Tom Wills: The Insubordinate Life of an Australian Sporting Legend
Seminar
There are many versions of the origins of our Australian game of football, but all of them include T.W. Wills in some way. A champion cricketer, he had been exposed to the game of rugby when he was at Rugby School in England. In Melbourne in 1858, with several other men, he organised the first…
‘The name of the product I tested is Life’: The Life and Poetry of Peter Porter - ‘Duelling with diffidence’
Seminar
In a time of debased international politics and media manipulation of truth, the spin-and-cant-skewering precision of poetry is more important than ever. This talk argues for a new look at Peter Porter (1929-2010), lauded Australian poet whose broad international span (poems on subjects as diverse…
The peripatetic life of landscape artist Eugene von Guérard: discovering the man behind the art
Seminar
The peripatetic life of 19th century landscape artist Eugene von Guérard spanned both hemispheres of the globe and most of the 19th century. The ‘facts’ that scaffold his life are frequently reiterated in commentaries about his art, but the man behind the public persona has been largely ignored.…
The World of Mab Grimwade: Australian Women, Biography and Archives
Seminar
Searching for the imprint of a woman’s life is a challenge repeatedly expressed by the biographers of women, and Mab Grimwade is no exception. Born into a genteel family of pastoralists and investors in colonial Victoria, Mabel Louise Kelly (1887–1973), or ‘Mab’ to those who knew her, would grow up…
Bennelong & Phillip: A History Unravelled
Seminar
Kate Fullagar will discuss the background, research, writing, and unusual methodology of her third monograph, Bennelong & Phillip (Simon & Schuster, 2023). This book offers a dual biography of Arthur Phillip (1738-1814), the inaugural governor of New South Wales, and of Bennelong (c1764-…
Subjects of Time: Australian lives at the fin de siècle
Seminar
The fin de siècle c1890-1914 reflected a tension between movement and stasis, degeneration and progress. Historical actors caught between acting in the world as it was or finding ways of changing circumstance and perspective. Charles Conder’s painting While Daylight Lingers (1890) provided an…
Kevin Windle: Alexander Zuzenko, the Communist International and the Workers’ Republic of Australia
Workshop
Alexander Zuzenko, a sailor and veteran of the 1905 Russian revolution, arrived in Australia in 1911 and embarked upon a career of industrial and political agitation and radical journalism. He went on to head the Union of Russian Workers in Brisbane and lead the red flag demonstration in 1919.…