#australiahistory — Public Fediverse posts

ABC News (Australia): Goldfields diary of young Englishman uncovered after 115 years. “A six-month joint effort between historical societies from opposite sides of the world has recently solved the mystery of a century-old diary. The diary of Gordon Howard Tilly tells the story of a young engineer’s time in Kalgoorlie-Boulder in intricate detail. Its transcript is now available at the Eastern […]

City of Newcastle Australia: Hidden details of Newcastle’s late 1800s revealed through digital preservation project. “More than 5,500 images taken by renowned Newcastle photographer Ralph Snowball have been meticulously scanned, catalogued, researched, and uploaded online by Newcastle Libraries staff and volunteers, uncovering new insights into the people, places and daily life from the late […]

Sydney Morning Herald: Out of 11 million photos, one news photo taken in the heart of Sydney is nagging Harry. “In a secret climate-controlled facility in Sydney’s west, photo specialist Harry Hollinsworth is working through The Sydney Morning Herald’s archives to save photos that brought history to life. The Herald celebrates its 195th birthday on Saturday, April 18 and Hollinsworth is […]

University of New England (Australia): Digital Window Opens Onto UNE’s Collections . “UNE has launched its Collections Gateway, a digital portal providing access to carefully curated historical, cultural, and academic material amassed in the University’s unique collections over decades.”

Australian Jewish News: Sydney Jewish Museum launches digital archive. “The Sydney Jewish Museum has launched an interactive website to preserve memories, tributes and testimonies from the December 14 Bondi Beach terror attack for the historical record. The platform, called ‘Remembering Bondi,’ allows community members, local residents, witnesses, victims’ families and anyone affected by the […]

BBC: Why Sydney is preserving thousands of flowers after deadly Bondi attack. “Plastic sheeting is taped across all the windows and there’s a large padlock hanging on the door handle. Step inside, though, and you’re greeted by cuddly toys, candles, trinkets and messages of hope scribbled on large sheets. All of them come from a makeshift memorial that was created after the 14 December attack at […]

A stark study in symmetry and shadow: the enduring brick architecture of Port Arthur.

Port Arthur, Tasmania, Australia.

Photographed and edited by Kev.

© 𝓐𝓵𝓵 𝓡𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽𝓼 𝓡𝓮𝓼𝓮𝓻𝓿𝓮𝓭 𝓫𝔂 𝟐 𝓟𝓮𝓮𝓹𝓼 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓪 𝓒𝓪𝓶𝓮𝓻𝓪.

(𝒟ℴ𝓊𝒷𝓁ℯ 𝓉𝒽ℯ 𝒫ℯℯ𝓅𝓈, 𝒹ℴ𝓊𝒷𝓁ℯ 𝓉𝒽ℯ 𝓅ℯ𝓇𝓈𝓅ℯ𝒸𝓉𝒾𝓋ℯ!)

#photo #photography #2peepsandacamera #australia #tasmania #PortArthur #TasmanianHistory #AustraliaHistory #BlackAndWhitePhotography #Monochrome #Brickwork #Chimney

ABC News (Australia): The deep Indigenous history of Australia deserves to be up in lights. “Australia’s First Peoples have lived on this continent for 65,000 years. But have you ever thought about what that actually means? … Deep Time is a collection of about 150 cultural stories that bring this ancient history to life.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/10/19/abc-news-the-deep-indigenous-history-of-australia-deserves-to-be-up-in-lights/

Digital Preservation Coalition: Digital Preservation at the National Museum of Australia: Introducing the Changeable and Digital Team. “This month marks the first-year anniversary for the Changeable and Digital team at the National Museum of Australia (NMA). The team are now embedded in the Collections Platform Business Unit within the Growth and Engagement Division. Digital collections […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/08/03/digital-preservation-at-the-national-museum-of-australia-introducing-the-changeable-and-digital-team-digital-preservation-coalition/

Star Observer: ‘Moments In Time’ Series Celebrates Iconic Queer Australian Stories. “Gay bushranger romance, a 1940’s homosexual-friendly church, and a trip to a lesbian bar to celebrate a hundredth birthday are just some of the stories captured within the Australian Queer Archive’s latest short video collection Moments in Time.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/05/08/star-observer-moments-in-time-series-celebrates-iconic-queer-australian-stories/

Crikey (Australia): Coalition desperate to slash the public service… and plunge our cultural institutions back to austerity. “Returning the arts portfolio to 2022 staffing levels will cost a lot of jobs. Crikey has crunched the current staffing figures at eight prominent cultural institutions — the national galleries, National Museum, National Library, National Archives, Creative […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/04/30/crikey-coalition-desperate-to-slash-the-public-service-and-plunge-our-cultural-institutions-back-to-austerity/

Sunshine Coast News: Online photo collection offers chance to step back in time. “Thousands of images by a photographer who snapped people and places on the Sunshine Coast for more than 30 years are now available for all to see. Bill Robinson’s collection of 26,000 photos has been added to the Sunshine Coast Heritage Library for everyone to enjoy. The images document the region’s cultural […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/04/03/sunshine-coast-news-online-photo-collection-offers-chance-to-step-back-in-time/

Government of Western Australia: Online database sheds new light on Wadjemup/Rottnest Island incarcerations. “For about 100 years to 1931, more than 4000 Aboriginal men and a small number of boys were sent to Wadjemup from across the State, often for petty offences or for cultural-related acts that followed customary laws and practices. The resource seeks to assist Aboriginal people by […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/02/03/government-of-western-australia-online-database-sheds-new-light-on-wadjemup-rottnest-island-incarcerations/

@ArrowbearMoore
#Climate #DustBowl #Agriculture #Myths #AustraliaHistory

watched the whole of The Dust Bowl yesterday. thanks for the recommendation.
horrific, some of the stories of children. i should imagine people who lived through it were too traumatised to talk about it later.
i don’t know why i was a bit shocked about california closing the border — displacement has been the norm in the west since forever

something similar to the dust bowl and canadian prairies happened in south australia, though on a smaller scale. (south australia is the driest inhabited state in the world).
an early surveyor named Goyder drew a line on the state map showing the limits of arable areas, based on rainfall. after a few wet years, in 1874 the govt allowed settlement north of the line - there were some boom years, a railway line built from the stage capital to a town named confidently named *Farina* - and the post hoc euro myth “rain follows the plow”. by 1884 it was all over.

the north of the state is now littered with ghost towns and the remains of a railway line. i guess the scale of settlement didn’t warrant govt intervention, cos there has been no effort to rehabilitate the area.

my generation grew up with pictures of men delivering goods and mail in the outback, and believed them to be modern (white) heroes conquering an impossibly inhospitable land. no one told us we had destroyed the ecosystems.
documentary trailer; back of beyond - https://youtu.be/NSa4esN3CHM?feature=shared

goyder’s line is moving south. and mega corporations buying water rights to grow cotton and rice have all but destroyed australia’s river sytems, which were fragile to begin with.

fig 2 of the research article provides a snapshot of just how little of the mainland is suited to western style agriculture.
our indifference to global miles travelled by the food we import will eventually bite us on the bum, but not soon enough. i guess we still won’t care about what our fossil fuel exports are already doing to millions of people in countries already affected by climate change.

#crapitalism

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Study-area-depicting-Goyders-Line-10-km-buffers-on-either-side-of-the-line-and-cropping_fig1_255983911

🌏✨ Discover the world's oldest known cultural ritual! Archaeologists in Australia have uncovered evidence suggesting an Aboriginal practice passed down over 12,000 years—spanning an incredible 500 generations. 📜🔥 - https://edition.cnn.com/2024/07/04/science/worlds-oldest-ritual-intl-scli-scn/index.html

#AncientRituals #CulturalHeritage #Archaeology #AboriginalHistory #GunaiKurnai #CloggsCave #IceAgeArtifacts #HistoricalDiscovery #AncientTraditions #AlfredHowitt #AustraliaHistory #12KYears #IndigenousCulture #PreservingHistory #GoodNews

@goodnews