deep history

Was the transition to agriculture the “worst mistake in human history”? A response to Dark Emu.

The “Agricultural Revolution” — that is the transition of much of humanity from a foraging economy to an agricultural economy — is sometimes described as the greatest revolution in human history. So what did it mean, in real-life terms, for those who made the transition?

colonial history

The myth of terra nullius: examined in the spirit of nullius in verba.
by Robbo Bennetts

The doctrine of terra nullius and the doctrine of discovery were both myths, but only one of them was the foundational myth of British claims to sovereignty over Australia.

The Black Resistance, Chapter 3: “Tasmania” (1977)
by Robbo Bennetts

"The Black Resistance is a powerful contribution to the movement for a new Australian history - a history centred on the first Australians. It presents massive evidence of a splendid tradition of heroic resistance by the Aboriginal people and establishes that violent struggle against foreign invasion was an on-going and continent wide response."
From the blurb on the back cover of Black Resistance.

History Establishment is on terra infirma
by Robbo Bennetts

Do we need to rethink terra nullius?

blood on the poa

Worksheet from Footprints workbook about frontier conflict in north-eastern Victoria in the 1830s.

blood on the spinifex

Worksheet from Footprints workbook about frontier conflict in the East Kimberley in the early twentieth century.

 

 

the protest movement

photogallery: the second Waterdale Road demonstration

Images from the second of three Waterdale Road demonstrations against the Vietnam War in October 1970.

photogallery: proudly untraditional

La Trobe University shamelessly uses images of students protesting against the university's role in supporting the Vietnam War to promote itself as somehow "untraditional".

audio tapes by Barry York

Respected historian and author of Student Revolt (amongst many other titles) interviews key participants in the Waterdale Road demonstrations.

Smile. You are on ASIO camera

from Robbo Bennetts' ASIO file

The Iraq war

Michael Leunig responds to a rough sketch sent to him by Robbo Bennetts.

labour history

the fall and rise of the Westgate Bridge

 One disaster was one too many.