Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society articles from June 2008

Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society archives from June 2008

2007 Foster prize winners.(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Foster Prize is awarded annually by the RAHS. The award is made to the top student/s undertaking the Higher School Certificate Modern History Extension course, who undertook the Australian History option in...

A new face in the RAHS Library.(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... In March RAHS Librarian Kathy Curran left us to take up the position of Senior Library Technician at the Catholic Institute of Sydney's Veech Library, situated in Strathfield. We wish her all the best in her new job. The new face in our Library...

Heritage and the historian: presidential address to the society's Annual General Meeting, 29 April 2008.(From the President's Desk)
June 1, 2008... Presidential addresses can take two contrasting forms. The form which I have adopted in the past has been a short, illustrated talk on some aspect of my own recent research which I thought would interest those who attend the Annual General...

Shockwaves: a domestic servant's tale.
June 1, 2008... In 1928, my mother's journey from England to Australia took eight weeks. Travelling via the Suez Canal would have shortened the voyage considerably but the SS Ballarat was carrying cargo, and its passengers--many of them sponsored immigrants...

VALE: Henry Chan (1937-2008).(Obituary)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The sudden, unexpected death of Henry Chan on 11 April 2008 has not only shocked his many friends but has left undone significant projects on the history of Chinese people in Australia and New Zealand. Henry was...

Australian Dictionary of Biography: http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au.(Free Sites)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... This site includes all entries in the ADB volumes 1-16 and the supplementary volume. The articles are concise, authoritative accounts of the lives of significant and representative persons in Australian history who died before 1980. In the...

Australian War Memorial service records: http://www.awm.gov.au/ database/biographical.asp.(Free Sites)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Check out your grandfather's or great-uncles' service from the Sudan (1885) to modern peace-keeping forces. You may find photographs, letters and signatures as well as accounts of heroism or reports by their comrades on those missing in action....

http://www.oldbaileyonline.org.(Old Bailey On Line)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... This site indexes the proceedings of the Old Bailey, London's central criminal court, from 1674 to 1913. As such it is a fully searchable edition of the largest body of texts detailing the lives of non-elite people ever published, containing...

Royal Historical Society bibliography of British and Irish history: http://www.rhs.ac.uk/bibl/.(Old Bailey On Line)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... This is a database of over 400,000 records, by far the most complete online bibliographical resource on British and Irish history, including relations with the empire and the Commonwealth. The Bibliography is updated annually, and includes...

London, Edinburgh and Belfast gazettes: http://gazettes.co.uk.(Old Bailey On Line)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... The London Gazette is one of the official journals of record of the British government, and the most important among such official journals in the UK, in which certain statutory notices are required to be published. The London Gazette is the...

The Times (London).(History On Line)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... The Times Digital Archive has 7,688,758 articles covering the period 1785 to 1985. It includes birth, death and marriage notices, business advertisements, parliamentary reports and news stories. Read about the new Macquarie Lighthouse in 1818...

House of Commons Parliamentary Papers.(History On Line)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... HCPP now includes over 200,000 House of Commons sessional papers from 1715 to the present. This resource includes parliamentary reports on a wide range of issues including the Australasian colonies and social conditions in Britain and Ireland....

Pay for use.(History On Line)(use of databases)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Pay for use databases are a contentious form of public-private partnership often used in the genealogical field. The private company makes the records accessible then charges users for access. The institution holding the records reduces demands...

Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills (1384-1858): http://www.nationalarchives.gov. uk/documentsonline/wills.asp.(History On Line)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... In this database you can search the indexes free, and if you want a copy of a will it is just 3.50 [pounds sterling] (under $10) and the document is delivered to your computer screen immediately. The PCC Wills, held by The National Archives in...

Encounters with strangers: meeting rituals down under.(first meeting between Indigenous peoples of Australia and explorers James Cook and Joseph Banks)
June 1, 2008... As the Endeavour approached the southern shore of Botany Bay in April 1770, Joseph Banks noted the natives 'scarce lifted their eyes' when the vessel passed within 300 metres of where they were fishing. The peoples' indifference flabbergasted...

Bonegilla's beginnings.(State Roundup)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Bonegilla's beginnings, by Ann Tundern-Smith, published by Triple D Books. This book explores the social and cultural significance of the diverse history of Bonegilla over its more than 100 year existence, with a particular focus on the time...

Partly Portuguese, almost Australian: untold Australian tales of two Portuguese daughters.(State Roundup)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Partly Portuguese, almost Australian: untold Australian tales of two Portuguese daughters, by Gina Pinto & Christina Coelho, published by Partly Portuguese Productions. This book is provides a warm and insightful glimpse into the experience of...

Wowsers, bowsers & peppercorn trees: a collection of history from Ariah Park and district.(State Roundup)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Wowsers, bowsers & peppercorn trees: a collection of history from Ariah Park and district, compiled by Nigel Judd, published by Temora Shire Council. This collection of history is the result of a community project celebrating the centenary of...

Glory Days of Gravesend: 1840-1940.(State Roundup)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Glory Days of Gravesend: 1840-1940, researched and compiled by Fay Cains for Gravesend & District Historical Society, offers a broad history of the Gravesend District, from the time of its settlement. It contains a range of local stories from...

Echoes of the ANZAC: Manildra and district's WWI story, 1914.(State Roundup)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Echoes of the ANZAC: Manildra and district's WWI story, 1914, by Heather Nicholls, with assistance from Tegan Nicholls, published by G. K. Craig Printers. This book tells the history of the town of Manildra and the effects of the Great War on...

'Our Place': The Byron Arcade, Inverell.(State Roundup)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... 'Our Place': The Byron Arcade, Inverell, written and published by the Inverell District Family History Group Inc. This portfolio offers a social and architectural history of 'The Byron Arcade' in Inverell. It offers information about the...

Music For a Century.(State Roundup)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Music For a Century, by Graham J. Harmer, published by Ferguson Memorial Library Archives of the Presbyterian Church in NSW. Graham Harmer has put together an extensive history of a century of Organ music in the small Australian country town of...

North Under Steam: New South Wales Government Railways.(State Roundup)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Train enthusiasts will be very pleased to hear that another railway book has been published. North Under Steam: New South Wales Government Railways, by Robert Driver, published by Kingsclear Books. This illustrated overview of the final phase...

Freshie: Freshwater Surf Life Saving Club, the first 100 years.(State Roundup)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Another well known surf club has published its history. Freshie: Freshwater Surf Life Saving Club, the first 100 years, by Pauline Curby, published by University of NSW Press, looks at the institution of surf life saving--an admired and...

Women of a 'high lean Country': a Travelling Exhibition.(State Roundup)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Women of a 'high lean Country': a Travelling Exhibition, presented by the University of New England Heritage Centre and the Glen Innes & District Historical Society. This exhibition is the combined effort of five regional museums and the...

Presidents/Mayors & Shire Clerks/ General Manager of the Severn Shire Council.(State Roundup)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Presidents/Mayors & Shire Clerks/ General Manager of the Severn Shire Council: 1906-2004, compiled by Severn Shire Council, published by A Betterway to Print. This publication takes the form of a photo gallery, providing a pictorial tribute of...

Glen Innes Through Time.(State Roundup)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Glen Innes Through Time, produced by the Glen Innes & District Historical Society. This chronological timeline from 18182006, offers a brief overview of the history of Glen Innes and includes topics which range from mayors to local recipients...

Wood Coffill (Katoomba) Burial Index 1946 to 1967 Volume 2.(State Roundup)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Wood Coffill (Katoomba) Burial Index 1946 to 1967 Volume 2 published with the assistance of a grant allocated by the RAHS by Arts NSW by the Blue Mountains Family History Society. This companion to Volume 1 [Burial Index 1916 to 1945] contains...

The Bathurst Region Heritage Study 2007: Final Report and The New Country: a Thematic History of the Bathurst Regional Council Local Government Area.(State Roundup)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Bathurst District Historical Society has lodged with the RAHS a copy of The Bathurst Region Heritage Study 2007: Final Report and The New Country: a Thematic History of the Bathurst Regional Council Local Government Area. The publication of the...

Fit for Royalty: the history of Edward Hill & Co. furniture manufacturers 1917-1964.(State Roundup)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Fit for Royalty: the history of Edward Hill & Co. furniture manufacturers 1917-1964. Written and published by Bryson Gale. This 66 page, well-illustrated and indexed book tells the story of Edward Hill & Co. and the company's beginnings. It...

New digital additions to the RAHS Library.(State Roundup)(sound and video recordings added to the Royal Australian Historical Society Library)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... From Liverpool Genealogy Society, PO Box 830 Liverpool NSW 2170, and supported by Cultural Grants: Max Perrams Funerals, Liverpool NSW 1973-1987 Volume 2 [CD and microfiche] Indexes to Liverpool Asylum Admissions and Discharges 1873...

Greek Roots.(Book Notes)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Greek Roots by Emmanuel V. Alexion, published by Zeus Publications. The foreword of this book describes the author's different childhood when he arrived in Australia with his family as migrants from Greece. The rest of the book details his...

Spinning the dream: assimilation in Australia 1950-1970.(Book Notes)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Spinning the dream: assimilation in Australia 1950-1970, by Anna Haebich, published by Fremantle Press. A book about re-evaluating the rhetoric and reality of the Indigenous and ethnic minority experience of assimilation in Australia, and the...

Aphrodite and the mixed grill: Greek cafes in the twentieth century Australia.(Book Notes)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Aphrodite and the mixed grill: Greek cafes in the twentieth century Australia by Toni Risson, self-published. The first Greek restaurants appeared in Sydney in the late nineteenth century. From this time, Greek cafes appeared in cities and...

Into and out of a century: stories of Yiddah.(Book Notes)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Into and out of a century: stories of Yiddah, compiled by Frances Minogue. This book is an exploration of the social and cultural history of the town of Yiddah. It focuses on the lives of the people in this community, the organisations and...

Contemporary Australian Drama.(Book Notes)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Contemporary Australian Drama by Leonard Radic, published by Brandl & Schlesinger. A great production covering the birth and growth of Australian drama from the late 1960s to today, which will appeal to students and theatregoers alike. [ISBN...

Aussie kids view WWII.(Book Notes)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Aussie kids view WWII edited by Joan Beddoe, published by Joan's Desk. The book consists of many personal accounts of children living through the second World War in Australia. Wartime had a profound influence on their childhoods with very...

Forgotten ANZACS: the campaign in Greece.(Book Notes)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Forgotten ANZACS: the campaign in Greece, by Peter Ewer, published by Scribe. This book explores the little known story of the ANZAC force that fought in Greece in 1941 under the command of General Thomas Blamey, a generation after the...

War gave us wings: Australia's contribution to the Empire Air Training Scheme 1940-1945: incorporating a special tribute to the men of Bomber Command.(Book Notes)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... War gave us wings: Australia's contribution to the Empire Air Training Scheme 19401945: incorporating a special tribute to the men of Bomber Command by Colin G. King, published by Meteor (Col King Publications). This book contains fictionalised...

The Vung Tau ferry (HMAS Sydney) and escort Ships: Vietnam 1965-1972.(Book Notes)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... The Vung Tau ferry (HMAS Sydney) and escort Ships: Vietnam 1965-1972, by Rodney Nott & Noel Payne, published by Rosenburg. Dedicated to all those who served and embarked in HMAS Sydney and escort ships in the Vietnam War, this book recognises...

The Coral Browne story; theatrical life and times of a lustrous Australian.(Book Notes)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... The Coral Browne story; theatrical life and times of a lustrous Australian by Barbara Angell, published by Angell Productions. Coral Browne began her acting life in Victoria at the Playhouse and Repertory Theatres. At age 17, she was touring...

Daisy Bates: Grande dame of the desert, Bob Reece.(Book Notes)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Daisy Bates: Grande dame of the desert, Bob Reece, published by the National Library of Australia. This book contains material from the 99 folios donated to the National Library by Daisy Bates in 1941. It includes her anthropological research...

SGAP: The story of Arthur Swaby and the Society for Growing Australian Plants.(Book Notes)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... SGAP: The story of Arthur Swaby and the Society for Growing Australian Plants, by John Walter. This book examines the difficulties encountered by the SGAP in the early years of its formation and tracks its development into the nationwide...

Anglicans in Australia.(Book Notes)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Anglicans in Australia by Tom Frame, published by University of NSW Press. This book is not a work of theology but a look at the valuable and pertinent insights by which historians have interpreted the Anglican Church to its congregation and...

Andrew Fisher: the forgotten man.(Book Notes)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Andrew Fisher: the forgotten man, by Edward W. Humphreys, published by Sports and Editorial Services Australia. This book contains an account of the influence of Prime Minister Andrew Fisher, who led Australia in this role for three terms in...

The Judas covenant: the betrayal and death of Ben Hall.(Book Notes)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... The Judas covenant: the betrayal and death of Ben Hall, by Peter Bradley, published by Yellow Box Books. This book is an authoritative account of the life of infamous bushranger, Ben Hall. It examines his family background, relevant legislation...

The search for Marie Wallis: founding Principal of Ascham School: 1886-1902.(Book Notes)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... The search for Marie Wallis: founding Principal of Ascham School: 1886-1902 by Gerri Nicholas, published by the Ascham School. The author has traced the life of Marie Wallis, principal of Ascham for 16 years--from her birth on the Baltic Coast,...

James Thomson Chambers: a small architectural history.(Book Notes)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... James Thomson Chambers: a small architectural history, by Heather M. Chambers, self-published. James Chambers arrived in Australia in 1910 and settled in Roseville. His designs for houses were large and functional and of the Californian...

100 years of Rughy.(Book Notes)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... 100 years of Rughy by Ray Chesterton, published by Hachette Australia. This is not a conventional, chronological history of the game, but rather a look at some of the personalities, special events, moments and controversies that have appeared...

Reading the garden: the settlement of Australia.(Book Notes)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Reading the garden: the settlement of Australia, by Katie Holmes, Susan K. Martin and Kylie Mirmohamadi, published by Melbourne University Press. Reading the Garden looks at the symbolic, cultural and social significance of gardens in...

Rediscovering Recherche Bay.(Book Notes)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Rediscovering Recherche Bay, edited by John Mulvaney & Hugh Tyndale-Biscoe, published by the National Academics Forum. This book is about the history of the beautiful Recherche Bay in southwest Tasmania, examining its historical significance...

Sovereign subjects: Indigenous sovereignty matters.(Book Notes)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Sovereign subjects: Indigenous sovereignty matters, edited by Aileen Moreton-Robinson. This book offers a wealth of material from some of Indigenous Australia's emerging and well-known critical thinkers. It shows how self-determination,...

Rights and redemption: history, law and Indigenous people, by Ann Curthoys.(Book Notes)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Rights and redemption: history, law and Indigenous people, by Ann Curthoys, Ann Genovese and Alexander Reilly, published by UNSW Press. The authors of this book examine cases before the Federal Court during the Howard era. It investigates how...

Summer in the hills: the nineteenth-century mountain resort in Australia.(Book Notes)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Summer in the hills: the nineteenth-century mountain resort in Australia, by Andrea Scott Inglis, published by Australian Scholarly Publishing. This book is a close look at the colonial gentry fashion of summering in the mountain resorts of...

The origin of the smallpox outbreak in Sydney in 1789.
June 1, 2008... In April 1789, just over fifteen months after the First Fleet of British convicts, sailors and marines had arrived in Port Jackson, the Aborigines of the Sydney region were seen to be dying in large numbers in the vicinity of the British...

Honorary curates: piecing together the story of the wives of Anglican clergy in early Queensland.
June 1, 2008... Introduction There is little material on Anglican clergy wives in the Moreton Bay district and early colonial Queensland. The sources just are not there. (1) Up to 1875, only three articles in Brisbane newspapers say much at all about...

World War I soldier settlement: government attempts and some private contributions.
June 1, 2008... And when our ship pulled in to Circular Quay And I looked at the place where me legs used to be I thanked Christ there was nobody waiting for me To grieve and to mourn and to pity. And the band played Waltzing Matilda. ...

The looming battle: Our Lady of Fatima and public space in Cold War Queensland.
June 1, 2008... [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] The Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady of Fatima toured Queensland during 1951 as part of a global journey that was designed to promote moral renewal and defeat international communism. Previous analyses of Catholic...

Late nineteenth century German immigrant land and stock holdings in the Southern Riverina: an exploration of large-scale spatial patterns.
June 1, 2008... Introduction During the second part of the nineteenth century substantial numbers of German settlers left South Australia to select land in the Southern Riverina. While the German settlements formed by the new arrivals created much...

J.G. Pavils, Anzac Day: the undying debt.(Book review)
June 1, 2008... J.G. Pavils, Anzac Day: the undying debt, Lythrum Press, Adelaide, 2007, xv + 240 pages, ISBN 9781921013126. Anzac Day is widely recognised as Australia's de facto national day. And yet, for all the rich meanings that revolve around dawn...

Brian H. Fletcher, Magnificent Obsession: the story of the Mitchell Library, Sydney.(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Brian H. Fletcher, Magnificent Obsession: the story of the Mitchell Library, Sydney, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 2007, xvi + 512 pages; ISBN 9781741752915. In 1988 Robert Hughes stated that the 'Mitchell and Dixson collections give us the...

Ted Henzell, Australian Agriculture: its history and challenges.(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Ted Henzell, Australian Agriculture: its history and challenges, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne, 2007, xi + 308 pages; ISBN 9780643993426. This meticulously researched book is a credit to the author and a discredit to CSIRO Publishing. Dr...

Jeff Kildea, Anzacs and Ireland.(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Jeff Kildea, Anzacs and Ireland, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2007, 295 pages; ISBN 978 0 86840 877 4. Shortly after the Anzacs landed on Gallipoli's west coast on 25 April 1915, Irish soldiers of Britain's 29th Division tried to fight their way...

Raelene Frances, Selling Sex: a hidden history of prostitution.(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Raelene Frances, Selling Sex: a hidden history of prostitution, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2007, x + 342 pages; ISBN 978 086840 901 6. Raelene Frances's comprehensive history of female prostitution in Australia complements and re-contextualises...

Robert Lehane, William Bede Dalley: silver-tongued pride of old Sydney.(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Robert Lehane, William Bede Dalley: silver-tongued pride of old Sydney, Ginnindera Press, Canberra, 2007, 423 pages; ISBN 978 1 74027 437 1. William Bede Dalley was one of those larger-than-life figures that nineteenth century NSW...

Rosemary Annable, A Setting for Justice: building for the Supreme Court of New South Wales.(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Rosemary Annable, A Setting for Justice: building for the Supreme Court of New South Wales, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2007, 192 pages; ISBN 978 086840 917 77. When seeking an author for a history of the complex of buildings which make up the Law...

Ian Hancock, The Liberals: a history of the NSW Division of the Liberal Party of Australia 1945-2000.(BOOK NOTES)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Ian Hancock, The Liberals: a history of the NSW Division of the Liberal Party of Australia 1945-2000, Federation Press, Sydney, 2007, xi + 388 pages; ISBN 978 186287 659 0. In the early 1980s ALP Senator John Faulkner set a trivia quiz...

Helen Ennis, Photography and Australia.(BOOK NOTES)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Helen Ennis, Photography and Australia, Reaktion Books, London, 2007, 158 pages; ISBN 9 781 86189 323 9. The peril of writing a history of photography is that the book looks far too attractive to be a scholarly work. But this is far more...

Terry Kass, Sails to Satellites: the Surveyors General of NSW (1786-2007).(BOOK NOTES)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Terry Kass, Sails to Satellites: the Surveyors General of NSW (1786-2007), Department of Lands, Bathurst, 2008, xii + 484 pages; ISBN 9780975235454. The post of Surveyor General is the second oldest in NSW, after the Governor, dating from...

Margaret Betteridge, Sydney Town Hall: the building and its collection.(BOOK NOTES)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Margaret Betteridge, Sydney Town Hall: the building and its collection, City of Sydney, Sydney, 2008, 248 pages; ISBN 9780975119648. Sydney Town Hall is familiar to us all, and familiarity possibly makes us underestimate the grandeur of...

Melissa Harper, The Ways of the Bushwalker: on foot in Australia.(BOOK NOTES)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Melissa Harper, The Ways of the Bushwalker: on foot in Australia, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2007, xv + 348 pages; ISBN 978 086840 968 9. Bushwalking began in Australia in 1788, when George Worgan wrote to his brother about his rambles with a...

Raymond Apple, The Great Synagogue: a history of Sydney's big shule.(BOOK NOTES)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Raymond Apple, The Great Synagogue: a history of Sydney's big shule, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2008, x + 342 pages; ISBN 978 086840 927 6. This history of Australia's oldest synagogue was written by its former rabbi, Raymond Apple, and 31 members...