History Lab

In this episode of History Lab Live, historians and political analysts step back from the daily churn to review the May 2025 Australian federal election through a long lens: a decisive Labor victory built on an historically low primary vote , a further erosion of the major-party duopoly , and a growing sense that Australian politics is both shifting, and hollowing out. Is this a genuine realignmen...

In this episode of History Lab Live , we bring you a conversation about the joys and challenges of translating Australian history to television. Writer and academic Julianne Schultz joins director Benjamin Jones and producer Darren Dale to discuss the process of adapting her book, The Idea of Australia , into a four‑part documentary series for SBS. Their exchange highlights the creative decisions,...

History Lab Live presents the 2025 David Scott Mitchell Oration, delivered by Kim Williams at the State Library of New South Wales. A passionate advocate for the arts, media, and public institutions, Williams—currently Chair of the ABC—offers a sweeping and deeply personal reflection on the role of libraries and memory institutions in preserving truth, fostering democracy, and inspiring creativity...

Caribbean Convicts weaves together the story of the Caribbean men who arrived in Sydney onboard the convict ship the Moffatt on August 30, 1836. Most had been enslaved, including William Buchanan, a Jamaican man transported for participating in the Christmas Day slave uprising in Jamaica in 1831-32. Join historical novelist Sienna Brown as she explores the diverse fates of Buchanan...

In this special episode of Caribbean Echoes, series producers Ben Etherington and Sienna Brown are in conversation with star Jamaican-Australian actress Zahra Newman and acclaimed playwright Alana Valentine. They discuss the making of the series and how performance emerged as a key theme across it. Zahra reflects on being a Black Caribbean-Australian actor today, and the persistence of the racial...

Hear author and historian Katherine Biber tell the story of Jimmy and Joe Governor, Wiradjuri and Wonnarua brothers, who in 1900 went on a murder spree that killed nine people and terrified countless others. The men were pursued for three months across 3000 kilometres, taunting their hunters with clues, letters and tricks. The last men in the state to be proclaimed outlaws, their pursuit and captu...

What connects a VFL “Champion of the Colony” to a woman born enslaved in Jamaica? In 1919, Richmond footballer Vic Thorp won the league’s highest honour for the second time — the equivalent of today’s Brownlow Medal . But just a century earlier, his great-grandmother Susannah Andrews was enslaved in Jamaica, before gaining her freedom. This episode uncovers Susannah’s remarkable journey: from ensl...

Who was the Caribbean-Australian cabaret star who could bring down the house — and come back at racism with a joke? "Come sit by me, we don’t eat people anymore." Nellie Small was born in Sydney in 1900, just before the White Australia policy was introduced. She became one of the country’s most beloved performers, famous for wearing men’s suits on stage and off, and for her sharp comebacks. In sho...

What does boxing have to do with anticolonial politics? How did the sport become a space where Black and Indigenous fighters in Australia pushed back against racism and empire? From Peter Jackson to Jack Johnson, Marcus Garvey to Les “Ranji” Moody, this episode explores how Black and Indigenous fighters turned the ring into a stage for resistance and anticolonialism. Worimi historian Professor Joh...

Did you know that the most famous Australian in the world in 1890 was from the Caribbean? Peter Jackson was born in St Croix in the Caribbean in the years after slavery was abolished. He arrived in Sydney as a teenager and got noticed when he single-handedly fought off seven in a brawl at Wynyard Square. He soon stepped into Sydney’s boxing rings and, by 1890, he was Australia’s heavyweight champi...

History Lab is back—refreshed and reimagined. From now on, you’ll hear us in regular seasonal runs , dropping new episodes once or twice a fortnight over six to eight weeks . Each run will showcase a mix of formats: History Lab Originals – our signature investigative storytelling that digs into the gaps between us and the past. History Lab Studio – interviews and discussions with historians. Histo...

What is the work of truth-telling? How is evidence collected? What happens next? What role should schools play in teaching Australia’s full history? Australia has completed its first, formal truth-telling process — the Yoorrook Justice Commission of Victoria. We joined Commissioner Travis Lovett on his 500-kilometre Walk for Truth from Portland on Gunditjmara Country, to Parliament House on Wurund...

This special episode from our archives speaks to this year’s NAIDOC Week themes of strength, vision and legacy. Fishing for Answers explores the sophistication of the fishing practices of Eora women in Sydney Harbour, and asks, How can we hear from the women themselves and find out what their world sounded like? Content warning: If you are an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person this episod...

Colonial portraits have long dictated how Indigenous people were seen. But Indigenous artists continue to challenge that power. Through satire, reinterpretation, and resistance, they’re using art to question history—and reshape the future.   In this episode, historians Kate Fullagar and Mike McDonnell speak with contemporary Indigenous artists who are confronting the legacy of empire. Michel...

In this episode, historians Kate Fullagar and Mike McDonnell revisit Bennelong’s portraits to examine how colonial art encountered Indigenous identity. Indigenous scholar Jo Rey , a Dharug woman, challenges these depictions, questioning their accuracy and impact.   The conversation then expands to the Pacific, where Māori scholar Alice Te Punga Somerville discusses the story of Tupaia, a Poly...

Bennelong, a Wangal man of the Eora nation, was among the first Aboriginal people to travel to Europe and return. As a crucial interlocutor between his people and the British colonists, he navigated two worlds but the way he was depicted in colonial portraits raises complex questions. In one, he appears in traditional body paint. In another, years later, he is dressed in European clothing, his ide...

Can colonial depictions of Indigenous people tell us anything useful about the past?    How do Indigenous people today feel about these enduring images?     Unsettling Portraits is a three-part series exploring the history of portraiture and colonialism, alongside contemporary First Nations responses.  Indigenous artists and historians in Australia, the Pacific and North A...

If you're an old friend, hello and thank you for hitting play. If you're a new listener, welcome. History Lab, as many of you will know, was Australia’s first investigative history podcast.  We've made five seasons so far, and our tagline is exploring the gaps between us and the past . And while you notice that from season to season our storytelling style changes, we're still always ask...

A special History Lab episode with a soundwork that explores the history of Sydney's South Head, followed by an interview with the maker Sinead Roarty and Director of the Australian Centre for Public History at UTS, Tamson Pietsch. About the soundwork: On the Edge The Gap at South Head in Sydney's eastern suburbs is a place of extreme beauty. It is also famous for being Australia's most well-known...

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 l...

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, 192...

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. Voices Jan Cornall, former resident of Darlinghurst squats Paul Solomon, publican’s son and grandson Phillip Adams, former owner of Stoneleigh Shannon Dalton, former Assistant Manag...

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 Siste...

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 an...

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...