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Kia ora!

Detail from 'The town of Sydney in New South Wales' showing Māori chiefs, c1821 by Major James Taylor, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (V1/ca.1821/5 DETAIL])   New Zealand and New South Wales were once one colony, but on 3 May 1841…

Grab your partners for the Balmain Polka

Courtesy Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (M MUSIC FILE/SPA) November is AusMusic Month and so today I thought we should look back at some early Australian popular music and one of the early music composers in Sydney. Graeme Skinner at…

Elizabeth Malcolm and Dianne Hall, A New History of the Irish in Australia

Elizabeth Malcolm and Dianne Hall, A New History of the Irish in Australia New South Books, 2018, 448pp, ISBN: 9781742235530 (p/b), RRP: $34.99 In 1986 Patrick O’Farrell published The Irish in Australia. At the time, the book was both feted and criticised…

Stephen Gapps, The Sydney Wars: Conflict in the early colony 1788–1817

Stephen Gapps, The Sydney Wars: Conflict in the early colony 1788–1817  NewSouth (2018),  432pp, ISBN 9781742232140, p/bk, RRP: $34.99 Recent years have seen the publication of a good deal of compellingly sensitive histories of the early years of British invasion and settlement in…

Anniversary Day, Australia Day, Survival Day, Invasion Day

Aboriginal Day of Mourning, 26 January 1938 Man magazine, March 1938 Courtesy Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (a429002 / Q 059/9) The debate about the name and date of Australia Day has been contested for a very long time, and…