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Joy McCann, Wild Sea: A History of the Southern Ocean

Joy McCann, Wild Sea: A History of the Southern Ocean. NewSouth Books (2018),  256pp., ISBN 9781742235738, p/bk, RRP: $32.99   The Southern Ocean, the world’s least known and least visited ocean, is the only ocean which flows completely around the earth, unimpeded…

Jane Lydon and Lyndall Ryan (eds), Remembering the Myall Creek Massacre

Remembering the Myall Creek Massacre, edited by Jane Lydon and Lyndall Ryan NewSouth Books, 215 pp., ISBN: 9781742235752, p/bk, RRP AUS$34.99 On 10 June 1838 twelve men, “in an unprovoked act of violent terror” (p. xi), committed an atrocity known today as the…

Hazel Baron and Janet Fife-Yeomans; My Mother, A Serial Killer

Hazel Baron and Janet Fife-Yeomans, My Mother, A Serial Killer HarperCollins Australia Publishers, 239 pp., ISBN: 9781460754528, p/bk, AUS$32.99 Hazel Baron, the daughter of convicted murderer Dulcie Bodsworth, collaborated with journalist Janet Fife-Yeomans to tell her story in My Mother, A Serial Killer…

Meredith Lake, The Bible in Australia: A Cultural History

Meredith Lake, The Bible in Australia: A Cultural History NewSouth Publishers, 2018, 439 pp. ISBN: 9781742235714, p/bk, AUS$39.99 Meredith Lake’s latest book, The Bible in Australia: A Cultural History (2018), is extraordinary. Lake’s authority as an historian, her skills as a writer and…

Jamelle Wells, The Court Reporter 

Jamelle Wells, The Court Reporter  HarperCollins Australia (ABC Books), 309 pp., ISBN: 9780733337888, p/bk, AUS$32.99  The Court Reporter (2018), described by the publishers as “a tough and fearless journalist’s memoir that looks at the cases that have shocked, moved and never left us”, is equal parts personal reflection…

21st Biennale of Sydney

Ai Weiwei,  Law of the Journey, 2017 reinforced PVC with aluminium frame, 312 figures 60 x 6 x 3 m Installation view (2018) at Cockatoo Island for the 21st Biennale of Sydney Courtesy the artist and neugerriemschneider, Berlin Presentation at the…

The Art of the Scott Sisters

Helena Forde, nee Scott c1866 Pic: © Australian Museum Harriet Scott, Ash Island 1856 Pic: Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (a9971002 / MLMSS 1694, 23b) A few weeks ago Nicole talked about The Australian Museum which is 190 years old this…

Sydney's Lost Cemeteries

We're very excited here at Dictionary HQ this week as Dr Lisa Murray (our former chair, Dictionary contributor, City of Sydney Historian, renowned taphophile and absolute all-round legend) has just launched her book Sydney Cemeteries: A Field Guide (published by NewSouth…

NAISDA celebrates 40 years

NAISDA Dance College is partnering with Carriageworks to celebrate NAISDA’s 40th anniversary with Circle of Cultures – a very special season which will take place at Carriageworks from 15-24 November 2016   Listen now Today I want to acknowledge a significant…

The Garden Palace, objects and memories

Garden Palace, Sydney c1879-1882 by JT Richardson Credit: Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (a128953 / XV1/ Pub/ Gar P/2) On 17 September 1879 the Sydney International Exhibition opened in the newly built Garden Palace in the Botanic Gardens, along with…