workforce, navvies were difficult to control and the subject of widespread angst by middle-class observers. During the 1880s, in New South Wales, problems arising from heavy alcohol consumption by railway navvies inspired changes to Crown Lands legislation. Generally focused on managing the leasing and alienation of land, Crown Land administration was not aimed at policing public morality. Yet, the need to control access to alcohol for railway navvies initiated changes in Crown Land policy and administration with that objective.

Ion Idriess in the Torres Strait 1927: Headhunting, mass murder and castaway children

Rob Coutts

The inspiration for this paper was a rare book, Mer – Four Gospels, a translation of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John into the Meriam language of the island of Mer in the Torres Strait. The book was published in 1902, after the introduction of Christianity to the Torres Strait in 1871. However, while researching the provenance of Four Gospels, a different book – Drums of Mer by Ion Idriess – became prominent. Drums of Mer purports to describe the pre-Christian Meriam culture of war, violence and head-hunting. Both books are discussed within the context of the island of Mer.

Stannumville

Leonie Bell

Many people are aware of the canvas and tin shacks that were erected by desperate people on the sandhills of La Perouse and Sans Souci during the throes of the Great Depression in the 1930s. Shanty towns such as these have a long history in Australia, particularly in pioneer and gold-mining towns in Victoria and New South Wales during the Gold Rush. These makeshift settlements often housed men in country areas where both jobs and housing were in short supply and times were tough. However, few will have heard of a NSW State Government scheme to house families in a purpose-built tent town during World War I. Canvas Town, sometimes referred to as Calico Town or Tin Town, and later known as Stannumville, was built 3.5 miles (5.6 km) from Sydney, about a mile south of Daceyville. It was constructed just off the western side of Bunnerong Road, between Gardiners Road and Maroubra Bay Road. Oddly enough, it does not appear on maps of the period, which were either printed before its construction or after its demolition. This made its precise location subject to speculation until the discovery of a hand-drawn addition to an existing Parish Map of Botany. This article examines why the government initiated the project, the living conditions in the town, and the reasons for its demise.

Interpreting an Image: George Augustus Robinson’s Yass to Port Phillip Road, 1840–1844

Bruce Pennay

A crude ink-sketch of Merriman, a Waywurru man, shackled around the neck, handcuffed and being dragged forward over uneven ground by an armed mounted policeman, is a graphic representation of the shortcomings of frontier justice in the early 1840s. This ‘Interpreting an Image’ untangles two stories of frontier justice with which the picture is intertwined in the journals of George Augustus Robinson, the Chief Protector of the Aborigines of the Port Phillip district of New South Wales. In doing so, it explains that the road between Yass and Port Phillip was a key part of a new ‘in-between’ frontier opened with the inland pastoral invasion.

Book Reviews

Bruce Short, Fever: the mysterious medicine from a mystical art to the scourge of the 18th century, North Bank Institute, Bellingen, NSW, 2023, 355 pages; ISBN 9780645773101.

Mark Hearn, The Fin de Siècle Imagination in Australia, 1890–1914, Bloomsbury Academic, London, 2022, 237 pages; ISBN 9781350291393.

Shauna Bostock, Reaching Through Time: finding my family’s stories, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, NSW, 2023, 334 pages; ISBN9781761067983.

Craig Wilcox, Australia’s Tasman Wars – Colonial Australia and Conflict in New Zealand, 1800–1850, Australian Scholarly Publishing, North Melbourne, Vic, 2022, xi + 286 pages; ISBN 9781922669452.

Dr J.M. Bennett AO and Dr John K. McLaughlin AM (eds), Cases for Opinion: A Bicentennial Miscellany, Australian Scholarly Publishing, Melbourne, 2023, viii + 118 pages; ISBN 9781922952998.

Alecia Simmonds, Courting: an intimate history of love and the law, La Trobe University Press, Collingwood, Vic, 2023, 440 pages; ISBN 9781760642143.

David Marr, Killing for Country, Black Inc, Collingwood, 2023; xi + 468 pages; 38 illustrations; ISBN 978760642730.

Phillip Deery, Spies and Sparrows: ASIO and the Cold War, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic, 2022, x + 270 pages; IBSN 9780522878301.

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Politics versus Justice: A fresh look at the third trial following the Myall Creek massacre of 1838

Jim Ritchie

This article revisits the trials of those accused of taking part in the Myall Creek massacre of 1838, in which at least 28 Wirrayaraay people, mostly women and children, were murdered. It closely examines the third trial, which involved four of those accused who took part in the massacre and explains why they escaped conviction, notwithstanding that seven of their fellow accused had been convicted and hanged following an earlier trial. The article also considers what became of Davey, a young Kamilaroi man, who was to be the main witness for the Crown in the third trial.

Quong Tart’s Neighbours: Cycling around the boundaries of exclusion and racism, 1880s–1900s

Marc Sebastian Rerceretnam

This article will look at the experiences of Mei Quong Tart (1850–1903) after he moved into the affluent Sydney suburb of Ashfield. While much has been written about his successes as a businessman, philanthropist, social advocate and Chinese community representative, there is little research relating to the social obstacles he encountered in his immediate neighbourhood and personal life. In the late 1800s, Sydney’s minority Chinese communities found themselves at the receiving end of political campaigns promoting their exclusion and the curtailing of their rights. In response, the Sydney-based Chinese community instigated campaigns and attempted to counter these negative initiatives. This paper will also look at Quong Tart’s use of popular sport to influence anti-Chinese public opinion in the late 19th century in light of the rise of anti-Chinese sentiment and movements to restrict their immigration and residency.

Angus Mackay and agricultural education in late 19th century New South Wales

Ian D. Rae

Angus Mackay (1830–1910) was a Highland Scot who came to the Australian colonies in the 1860s and spent nearly two decades in Brisbane. Arriving in Sydney in 1881 as an agricultural journalist, he was appointed to the Board of Technical Education and then as an instructor in agriculture at the Sydney Technical College, a position he held until 1897. He wrote books on bees, sugar cane, agricultural chemistry, and guides to agriculture in Australian settings, delivered public lectures and made professional conference presentations, making his career from informal advice to farmers to the inclusion of agricultural education in the state education system.

Chungking Follies: The supporting cast of the Chungking Legation, 1941–42

James Cotton

Sir Frederic Eggleston’s pioneering mission to Chungking (Chongqing) in 1941, accomplishing the opening of diplomatic relations with China, has received considerable scholarly attention. The main cast of characters is well known, Eggleston being assisted by Keith Waller and Charles Lee. This study shows that the contribution of other individuals made a significant impact on the Legation story, though their roles have been either neglected or overlooked. They included a former Shanghai policeman, a habitual criminal and confidence trickster, and a Russian-born linguist and secretary. In particular, in the early days of the mission — under dangerous wartime conditions — the role of Shanghai-born Edmund Burgoyne is shown to have been crucial for its establishment and initial diplomatic achievements. A review of their biographies leads to reassessment of the dynamics of the Legation in its founding phase.

Book Reviews

Ian Hodges, He Belonged to Wagga: The Great War, the AIF and returned soldiers in an Australian country town, Australian Scholarly Publishing, North Melbourne, Vic, 2022, 310 pages; ISBN 9781922669636.

Paul Ashton and Paula Hamilton (eds), The Australian History Industry, Australian Scholarly Publishing, Melbourne, 2022, viii + 361 pages, ISBN 9781922669605.

Jane Carey, Taking to the field: A history of Australian women in science, Monash University Publishing, Clayton, Vic, 2023, viii + 309 pages; ISBN 9781925835410.

Ross McMullin, A Life So Full of Promise; further biographies of Australia’s lost generation, Scribe, Melbourne, 2023, xiv + 626 pages; ISBN 9781922585820.

Ann McGrath, Laura Rademaker and Jakelin Troy (eds), Everywhen: Australia and the language of deep history, NewSouth Publishing, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney, NSW, 2022, x + 311 pages; ISBN 9781742237329.

Meg Foster, Boundary Crossers: The hidden history of Australia’s other bushrangers, NewSouth Publishing, Sydney, NSW, 2022, 256 pages; ISBN 9781742237527.

Angela Wanhalla, Lyndall Ryan and Camille Nurka (eds), Aftermaths: Colonialism, violence and memory in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific, Otago University Press, Dunedin, New Zealand, 2023, 312 pages; ISBN 9781990048449.

Charles Stitz and Gary Kent, The Country Surgeon: The life and times of Arthur Andrews of Albury (1848–1925), Arcadia/Australian Scholarly Publishing, North Melbourne, 2023; xx + 572 pages; 70 illustrations; ISBN 9781922669834.

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Touching hands with Anzacs: a re-evaluation of 1920s War Service Homes in NSW

Terry Kass

Australians make pilgrimages to Gallipoli for the dawn service and distant battlefields on Anzac Day or Armistice Day to commune with Anzacs. They often ignore evidence directly associated with Anzacs all around us, in capital cities, suburbs and country towns in the form of dwellings constructed by the War Service Homes Commission in the 1920s. This paper aims to provide a more balanced assessment of the work of the Commission than has been the case to date.

Beaumont & Waller’s Botanical & Zoological Gardens, at the Sir Joseph Banks Hotel, Botany Bay 1848–61

Mark St Leon

In 1848, William Beaumont, with the assistance of his business partner, James Waller, began to transform the gardens and grounds surrounding the Sir Joseph Banks Hotel at Botany Bay into a pleasure resort. The resort, named Beaumont & Waller’s Botanical and Zoological Gardens, would be quickly established as one of Sydney’s favourite outlets for public leisure and recreation. This article outlines its origins and development until its demise in 1861 in the context of early Sydney’s social and civic developments. The article concludes by identifying the resort’s three major legacies.

Ingleside Powder Works: ‘a curious colonial enterprise’

Keith Amos

The mysterious past of Ingleside Powder Works has never been fully explained due to conflicting interpretations about the motives of its 1880s designer and superintendent, Carl von Bieren. What brought him to Australia from the USA, and why did the works fail to produce gunpowder? This article contends the works were ostensibly built to produce explosives, but in reality, to facilitate an affluent lifestyle for the man who purported to be ‘Carl von Bieren’ and his supposed wife, Anna. Evident is a remarkable web of deceit spun by a 19th-century confidence man.

Thomas Wilson Esq and the natural history collections of First Fleet Surgeon John White

Matthew Fishburn

Thomas Wilson Esq, a Londoner, was the driving force behind the publication of three of the most important early Australian books, especially in terms of natural history: First Fleet surgeon John White’s Journal (1790), James Edward Smith’s Botany of New Holland (1793) and George Shaw’s Zoology of New Holland (1794). Although known to have joined the Linnean Society and to have employed the artists Sarah Stone and James Sowerby, Wilson has long been an enigmatic figure. This essay discusses the remarkable breadth of White’s collections on his behalf and reveals that Wilson was, in fact, a wealthy apothecary, not only a patron of White but an important supporter of Matthew Flinders, as well as being tangentially connected to two other surgeons associated with New South Wales, John Lowes and George Bass. Wilson was the central figure in an important professional network that was openly competing with the socially grander and far better-recorded coterie of Sir Joseph Banks.

Book Reviews

Robert Cox, Broken Spear: the untold story of Black Tom Birch, the man who sparked Australia’s bloodiest war, Wakefield Press, Mile End, SA, 2021, xxi + 299 pages; ISBN 9781743058671.

Anthony Webster, The Foundation of Australia’s Capital Cities: Geology, Landscape, and Urban Character, Lexington Books, Maryland, USA, 2022, xii + 327 pages; ISBN 9781498597951.

Heather Goodall, Georges River Blues: Swamps, Mangroves and Resident Action, 1945–1980, ANU Press, World Forest History Series, Canberra, 2022, 305 pages; ISBN 9781760464622.

Brendan Atkins, The Naturalist: the remarkable life of Allan Riverstone McCulloch, NewSouth Publishing, Sydney, 2022, viii + 190 pages; ISBN 9781742237756.

Alan Atkinson, Elizabeth & John: The Macarthurs of Elizabeth Farm, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2022, xi + 500 pages; ISBN 9781742237565.

June Factor, Soldiers and Aliens: Men in the Australian Army’s Employment Companies during World War II, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 2022, xvi + 327 pages; ISBN 9780522878585.

Joan Beaumont, Australia’s Great Depression: How a nation shattered by the Great War survived the worst economic crisis it has ever faced, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 2022, ix + 565 pages; ISBN 9781760293987.

Joel Stephen Birnie, My People’s Songs: How an Indigenous Family Survived Colonial Tasmania, Monash University Publishing, Clayton, Vic, 2022, xxi + 231 pages; ISBN 9781922633187.

Patricia Clarke, Bold Types: how Australia’s first women journalists blazed a trail, National Library of Australia Publishing, Canberra, 2022, xv + 256 pages; ISBN 9781922507372.

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‘Extensive plans of immigration’: Governor Bourke and the beginnings of Australian assisted immigration, 1831-1838

Richard Reid

In that 299-word encomium on the public statue to the colony of New South Wales’ first Irish governor, Sir Richard Bourke, outside the State Library is the claim: ‘He raised the revenue to a vast amount, and, from its surplus, realised extensive plans of immigration.’ At a time when convicts were arriving in Sydney in unprecedented numbers, the reference here is not to the transportation of felons but the early development of that large program of government-assisted immigration, which within virtually ten years, changed the demographics of the colony from one based on convicts, emancipists and their children to one increasingly based on free immigrants. This article examines the extent to which Bourke can be credited with that change.

Bowral and the fraternity of ‘Noble Men’: Freemasonry in Bowral and the Southern Highlands of NSW

Alan Jacobs

Lodge Carnarvon is one of only two lodges that remain in existence in the Southern Highlands of NSW. The history of Lodge Carnarvon in Bowral is examined from its inauguration in 1888. Access to the internal records of Lodge Carnarvon and local newspapers enabled the author to make a detailed study of the membership, including demographics and professional backgrounds. The rise and fall of the membership of Carnarvon is placed within the context of the trajectory of all Freemasons under the United Grand Lodge of NSW. Lodge Carnarvon members exerted a decisive influence on the township of Bowral, but their membership of the fraternity usually was not disclosed or acknowledged. These men constituted the backbone of the business community and local government and helped to build the social capital of Bowral and its surrounds. In 1950 the Mayor (H.F. Venables) referred to one Carnarvon freemason (Joshua Stokes) as one of the Noble Four of Bowral. However, Stokes and the other Freemasons were not identified as members of the fraternity. Twenty-eight years later, the Shire President (Cr. Peter Reynolds) proclaimed that: ‘… members of the Council considered it an honour to accord to Lodge Carnarvon a civic reception in recognition of their support and involvement in the community for 100 years.’

Catholic Action, Sydney style: Catholic lay organisations from friendly societies to the Vice Squad

James Franklin

Sydney Catholics in the mid-twentieth century were organised into a large number of active and effective associations, from parish sodalities and professional guilds up to the Cahill government. Parish-based and larger organisations supplied a body of people accustomed to uniformity of beliefs and coordinated action in support of those beliefs, easily mobilised against Communism and in favour of Catholic moral and political positions. Pragmatic, informed by implicit moral views rather than explicit theory, and clerically controlled, Catholic Action in Sydney proved more able than its Melbourne counterpart in controlling the levers of political power. The Cahill government built on this organisational infrastructure to implement in law and policing a conservative moral agenda.

Protection or Persecution? Victoria’s Chinese Protectors

Rob Coutts

In 1855 the Victorian Colonial Government appointed Chinese Protectors. Taken as a whole, from 1855 to 1863, the Protectorate belied its name, but conversely, it is suggested that the British humanitarian movement influenced its creation and early implementation. A distinction is made between the Protectorate’s administration before and after the 1857 Chinese Residence Act. This Act aimed to charge (only) the Chinese a fee to continue living in Victoria or leave the country. The proposal is that the Protectorate was created and implemented with humanitarian intent until the 1857 Act re-purposed it into an instrument of revenue collection and persecution.

Thief or prostitute? Questioning the evidence against women transported to Australia

Kathrine M. Reynolds & Carol Liston

Accounts of women in Australia during the convict period are dominated by assumptions that many of the convict women had worked as prostitutes in Britain and continued to carry on their trade in the colony. The crimes that led to their transportation are overlooked or are assumed to involve prostitution. This paper investigates British sources about their crimes to understand the extent to which these crimes were associated with prostitution. Many of the women used the promise of sex to lure men into situations where they could be robbed. Building case studies around three convict ships, we trace the women’s crimes in Britain, seeking to determine if those crimes involved acts of prostitution and were the source of their designation as prostitutes.

Book Reviews

Robert Wainwright, Nellie: the life and loves of Dame Nellie Melba, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 2021, 344 pages; ISBN 9781760878252.

Stuart Macintyre, The Party: The Communist Party of Australia from heyday to reckoning, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, 2022, xiv + 498 pages; ISBN 9781760875183.

Julian Casey, et al, Sub Tuum Praesidium: Marist Brothers in Australia 1872–2022, Marist Brothers Australia, Mascot, NSW, 2022, xiv + 563 pages; ISBN 9780646853253.

Jeff McGill, Rachel: Brumby hunter, medicine woman, bushrangers’ ally and troublemaker for good … the remarkable pioneering life of Rachel Kennedy, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2022, 324 pages; ISBN 9781760879983.

Jean Fornasiero and John West-Sooby, ‘Roaming Freely Throughout the Universe’: Nicholas Baudin’s voyage to Australia and the pursuit of science, Wakefield Press, Mile End, SA, 2021, 340 pages; ISBN 9781743058275.

Michael Shmith with research by Dr Stella Barber, Merlyn: The life and times of Merlyn Baillieu Myer, Hardie Grant Books, Richmond, Vic, 2021, xiv + 385 pages; ISBN 9781743798096.

Paul van Reyk, True to the Land: A history of food in Australia, Reaktion Books Ltd, London, UK, 2021, 288 pages; ISBN 9781789144062.

Gideon Haigh, The Brilliant Boy: Doc Evatt and the Great Australian Dissent, Scribner Australia, Cammeray, NSW, 384 pages; ISBN 9781760856113.

Anna Clark, Making Australian History, Vintage Books, North Sydney, 2022, xii +417 pages; ISBN 9781760898519.

Ian Hoskins, Australia and the Pacific, a History, NewSouth Publishing, Sydney, 2021, 489 pages; ISBN 9781742235691.

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A Sojourn at Port Arthur in 1839: The eyewitness account of French explorer Captain Cyrille Laplace

Colin Dyer

The penal colony at Port Arthur had been in existence for less than a decade when Captain Cyrille Laplace paid his visit in February 1839 in the La Favorite. Already a very experienced traveller, this was his second round-the-world voyage, and his second visit to Tasmania. Laplace’s interest in correctional institutions led to visits to Hobart’s female convict prison and the Orphan School of New Town. In Volume 5, chapter 1 of the official account of his second voyage, Campagne de circumnavigation, Laplace describes in detail the changes he observed in Hobart since his first visit in 1831. This article includes the translation of these observations.

Canberra and the Frontier Wars

James McDonald

The nature of Aboriginal resistance in the Canberra district was different to elsewhere in New South Wales. Four factors affected how the Frontier Wars played out along the Molonglo: (a) the invasion followed the arrival of influenza and the small Aboriginal population had already been decimated; (b) Captain Bishop’s 1826 military expedition quashed a potential major rising; (c) Governor Darling was more intent than his predecessors on controlling the stockmen; and (d) relations with European pastoral workers in the district may have been less hostile.

Colonial Pioneers: The early industrial metal trades of Sydney, 1825-1875

Harry Cole and Drew Cottle

Little has been written of Sydney’s early tradesmen. Although numerically insignificant in early colonial Australia, by the end of the nineteenth century one group of these tradesmen, the metalworkers, had become crucial to the local economy. The metalworkers were one of the ‘new’ trades that had emerged with industrialisation. This article sets out to place the new metal trades in the city’s early metalworking industrial landscape and offers a brief glimpse into the role played by the metal trades workers in the economic development of nineteenth-century Sydney. It examines the artisanal nature of their workplaces before the transition to larger-scale industrial production.

This anomalous community: Dungog Magistrates’ Letterbook, 1834-1839

Michael Williams

This paper seeks to provide an overview and brief analysis of a rare convict period source that appears to have been largely overlooked by historians. The Magistrates’ Letterbook for the police districts of Dungog and Port Stephens, New South Wales, 1834-1839 is a single volume of the outward correspondence of Dungog-based magistrates at the high point of the convict system to local landowners, other magistrates, the Australian Agricultural Company, and to such Sydney based officials as the Superintendent of Convicts, the Colonial Storekeeper and the Colonial Secretary. The Letterbook, written mostly when Thomas Cook J.P. was Police Magistrate, provides an intimate snapshot of a period when such magistrates as Cook dealt with a vast range of matters and people, including local indigenous peoples, convicts and sly-grogers, bushrangers and landowners; all constituting a community perhaps rightly described at one point by Magistrate Cook as ‘anomalous’.

Book Reviews

Chas Keys, Maitland Speaks: the experience of floods, Floodplain Publishing, Maitland, NSW, 2020, vii + 486 pages; ISBN 9780646818757.

Adam Wakeling, A House of Commons for a Den of Thieves: Australia’s journey from penal colony to democracy, Australian Scholarly Publishing, North Melbourne, 2020, 306 pages; ISBN 9781922454140.

Douglas Newton, Private Ryan and the Lost Peace: a defiant soldier and the struggle against the Great War, Longueville Media, Haberfield, NSW, 2021, xx + 380 pages; ISBN 9780648973638.

Catherine Bishop, Too Much Cabbage and Jesus Christ: Australia’s ‘Mission Girl’ Annie Lock, Wakefield Press, Mile End, South Australia, 2021, xvi + 327 pages; ISBN 9781743058572.

Quentin Beresford, Wounded Country: The Murray-Darling Basin – a contested history, NewSouth, Sydney, 2021 432 pages; ISBN 9781742236780.

Matt Murphy, Rum: a distilled history of colonial Australia, Harper Collins Publishers, Sydney, 2000, 370 pages; ISBN 9781460713044.

Alexis Bergantz, French Connection: Australia’s cosmopolitan ambitions, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney, 2021, 194 pages; ISBN 9781742237091.

Martyn Lyons, Dear Prime Minister: letters to Robert Menzies 1949–1966, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2021, 266 pages; ISBN 9781742237305.

Melissa Harper and Richard White (eds), Symbols of Australia: imagining a nation, NewSouth, Sydney, 2021, xi + 448 pages; ISBN 9781742237121.

Stephen Gapps, Gudyarra: the first war of Wiradyuri Resistance – The Bathurst War, 1822–1824, NewSouth, Sydney, 2021, xi + 276 pages; ISBN 97817422367111.

Doug Munro, History Wars: The Peter Ryan-Manning Clark Controversy, Australian National University Press, Acton, ACT, 2021, xxxvi + 193; ISBN 9781760464769.

Ashley Hay, Gum − the story of eucalypts & their champions, first published by Duffy & Snellgrove, 2002, 2nd edition published by New South, 2021; ISBN 9781742237534.

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Sydney, 1803: when Catholics were tolerated and Freemasons banned

James Franklin

In 1803, Governor King’s authority faced serious threats: from possible French invasion, from Irish convicts, and from officers and others with personal animosities fortified by freemasonry and republicanism. On Lord Hobart’s instructions, King allowed the convict priest Father Dixon to minister to Catholics, but masonic gatherings were banned. The reasoning behind these decisions is explained, in the light of the threats posed by each and the Irish background. Hobart’s earlier success in negotiating with Irish bishops and the perception that French and American revolutionary ideals were being spread through Freemasonry are essential for understanding developments in New South Wales.

‘A joy beyond any earthly pleasure’: Emily Paterson’s contribution to community mental health

Judith Godden

Emily Darvall Paterson’s life challenges us to rethink the history of disability in Australia. She was a blind woman whose abilities outshone her disability. She made a significant contribution to social welfare by founding, in 1907, Australia’s longest-serving mental health organisation, the After Care Association, now Stride Mental Health. Paterson’s achievement was, in large part, due to her commitment and ability to forge warm personal relations with those helped. It was also due to the support of her extended family, and local, legal, women’s and religious networks. Her legacy was both secured and threatened when After Care gained reliable government funding.

A Wet and Cold El Niño: the Tambora volcano’s impact in the Australian colonies

Don Garden

The cataclysmic Tambora volcanic explosion in April 1815 resulted in two or three years of cold and wet weather in much of the northern hemisphere which caused crop failure, famine, poverty and disease, among a range of repercussions. It also appears likely, through its impact on sea surface temperatures, to have triggered an El Niño event. This would normally result in hot and dry weather in the south-east of Australia, and potentially severe drought. However, the limited available proxy and documentary evidence indicates that in 1816 and 1817 the weather in NSW and VDL was wetter than average, especially in NSW, and quite cold in VDL. This climatic anomaly is not fully explained, but confirms that the repercussions from Tambora, while not as severe, were also experienced in the southern hemisphere.

Henry Dangar: dismissed as government surveyor in 1827 and a land appeal spanning 26 years

Jim Ritchie

This article considers Dangar’s dismissal from his position as assistant government surveyor and the following appeal process. His dismissal has been briefly dealt with by various historians, who have written (among other things) that Dangar: ‘was sacked by Governor Ralph Darling for misappropriating land’; ‘used his public position for private gain’; and ‘fraudulently used two land orders in other’s names and proposed a land trade-off being an attempted bribe’. However, the circumstances in which this dismissal occurred deserve closer consideration than has been given to date. The events leading up to this, including the charges laid against him, the hearing of those charges by the Land Board, the outcome of the hearing, whether Dangar was correctly dismissed, and his subsequent appeal to the Colonial Office (which in relation to the land decision spanned 26 years) are each examined.

‘Doovers’ in the rainforest: radar stations at Paluma, Mount Spec, during World War II

Linda Venn

This paper contends that the four radar stations based in unforgiving tropical rainforest at Paluma (‘Mt. Spec’, near Townsville) during the Second World War represent the evolution of radar technology in the South West Pacific Area (SWPA). Their histories demonstrate how challenges in lack of trained personnel and reliability of equipment were overcome by cooperation amongst members of the Allied forces. Trials at Paluma of camouflage (1942-44) and ‘tropic-proofing’ (1943-44) of prototype transportable Light Weight Air Warning (LW/AW) radar benefited radar stations throughout northern Australian and the SWPA. The critical importance of such experimentation for deployment to the SWPA is demonstrated by the success of two LW/AW radar units in Dutch East Indies and Borneo. Collectively, the men and women of these four radar stations are presented as players in this significant theatre of Australia’s military history.

Book Reviews

Ian Howie-Willis, VD: the Australian Army’s experience of sexually transmitted diseases in the twentieth century, Big Sky Publishing, Newport, NSW, 2020, 430 pages; ISBN 9781922387257.

Ken Inglis, Bill Gammage, Seumas Spark and Jay Winter, Dunera Lives: profiles, Monash University Publishing, Clayton, Vic, 2020, xxxii + 476 pages; ISBN 9781925835656.

Adrian Mitchell, Where Shadows Have Fallen: the unhappy descent of Henry Kendall, Wakefield Press, Mile End, SA, 2020, 228 pages; ISBN 9781743057483.

Murray Johnson, Australia’s Ancient Aboriginal Past: a global perspective, Australian Scholarly Publishing, North Melbourne, Vic, new edition 2020, xvii + 261 pages; ISBN 9781925003710.

Kate Bagnall and Julia T. Martínez (eds), Locating Chinese Women: historical mobility between China and Australia, Hong Kong University Press, Hong Kong, 2021, vii + 277 pages; ISBN 9789888528615.

Peter Edwards, Law, Politics and Intelligence: a life of Robert Hope, NewSouth Publishing, Sydney, 2020, ix + 386 pages; ISBN 9781742235370.

Babette Smith, Defiant Voices: how Australia’s female convicts challenged authority 1788–1853, NLA Publishing, Canberra, ACT, 2021, 288 pages; ISBN 9780642279590.

Peter Prineas, Wild Colonial Greeks, Arcadia/Australian Scholarly Publishing, North Melbourne, Vic, 2020, vii + 322 pages; ISBN 9781922454133.

Peter Dowling, Fatal Contact: how epidemics nearly wiped out Australia’s First Peoples, Monash University Publishing, Clayton, Vic, 2021; ISBN 9781922464460.

Catherine Fisher, Sound Citizens: Australian women broadcasters claim their voice, 1923–1956, ANU Press, Canberra, ACT, 2021, ix + 185 pages; ISBN 9781760464301.

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The Military Command of Maurice O’Connell 1838-1847​

Craig Wilcox

The first commander in chief appointed to Australia, Sir Maurice O’Connell led a military garrison from 1838 to 1847 with a larger budget than the New South Wales judiciary and post office put together and more people than lived in Campbelltown or Goulburn. His decisions, or more often his failure to make them, influenced the lives of thousands, including settlers and Māori in New Zealand where his troops fought two wars from 1845 to 1848. Remembered for his earlier tenure in Australia as a colonel under Governor Macquarie who married a daughter of Governor Bligh, O’Connell has otherwise escaped the attention of historians. His later and far more influential post as garrison commander is worth investigating.

‘Sorry We Cannot Supply’: Empire trade preference and its impact on Australian motor body builders

Justin Chadwick

This article explores the impact of the British Preferential Tariff and Trade Diversion policies of the Australian Federal Government on the motor car body building industry during the interwar period. It argues that the preferential system of trade within the British Empire, while benefiting Australian primary producers, was not always necessarily ideal for secondary industries, particularly mass-production motor body builders, such as General Motors-Holden’s and T.J. Richards & Sons. This is demonstrated as these body builders introduced the use of wide, long draw mild steel for the manufacture of the all-steel, Fisher body design in 1936. Although the local companies attempted to abide by the requests of the Government to use British-made steel, those manufacturers were unable, due to limitations of facilities and preparations by Britain for the impending war, to supply export markets. As sheet steel supplies dwindled the body builders were forced to lay-off workers until the government finally capitulated and allowed material from US steel makers.

Restoring Order in ‘The Present Scare’: the Bridge Street Affray in fin de siècle Sydney

Mark Hearn

Assaulting several police officers while attempting to flee an interrupted burglary, Charles Montgomery and Thomas Williams were convicted of the capital offence of intent to murder and hanged in Darlinghurst Gaol in May 1894. The Bridge Street affray reflected a fear of anarchy and breakdown in the social order and provided the pretext that armed the NSW Police. The affray and the ‘reprieve agitation’ exposed broader tensions at work in fin de siècle colonial society, as the state not only constrained the pathology of crime, but also the challenges of protest, working class radicalism and strike action.

Malta, the Nurse of the Mediterranean and Cottonera Hospital: the Australian connection

John Portelli

Cottonera Hospital, Malta, played a leading role in the treatment of the sick and war casualties, including many Anzacs, from the Gallipoli and Salonika Campaigns during World War I, when Malta became known as ‘The Nurse of the Mediterranean’. In the space of two years, Malta, with a population of just over 200,000, became one of the British Empire’s largest complexes of military hospitals that saw an influx of close to 125,000 patients. This was a national effort with the active participation of the civilian population. Distinguished consultants from Britain’s leading hospitals gave their services at Cottonera Hospital and the other 26 hospitals in Malta. Cottonera Hospital closed its doors in 1920 only to reopen again in 1929 as St Edward’s College. St Edward’s was founded by Lady Strickland, wife of Lord Gerald Strickland, at the time Prime Minister of Malta and formerly Governor of Tasmania, Western Australia and New South Wales.

The Irish Boys at Burnside Homes

Keith Amos

Between 1910 and 1970, through various government-approved child migration schemes operated by charitable and religious institutions, about 7,000 young Britons came or were sent to Australia. This article sheds light on the unique case of 22 Irish boys who were displaced from a Connemara orphanage in June 1922 during the Irish Civil War. They had been in the care of the (Anglican) Irish Church Mission Society and were offered refuge in Australia by Burnside Presbyterian Orphan Homes at North Parramatta.

Book Reviews

Mark Dunn, The Convict Valley: the bloody struggle on Australia’s early frontier, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2020, viii + 294 pages; ISBN 9781760528645.

Terry Irving, The Fatal Lure of Politics: the life and thought of Vere Gordon Childe, Monash University Publishing, Clayton, Vic, 2020, xxiv + 418 pages; ISBN 9781925835748.

Patricia Clarke, Great Expectations: emigrant governesses to colonial Australia, National Library of Australia, Canberra, 2020, 247 pages; ISBN 9780642279620.

Geoffrey Travers, William Holmes: the soldiers’ general, Big Sky Publishing, Sydney, 2020, 447 pages; ISBN 9781922387004.

Max Solling and John Tracey, Going to the Dogs: a history of greyhound racing in New South Wales, Halstead Press, Sydney, 2020, 301 pages; ISBN 9781925043464.

Jill Roe, Searching for the Spirit: Theosophy in Australia, 1879–1939, Wakefield Press, Mile End, SA, 2020, xvi + 364 pages; ISBN 9781743056745.

Jenny Hocking, The Palace Letters: the Queen, the Governor-General, and the plot to dismiss Gough Whitlam, Scribe Publications, Melbourne, 2020, xvi + 265 pages; ISBN 9781922310248.

Grace Karskens, People of the River: lost worlds of early Australia, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 2020, 678 pages; ISBN 9781760292232.

Ian W. Shaw, Pandemic: the Spanish flu in Australia 1918–1920, Woodslane Press, Warriewood, NSW, 2020, vi + 271 pages; ISBN 9781925868449.

Joy Hughes, Carol Liston and Christine Wright (eds), Playing their Part: vice-regal consorts of New South Wales, 1788–2019, Royal Australian Historical Society, Sydney, 2020, xi + 252 pages; ISBN 9780646811208.

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Spain and the Botany Bay Colony: a response to an imperial challenge

Robert J. King

The founding of the Botany Bay colony in 1788 was viewed with disquiet in Spain and its empire, accustomed as its rulers were for over three and a half centuries to view the whole Pacific as their exclusive preserve. Over the following two decades, as a titanic struggle played out between Britain and France for world dominance, a defensive Spanish empire had to consider how to react to the strategic challenge of the new colony. The immediate Spanish reaction was to include a visit to the colony in the itinerary of the 1789-1794 expedition commanded by Alexandro Malaspina.

Australia and the Dardanelles Commission, 1916-1917: a re-assessment

Jatinder Mann and Carl Bridge

Rupert and James Murdoch, who made appearances before the Leveson Inquiry into press corruption on 19 July 2011, were not the first in their family to appear before a commission of British Parliament. That ambiguous honour goes to Rupert’s father – another journalist and later newspaper proprietor and knight – Keith, who appeared before the Dardanelles Commission on 5 February 1917. From an Australian point of view, there were two key players in the Dardanelles Commission story: Andrew Fisher and Keith Murdoch; two Scottish Australians ‘on the make’. Fisher was the Australian Prime Minister who had committed Australian troops to the Dardanelles Campaign and Murdoch the journalist who was Fisher’s unofficial ‘eyes and ears’ at Gallipoli reporting back from that front confidentially at a crucial stage of the fighting.

Avoid Stigmatising Them by Name

Michael Williams

The Dictation Test is often held up as the symbol of the White Australia policy and for over 50 years after 1901 was the prime mechanism by which ‘undesirables’ were denied entry to Australia. This paper discusses the background, historical, political and ideological, to the developments that led to the creation of a fake test it was a crime to fail. In particular it looks at the 1897 Imperial Conference at which the colonial Premiers debated the mechanism of restriction with Joseph Chamberlain representing the British government. A discussion leading directly to the compromise that evolved into the Commonwealth’s Dictation Test. Many factors were involved ranging from considerations of empire, both internal and external, to questions of class, principle and concern over appearances. The compromise that became the uniquely unpassable Dictation Test was a contested one that Australia was to live with for the next two generations.

Living with the Hume Dam, 1919-2019

Bruce Pennay

Commemorative events in Albury-Wodonga to mark the centenary of the turning of the first sod for the Hume Dam prompted reflection on the history and heritage of the dam. This article traces some of the main stories that have been projected onto or read from the Hume Dam and the circumstances in which they appeared. It notes how the dam was acclaimed as a nation-building political achievement and an engineering triumph. It points to the emergence of concerns about the environmental impact of damming the Murray River. It outlines present-day concerns about how the water released from the dam best meets a balance of social, economic and environmental needs. It unravels some of the mystique that has developed about the place at the local level.

Book Reviews

Pauline Curby, Local Government Engineers’ Association: a centenary history, NewSouth Publishing, Sydney, NSW, 2019, xi + 268 pages; ISBN 9781742236537.

Elizabeth Rushen, John Marshall: shipowner, Lloyd’s reformer and emigration agent, Anchor Books Australia, Melbourne, 2020, 206 pages; ISBN 9780648061663.

Denis Porter, Coal: the Australian story, Connor Court Publishing, Redland Bay, QLD, 2019, 403 pages; ISBN 9781925826609.

Sean Scalmer, Democratic Adventurer: Graham Berry and the making of Australian politics, Monash University Publishing, Clayton, Vic, 2020, xiv + 349 pages; ISBN 9781925835779.

Cameron Archer, The Magic Valley: The Paterson Valley – then and now, ACA Books, Lorn, NSW, 2019, iv + 410 pages; ISBN 9780646801650.

Christine Morton-Evans, Ellis Rowan: a life in pictures, NLA Publishing, Canberra, 2020, vi + 185 pages; ISBN 9780642279576.

Peter Browne and Seumas Spark (eds), ‘I Wonder’: the life and work of Ken Inglis, Monash University Publishing, Clayton, Vic, xiv + 32 pages, 2020; ISBN 9781925835717.

Richard Allsop, Geoffrey Blainey: writer, historian, controversialist, Monash University Publishing, Clayton, Vic, 2020, xiv + 294 pages; ISBN 9781925835625.

Michael Bennett, Pathfinders: a history of Aboriginal trackers in NSW, NewSouth Publishing, Sydney, 2020, ix + 322 pages, ISBN 9781742236568.

Geoffrey Blainey, Captain Cook’s Epic Voyage: the strange quest for a missing continent, Viking, Hawthorn, Vic, 2020, xi + 324 pages; ISBN 9781760895099.

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