The end of P&O cruises leaves a vacuum of soft diplomacy and cultural exchange between Australia and Papua New Guinea

Dr Deborah Lee-Talbot P&O Cruises, one of Australia’s most well-known travel companies, will cease trading in March 2025. Folding into its parent company, Carnival Australia – itself a subsidiary of the American company Carnival Corporation – the end of P&O cruises leaves behind decades of soft diplomacy and cultural exchange between Australia and Papua […]

The making of the Australian Historical Studies 55:2 (2024) ‘Wan Solwara: Australia and Papua New Guinea’

Helen Gardner, Jonathan Ritchie and Brad Underhill The most recent issue of Australian Historical Studies: Wan Solwara: Australia and Papua New Guinea, brought together scholars from PNG, Australia and the broader Pacific to reconsider the place of PNG in Australia’s national story. Edited by Deakin University scholars: Helen Gardner, Jonathan Ritchie and Brad […]

GOLD STANDARD?: THE HAWKE GOVERNMENT 40 YEARS ON

Celebrate and reflect on the legacy of the Hawke government. Watch a recording on the Museum of Australian Democracy’s website of this conference looking back on the Hawke government – one of the longest-serving and most transformative in Australian political history. Learn about the Hawke government’s successes and failures from key speakers including: Hon Professor […]

Setting a dangerous policy precedent: when digitisation leads to destruction

Dr Deborah Lee-Talbot The libraries and archives of Europe have been described by the Australian researcher George Collinridge, as the ‘great centres and stores of knowledge’ (2018, p. 5). If that is so, the recent proposal to destroy records from Britain needs to be a concern for many. On 15 December 2023, as people […]

It was Greek to me: The historian’s obligation to communicate

By Richard Trembath Cassius: Did Cicero say anything? Casca: Aye, he spoke Greek. Cassius: To what effect? Casca: Nay, an I tell you that, I’ll ne’er look you I’ the face again: but those that understood him smiled at one another, and shook their heads; but for mine own part, it was Greek to […]

The Myths and Meaning Behind Long Tan Day in Australia – and in Vietnam

By Mia Martin Hobbs On 18 August 1966, D Company of 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (6RAR) clashed with National Liberation Front (NLF) forces in a rubber plantation near the village of Long Tan. Seventeen Australians and one New Zealander were killed, and twenty-four soldiers were wounded, marking the highest single-day loss of life […]

History Education for the Citizens of the Future – HTAV Conference, Melbourne 27 July 2023

*This is an edited version of a speech delivered by Dr Carolyn Holbrook to the History Teachers’ Association of Victoria annual conference in Melbourne on 27 July 2023. History teachers hold a special place in my heart. Like many of you, I was drawn to study history because I had the privilege of […]

Vale Allan Gyngell

By Meg Gurry Allan Gyngell made a lasting impact on many around him. I was fortunate enough to be one of them. I came across Allan most directly through his work at the Australian Institute of International Affairs (AIIA). As President, he, with then National Director, Melissa Conley Tyler asked me to join a […]

Your body is a temple: The politics of junk food in Australia

By Richard Trembath I cannot advise all more spiritual natures too seriously to abstain from alcohol absolutely. Water suffices . . . No eating between meals, no coffee . . . Tea beneficial only in the morning. Friedrich Nietzsche, Ecce Homo (1888), from the section called ‘Why I Am So Clever’. In this […]

Will a preoccupation with party unity destroy the Liberal Party?

Cover image: Lukas Coch/AAP Carolyn Holbrook, Deakin University and James Walter, Monash University Such has been the turmoil over the Liberal Party’s recent decision to join the National Party in campaigning against the forthcoming referendum on the Voice to Parliament that even some of the most reliable supporters in the media have remarked on the […]

APH Essays