History Lab

We've got a new history podcast for you and the kids in your life, called Hey History!  With immersive, sound rich storytelling and Australia's top historians and experts, dive into key events in our history. Find out... How did First Nations people learn on Country? How does learning happen today? What really when Captain Cook and First Nations people met at Kamay Botany Bay? What was life like as a convict kid? How did you remember your loved ones? How did everyone get along in the Gold Rush?  In each episode, kids from around Australia share questions, ideas and reflections on our history. Hey History! aligns with the upper primary curriculum,  so teachers can use it in class. The Bonus episode answers your questions on how to talk with kids about Australian history, and answer curly questions.  Hey History! is made by Professor Anna Clark, a previous guest on the History Lab, Professor Clare Wright OAM, and the team at UTS Impact Studios.  Subscribe, get Learning Materials and more on the Hey History website http://heyhistory.net or in your podcast app.

In 1887 there were no less than 22 hotels in Darlinghurst. Over the next century and a half, the character, culture and clientele of Darlinghurst pubs evolved. This story explores the impact on Darlinghurst of two episodes of liquor licensing restrictions in NSW: six o'clock closing and the Sydney lockout laws.    Image: Royal Sovereign Hotel, corner Darlinghurst Rd and Liverpool St, 1921 (City of Sydney Archives)    Credits    This audio story is a production of the Australian Centre for Public History in partnership with the Paul Ramsay Foundation.  ‍  Producer: Catherine Freyne  Sound engineer: Judy Rapley  Music:   Blue Dot Sessions   When Paris is Singing by Dazie Mae licensed under CC by NC-SA 3.0 US  Archival: ABC Content Sales  ‍  Featuring:  Paul Solomon, publican's son and grandson  Max Burns-McRuvie, owner of Journeywalks  Tyson Koh, founder of Keep Sydney Open 

Terraces, flats, squats, bedsits, mansions, towers, camps and hostels: in Darlinghurst, housing is a mixed bag. This audio story explores the range of lifestyles afforded by Darlinghurst's dense diversity of dwellings.    Image: Pad with a View, Kings Cross 1970-71 (Photographer: Rennie Ellis © Rennie Ellis Photographic Archive)    Credits    This audio story is a production of the Australian Centre for Public History in partnership with the Paul Ramsay Foundation.  ‍  Producer: Catherine Freyne  Sound engineer: Judy Rapley  Music:   Blue Dot Sessions  Sum of My Fears, When Paris is Singing and A New Love Affair by Dazie Maelicensed under CC by NC-SA 3.0 US  Garage by Monplaisir licensed under CC by CC0 1.0  Korobushka by the Rosen Sisters licensed under CC by NC-ND 4.0      Featuring:  Jan Cornall, former resident of Darlinghurst squats  Paul Solomon, publican's son and grandson  Phillip Adams, former owner of Stoneleigh  Shannon Dalton, former Assistant Manager of the Darlo Bar 

At St Vincent's Hospital, the Sisters of Charity have been delivering care to the people of Darlinghurst since 1857. This audio story visits St Vincent's during three historic public health emergencies: the Spanish Flu, the HIV/AIDS crisis and COVID-19.    Image: Sister and nurse with home visitation car, St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney (Courtesy of the Congregational Archives of the Sisters of Charity of Australia)    Credits    This audio story is a production of the Australian Centre for Public History in partnership with the Paul Ramsay Foundation.  ‍  Producer: Catherine Freyne  Sound engineer: Judy Rapley  Music: Blue Dot Sessions; The Tudor Consort licensed under CC by 3.0   Archival: ABC Content Sales  ‍  Featuring:  David Polson, former patient at Ward 17 South at St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney.  Erin Longbottom, Nursing Unit Manager, Homeless Health Outreach Service, St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney.  An excerpt from St Vincent's Hospital Annual Report 1919 read by Marie Freyne. 

In the rapidly gentrifying Darlinghurst of the 1980s, a turf war raged over one of its earliest trades. In this story, we visit the street corners and safe houses where sex workers competed for customers, looked out for each other and stood their ground. Along the way, veterans of the street-based trade describe a changing industry, sharing stories from the frontline of the fight for law reform and workers' rights.    If you would like to sign the petition to bring the statue of Joy back to Darlinghurst, visit http://tiny.cc/dfhavz    Image: Woods Lane 1968 (Tribune negative; Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales courtesy SEARCH Foundation)    Credits    This audio story is a production of the Australian Centre for Public History in partnership with the Paul Ramsay Foundation.  ‍  Producer: Catherine Freyne  Sound engineer: Judy Rapley  Music: Blue Dot Sessions  Archival: ABC Library Sales  ‍  Featuring:  Julie Bates, veteran sex worker activist; Principal of Urban Realists Planning and Health Consultants.  Chantell Martin, veteran sex worker; Co-CEO of Sex Workers Outreach Project. 

Darlinghurst has always been a magnet and a haven for exiles and misfits. With writer and Darlo-phile Sunil Badami as guide, this audio story celebrates a handful of local characters and eccentrics, reflecting on the material conditions that enable unconventional people to thrive.      Image: Hare Krishna, Kings Cross 1970-71 (Photographer: Rennie Ellis © Rennie Ellis Photographic Archive)     Credits    This audio story is a production of the Australian Centre for Public History in partnership with the Paul Ramsay Foundation.  ‍  Producer: Catherine Freyne  Sound engineer: Judy Rapley  Music:   Blue Dot Sessions  I Love Her, She Loves Me by Atlantic City Orchestra licensed under a Public Domain / Sound Recording Common Law Protection License  Eyes Getting Louder and Hope Its Today by Mod Fun licensed under CC by NC 4.0    Featuring:  Sunil Badami, writer and raconteur   

If you listen after rain, you can still hear the rush of water that used to flow from the sandstone ridge at the apex of Darlinghurst down to the harbour. This audio story goes in search of the creeks and cascades that sustained life and industry for Gadigal people, colonists and Chinese market gardeners, before being covered over by the concrete and tarmac of the modern city.    Image: Rushcutters Creek, 1870-75 (Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW - ON 4 Box 56 No 253)    Credits    This audio story is a production of the Australian Centre for Public History in partnership with the Paul Ramsay Foundation.  ‍  Producer: Catherine Freyne  Sound engineer: Judy Rapley  Music: Blue Dot Sessions    Featuring:  Saskia Schut, Landscape architect  Ray Ingrey, Chair, Gujaga Foundation  Mark Dunn, Historian  Daphne Lowe-Kelly, Co-deputy Chair, Museum of Chinese in Australia  Phil Bennett, Lead Heritage Advisor, Sydney Water  An excerpt from E.W. West (ed) The Memoirs of Obed West: A Portrait of Early Sydney (Bowral: Barcom Press 1988), read by Russell Cheek. 

Welcome to a special History Lab series, Listen to Darlinghurst. In this mini episode, History Lab host Anna Clark and Listen to Darlinghurst producer Catherine Freyne introduce the series.    Image: Darlinghurst Rd 1954 by Mark Strizic (State Library of Victoria)    Credits    Producer: Catherine Freyne  Sound engineer: Judy Rapley  Music: Blue Dot Sessions 

After Jimmy's trial, what happened to his brother Joe?Joe has mostly been forgotten by history, and his presence in the archives is little more than a whisper.From coronial records, family tales and a visit to a country pub, it becomes clear that Joe fell foul of the frontier, in life and death.And yet, more questions remain: Was Joe Governor, an outlaw, killed lawfully?How do his ancestral remains become another transactional asset in the murky world of race science? And why is western knowledge still entangled in its colonial past?

How does the law deal with an outlaw?Jimmy Governor is captured and his legal case becomes a lightning rod for justice in the new federation. But how did Australia's most-wanted murderer get one of the best lawyers in the colony?A prison experiment begins with a diary and we find out how the present mimics the past.

This is the tale of a prison colony trying to become a country and the murder case that stood in its way, but this is not a true crime podcast.Jimmy and Joe Governor, two brothers from Wiradjuri and Wonnarua country, were the last proclaimed outlaws in Australia - wanted dead or alive.120 years later we examine what has survived and what we can still learn from the Governor brothers' story.To find out more visit: https://thelastoutlaws.com.au

The Last Outlaws is the latest audio series to be released by Impact Studios, an audio production house embedded in the University of Technology Sydney.The trilogy podcast is based on UTS Law Professor Katherine Biber's tenacious and careful research of Jimmy and Joe Governor, Australia's last proclaimed outlaws.The Governor brothers' story has been told in books and film before, but never like this.For the Governor family descendants this is a difficult story to tell, but one that demands to be heard.Coming September 22nd.

How will Australian universities fare in a post-pandemic world? It depends on an influential but rarely talked about relationship between the state, its institutions, and the public. Discover more in the first podcast episode of The New Social Contract.Brought to you by the makers of History Lab.

Three days before Spain’s general elections in 2004 a series of bombs exploded on crowded Madrid commuter trains, killing almost 200 people.The Spanish authorities found a plastic bag a few blocks away from one of the bomb sites with a single, incomplete fingerprint.This was the trace linked to a man living 9000 kms away, a US Attorney in Oregon by the name of Brandon Mayfield.We’ve been told that every fingerprint is unique to every finger, but what if this is the wrong question to ask?Forensic Science was founded on the principle that ‘every contact leaves a trace’ but history shows we can’t always rely on one trace alone.

When was the last time you were asked to sign something and did you stop to think how the strange squiggly mark you make on a page could be used?The signature is a performative act, crucial to the law’s way of knowing, but it’s also been used as an instrument of power and control.In this episode of History Lab we hear from a boy who was stolen, the man who took him away and the Judge who was asked to decide if a mother's thumbprint was a sign of consent.The presence or absence of a signature on a legal document can speak volumes and throughout history Aboriginal people have been reclaiming this marker of individual identity to represent the many and speak back to an empire.Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that this episode contains the voices and names of deceased persons.

'Making a Fortune' looks at the popularity and persecution of two of the most formidable fortune tellers of Federation Australia.In the first decade of the 20th century, Australians were focused on the future. It was the dawn of a new century, and a newly-formed nation. But during this time, police were cracking down on a booming industry dominated by women—it was a service that society deemed superstitious, archaic and fraudulent and one that is unlawful to this day in some parts of Australia. This is a story of entrepreneurship, independence and the force of the law.Why were these female fortune tellers so aggressively pursued by the police and how did they use the law to fight back?

History Lab host Dr Tamson Pietsch hands over the mic to Dr Alecia Simmonds, an interdisciplinary scholar of law and history at the University of Technology Sydney. In this bonus episode they dissect how it is the law ‘knows’ and discuss how both history and the law rely on traces from the past to draw conclusions in the present. If truth is uncertain in historical archives - is it even harder to find in the courtroom?Season 3 of History Lab will be taking a short break returning February 4 2020.Episode two 'Making a fortune' is dropping in the new year with Dr Alana Piper from the Australian Centre for Public History.

Death, money and family are the key ingredients in any last will and testament. They also make a killer cocktail that unleashes a special force not present in any other part of the law.In this episode of History Lab, we’re looking at how the law determines your last wishes through some truly unusual cases. Whether it's for reasons of urgency, eccentricity or expediency, courts around the world regularly have to make calls on the wishes of the dead. But how does the law know it’s getting it right and what does it mean for those left behind.

History Lab is back for a third season, fresh from wins at the New York Radio Festival Awards and the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia.In this special four-part series we’ll be exploring the ‘law’s way of knowing’, looking at histories that intersect with the law.From fortune telling to fingerprints, unusual wills and the forensic theory that something is always left behind, join us as we delve into the traces left by the law.Episode One drops December 12.

Missing your History Lab fix? We’ve got something else for you in the meantime. Introducing a new season of All Things Equal. This series will take you into the school yard and beyond, where kids learn that things aren't always fair. Through the stories of real students and staff, Uniform will change the way you think about education; because when it comes to learning, one size does not fit all.Subscribe to All Things Equal in your favourite podcast app, or listen to the show here:https://www.whooshkaa.com/shows/after-metoo-stories-of-social-change

History Lab audio makers explore how we've tried to understand the past through sound in season two

In the aftermath of World War One, nations came together in an attempt to ensure war on the same devastating scale could never occur again. The result? The League of Nations: a revolutionary idea to form the world’s first international organisation. But clearly it did not stop the world from going to war.A century later we are still questioning our ability to come together. In this episode, Glenda Sluga and Ninah Kopel search for the ephemeral traces of a unified past. They find stories of hope, ambition but also skeletons lurking in the closet. Many say the League failed. But did the spirit live on?

Where do jelly babies come from?Mass-produced things are all around us. But they all start with a single object. In this episode, Olivia goes looking for the patternmakers, whose invisible hands are the original creators of much of the stuff we use every day. They see a world no-one else can see. So why are they disappearing? And what will we lose when they are gone?Producer: Olivia RosenmanCollaborating historian: Jesse Adams SteinHost: Tamson PietschExecutive Producer: Tom Allinson

In 1817, the Bank of New South Wales opened as the first financial institution in the Australian colonies. But when the first customers arrived for the grand opening, they found someone had already made a deposit. Where did the money come from? Our producers, Jason and Nicole, follow the record trail and discover the uncertain foundations of Australia’s first bank.

Sydney's iconic Opera House plays host to musicians and dancers, actors and singers. But beneath the notes of their voices, another song echoes across the city’s waters.Indigenous Eora fisherwomen passed down their knowledge through their songs while paddling their canoes, a cooking fire at one end and their kids on their shoulders.Anna Clark and Tamson go looking for the fisherwomen’s world, and discover that, if you listen closely, the past of Sydney Harbour still sings.

What does it take to make History Lab?This bonus interlude episode lifts the curtain on all that goes into making history for your ears!Executive Producer Emma Lancaster steps out from behind the headphones and asks you to listen hard as she and host Tamson Pietsch discover that in the gap between historians and journalists, great things can happen.The History Lab final episode for Season One 'Fishing for Answers' will be available 25 July 2018.To find out more about the History Lab pitching process head to https://historylab.net/pitch/

In the middle of a mining town in outback Australia, over 400 kilometres from the closest ocean, stands a monument dedicated to the memory of the Titanic.On the surface the story of Broken Hill’s Titanic Memorial can be seen as a simple tale of memory and humanity, one community expressing their sympathy for another.But on closer inspection, the politics of memory starts to unravel and raises questions about the power of remembering and why we do it in the first place.

Quietly buried away in Western Sydney’s state archives is a secret history of love.Lists of lingerie, love letters and lockets of hair, are stapled to writs from over 200 years ago.In the 19th century a broken engagement could damn a woman for life. But scorned women had an unexpected way to get square. A now somewhat forgotten law known as ‘breach of promise to marry’ saw women awarded massive damages after being left jilted at the altar.But why would the courts be interested in the failed love lives of working class people? And what does a convict’s daughter, a barrister and a former Prime Minister have to do with it?In this episode of History Lab we sift through the historical remains to discover litigious lovers, colonial love triangles and the emergence of medicalised heartbreak on a quest to understand the history of love.

What happens to evidence after a criminal trial?Tamson goes looking for answers and finds them in the shadow of one of the worst miscarriages of justice in Australian history - the Chamberlain trialsProducer: Olivia RosenmanCollaborating historian: Katherine BiberHost: Tamson PietschExecutive Producer: Emma Lancaster

This season on History Lab we are exploring the gaps between us and the past Join us.