One of our more provocative articles has just been published: The myth of Sydney's foundational orgy, by Grace Karskens. Grace outlines the prevailing myth that when women convicts arrived onshore a bacchanalian scene of sex and debauchery ensued. It is certainly an arresting image, but Grace argues that it is just not true. Instead she puts forward the real story of sex and fertility in the new colony, which historians and popularisers of colonial history have rather overlooked.

Grace is the prize-winning author of The Colony, which was awarded the Prime Minister's Literary Award for non-fiction in 2010. This is her second article for the Dictionary -- her piece on The Rocks went up with our first upload in November 2009. We hope there will be many more in the future.