John Hirst

From stick insects to swagmen in Don Watson’s ‘The Bush’

With all the changes wrought by World War II, Australia was in the 1950s still a British society. I can testify to that. In school I learnt British history, geography and poetry. At recess we played a rough game known as British bulldog. On Monday morning …

The Australian Garden

Mark McKenna’s ‘An Eye for Eternity’

If a town hall has an organ should it also have an official town-hall organist? I thought I took a wide interest in public affairs but until I met Professor Ian Harper, who was in charge of refurbishing the organ in the Melbourne Town Hall, I had never …

What should the Liberal Party do when Labor governments favour private enterprise, contracting out and selling off? Join in, of course. In August, Barry O'Farrell, the leader of the New South Wales Liberals, refused to join in when Morris Iemma's Labor …

Aboriginal people make up 2% of the population and 10% of footballers in the Australian Football League. As anyone who has seen them in action will attest, they seem made to play the game, but were they makers of the game as well? Their role in the game's …

Convicts and national character

The official history

Some Australian examples

The best Australian history books