
Audio podcasts
Tune into History Council of NSW lectures anytime, anywhere.
The HCNSW is aiming to supply audio recordings of its seminars and events, where possible. Below please find our latest recordings. Please re-visit this page for updates, and check our newsletter for information about new publications.
For those interested in the growth and impact of Podcasting within the History industry, please refer to an article written by Dr Tamson Pietsch, Senior Lecturer in Social & Political Sciences and Director of the Australian Centre for Public History at UTS, entitled Why Podcasting Matters for Historians.

Kriesler radio display at Embassy Theatre (for “Radio Retailer”). Usherette demonstrates ‘Projectographic’ Kriesler radio, by Sam Hood, courtesy State Library of NSW


HCNSW Annual History Lecture 2022 featuring Professor Bruce Pascoe
Recorded at Orange, Wiradjuri Country on 28th October
In this fascinating talk, Professor Bruce Pascoe interrogates the idea of Australian history pre-contact. Mary McLean from the Orange Aboriginal Land Council gives the Welcome to Country while Dr Stephen Gapps provides introductions. This event was recorded in Orange, Wiradjuri Country on the 28th October for the History Council of NSW’s Annual History Lecture series.


HCNSW Panel at Sydney Writers Festival – 18 May 2022
In Conversation with the Winners of the 2021 NSW Premiers’ History Awards
Winners of the 2021 NSW Premier’s History Awards Laurence Billiet, Matthew Colloff and Luke Keogh gather in person to reveal how they make history, their inspirations and the impact they hope their work will have. Despite distinct subjects, mediums and methods, this year’s winners are united in their forceful concern for the way Australia has been shaped by its ongoing history of colonisation.
Hosted by HSCNW Councillor Dr Matthew Allen.



Annual History Lecture – 3 September 2019
Counter Currents – Aboriginal Men and Women at the Heart of Empire.
In this Annual History Lecture, Professor John Maynard explores the significant and largely missed movement of Aboriginal people to Britain from the late eighteenth century through to the twenty first century. Through his lecture he analyses memory and location in an Aboriginal context, far removed from the Australian experience, providing an Indigenous perspective and insight about these journeys, asking the key questions – Why were they there? What were the differences in experiences of these Aboriginal travelers? Did they come home, and if so, what experiences, memories, observations and understandings did they bring back with them of the lands outside Australia?
The Annual History Lecture was recorded by the ABC Radio and broadcast nationally on Speaking Out on 3 November 2019, and can be listened to via the below podcast.
Audio podcasts
Tune into History Council of NSW lectures anytime, anywhere.
The HCNSW is aiming to supply audio recordings of its seminars and events, where possible. Below please find our latest recordings. Please re-visit this page for updates, and check our newsletter for information about new publications.
For those interested in the growth and impact of Podcasting within the History industry, please refer to an article written by Dr Tamson Pietsch, Senior Lecturer in Social & Political Sciences and Director of the Australian Centre for Public History at UTS, entitled Why Podcasting Matters for Historians.



Kriesler radio display at Embassy Theatre (for “Radio Retailer”). Usherette demonstrates ‘Projectographic’ Kriesler radio, by Sam Hood, courtesy State Library of NSW



Annual History Lecture – 3 September 2019
Counter Currents – Aboriginal Men and Women at the Heart of Empire.
In this Annual History Lecture, Professor John Maynard explores the significant and largely missed movement of Aboriginal people to Britain from the late eighteenth century through to the twenty first century. Through his lecture he analyses memory and location in an Aboriginal context, far removed from the Australian experience, providing an Indigenous perspective and insight about these journeys, asking the key questions – Why were they there? What were the differences in experiences of these Aboriginal travelers? Did they come home, and if so, what experiences, memories, observations and understandings did they bring back with them of the lands outside Australia?
The Annual History Lecture was recorded by the ABC Radio and broadcast nationally on Speaking Out on 3 November 2019, and can be listened to via the below podcast.


HCNSW Panel at Sydney Writers Festival – 30 April 2019
Conflict, Collective Memory and the Creation of History
Three prize-winning historians and authors discuss their award-winning books. Winners of the 2018 New South Wales Premier’s History Awards – Christina Twomey, Paul Irish and Sean Scalmer reveal to Caroline Butler-Bowdon (Former Director, Strategy and Engagement at Sydney Living Museums) how they fell upon their subjects, how they write engaging historical narratives, and the consequences of their work.


Newcastle Writers Festival 2019:
Memory and Monuments HCNSW Masterclass (5 April 2019)
The impulse to memorialise people and events has led to the establishment of a range of monuments in urban landscapes. Increasingly, monuments have been verbally or physically attacked and, in some cases, removed. This masterclass focuses on the ongoing histories of monuments, testing the implications of preservation and removal, and how memorials can be revived, reinterpreted or replaced. The three speakers address Captain Cook, counter-memorials and the ‘statue wars’; the memorial to the band on the Titanic in Broken Hill; and the coal monument in Newcastle.
Executives of the History Council of NSW. Richard Neville (State Library of NSW), A/Prof Nancy Cushing (University of Newcastle), and Dr Stephen Gapps (Australian National Maritime Museum) share their skills and experience and discuss this timely and somewhat controversial topic.


Annual History Lecture 2018 – History Week 2018 (4 September 2018)
Warning from the grave: Death, glory and memory in Australian cemeteries
On 4 September 2018, Dr Lisa Murray (City Historian, City of Sydney) delivered the History Council of NSW’s Annual History Lecture as part of History Week. Cemeteries preserve our history and form part of our national heritage. But to truly understand the Australian way of death we must consider the social and economic history of funeral practices. This was recorded by the ABC’s Big Ideas program and broadcast nationally on 21 November 2018.
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