RAHS Upcoming Events
The Royal Australian Historical Society has an established tradition of delivering a diverse Calendar of Events throughout the year, helping make history accessible to all. This program includes lectures, skills-based workshops, regional seminars, tours and book launches.
The annual RAHS Conference is a highlight of the Society’s activities. It provides an opportunity for the RAHS and its Affiliated Societies to network at a conference dedicated to promoting local and community history, showcasing the research of individuals and societies.
August 2024
RAHS Day Lecture – Sylvia Lawson's Journey from Film Critic to Historian
A screenshot from Antonioni’s L’Avventura – a film central to Sylvia Lawson’s practice as a film critic (supplied).
Event Date & Time: Wednesday, 7 August 2024 @ 1.00 pm – 2.00 pm
Event Location: History House, 133 Macquarie St, Sydney NSW 2000
Cost: Free
Event Description:
In 1983, the Australian film critic Sylvia Lawson published her first book The Archibald Paradox. The work originated after Sylvia, ‘rummaging around’ the Bulletin magazine’s old headquarters, ahead of the sale of the storied magazine to media mogul Frank Packer, found a set of exercise notebooks which housed the makings of J.F. Archibald’s handwritten memoirs. In this talk, we will look at how Australia’s finest mid-century film critic became one of its boldest biographers and historians.
About the speaker:
Sam Twyford-Moore is the author of The Rapids: Ways of Looking at Mania (published by NewSouth Publishing and the University of Toronto Press). His second book Cast Mates: Australian Actors in Hollywood and at Home was released in 2023. As a freelance writer, he has contributed to a wide range of titles. He is currently a PhD candidate within the Australian Centre for Public History at the University of Technology, Sydney.
RAHS Special Lecture – Subjects of Time: Australian lives at the fin de siècle
Event Date & Time: Wednesday, 14 August 2024 @ 1.00 pm – 2.00 pm
Event Location: History House, 133 Macquarie St, Sydney NSW 2000
Cost: Free
Event Description:
The fin de siècle (c.1890–1914) reflected a tension between the movement towards the future and an enervating stasis: fears of degeneration contested with the promise of progress. Many of the biographical subjects of The Fin de Siècle Imagination in Australia – including feminist Vida Goldstein, writer Henry Lawson, and Aboriginal activist David Unaipon – seemed gripped by a sense of urgency in pursuit of their aims, as the possibilities of profound change seemed imminently within reach. The ideas available at the fin de siècle provided the imaginative resources for intensifying this search: first wave feminism and the New Woman, the emergence of radical politics and anarchism; the exploration of Symbolism and alternative spirituality. The Fin de Siècle Imagination in Australia explored the patterns of self-creation that emerged from these individuals’ experience, and their need to assert an identity at a moment of profound change in Australian society.
About the speaker:
Mark Hearn is a senior lecturer in the Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University. His research focuses on the history, historiography, and historical theory of the fin de siècle, and the history of ideas and governance in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He is the author of The Fin de Siècle Imagination in Australia, 1890–1914 (London: Bloomsbury 2022).
RAHS/WEA Workshop – Stitching Stories: Crafting personal narratives using interconnected online resources
This event is in partnership with WEA Sydney.
Event Date & Time: Wednesday, 21 August 2024 @ 11.00 am – 1.00 pm
Event Location: History House, 133 Macquarie St, Sydney NSW 2000
Cost: RAHS members $35 | Non-members $39
Event Description:
This workshop will equip participants with the knowledge and skills to delve into the rich tapestry of online resources available for uncovering life stories. By exploring interconnected platforms and databases, participants will gain the ability to piece together historical narratives and paint a comprehensive picture of a person’s life. It will showcase the wealth of information available in digital format (indexes, newspapers, government archives and genealogical websites), provide tips on effective search strategies, and highlight the importance of corroborating information across multiple sources to ensure accuracy.
About the speaker:
Christine Yeats is an archivist, historical researcher and active supporter of local historical societies. Her research interests include the history of the Romani (Gypsies) in nineteenth-century Australia and attempts to introduce a silk industry into the Australian colonies. Christine has undertaken a range of consultancy projects, including significance assessments, biographical and local history research. She is President of the Federation of Australian Historical Society, Senior Vice President of the RAHS and a member of the Professional Historians Association (NSW & ACT). Her recent publication is Handy Guide: Convict Records of NSW: The Human Stories of the Transportation System (2021).
September 2024
RAHS Day Lecture – A Transgressive Life: Monte Punshon and the Transformation of Australia, 1882–1989
Event Date & Time: Wednesday, 4 September 2024 @ 1.00 pm – 2.00 pm
Event Location: Online via Zoom
Cost: Free
Event Description:
In her 106-year-long life, Ethel May (Monte) Punshon transgressed many of the social norms of her time. She crossed accepted boundaries of gender and sexuality and geographical borders separating Australia from Asia and the Pacific. This talk will explore the challenges of researching and writing Monte Punshon’s story and consider the light that her life throws on the transformation of Australian society from the 1880s to the 1980s.
About the speaker:
Tessa Morris-Suzuki is a professor emerita in the College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University. Her publications include The Past Within Us (2005), Borderline Japan (2010) and On the Frontiers of History (2020). She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and the Australian Institute of International Affairs. Her most recent book is A Secretive Century: Monte Punshon’s Australia (Melbourne University Publishing, 2024).
RAHS Special Lecture – Rough-casting, shingles and half-timbered gables: The influence of English Revival architecture in Neutral Bay and Cremorne Point, 1885–1930
Hollowforth, Neutral Bay, designed by EJ Jackson in the 1890s (supplied).
Event Date & Time: Wednesday, 11 September 2024 @ 1.00 pm – 2.00 pm
Event Location: History House, 133 Macquarie St, Sydney NSW 2000
Cost: Free
CLICK HERE TO BOOK A TICKET
Event Description:
Delayed development on the north side of Sydney Harbour meant that houses in the waterfront suburbs of Neutral Bay and Cremorne Point were characterised by English Revival architecture, which rose in the 1880s to influence the so-called Federation style and continued into the 1920s. Walter Liberty Vernon, Edward Jeaffreson Jackson, BJ Waterhouse and other like-minded architects and builders left their mark on these suburbs so that they remain showcases of English Revivalism.
About the speaker:
Dr Ian Hoskins has been the North Sydney Council historian since 2003. He is the author of four major books. His most recent book, Australia and the Pacific: A History, won the Frank Broeze Memorial Prize for Maritime History in 2023.
October 2024
RAHS Day Lecture – Mapping the colony: The intriguing contributions of Francis Barrallier
Event Date & Time: Wednesday, 2 October 2024 @ 1.00 pm – 2.00 pm
Event Location: Online via Zoom.
Cost: Free
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Event Description:
The French refuge Francis Barrallier – surveyor, cartographer, engineer and explorer – made significant contributions to NSW colonial endeavours from 1800 to 1803 but fell victim to the feuding between his fellow Rum Corps officers and Governor King. His talents were employed in the West Indies instead. In this talk, Andy Macqueen will argue that Barrallier’s French origin and associations influenced his undertakings and his fate in the colony.
About the speaker:
Andy Macqueen OAM is a Blue Mountains historian. He has produced six books and many other works, including several peer-reviewed papers published by the Blue Mountains Association of Cultural Heritage Organisations. His topics include colonial exploration and first contact, surveying, and conservation history. His latest book is The Frenchman: Francis Barrallier, life and journeys 1773–1853 (2024).