People worry about the ephemeral nature of information on the internet. Web pages are easy to create and just as easy to remove or alter. Many prefer to refer to a hard copy of a book because they believe that it will be accessible for longer than information found on the internet. But the book is not an inviolable object. It can be destroyed by disaster, carelessness and … [Read more...] about History Without the Book???
New South Wales
Mapping Australia’s Natural Disasters: Space and Time
Yet another natural disaster is unfolding in Queensland with tropical cyclone Yasi crossing the coast of Far North Queensland. There was not much sleep in our household on Wednesday night as we have family members who live right at the heart of the destructive forces of the cyclone. I resumed this post at around 1 am Thursday morning. Blogging while keeping an eye on Twitter … [Read more...] about Mapping Australia’s Natural Disasters: Space and Time
Cricket in Sydney 1876
When fossicking in the archives I have at times come across fascinating and totally irrelevant material. It seems to be a shame not to share this, so I have created the 'Lucky Dip' category. 'Lucky Dip' contains what I regard as ephemera but what may be central to the interests of others. What better time than the start of the current Ashes encounter to reflect on the … [Read more...] about Cricket in Sydney 1876
There were always people here: a history of Yuraygir National Park
After I finished writing my thesis I promised myself that I would read a wide variety of history. Yesterday I had the pleasure of reading a history of a National Park in northern New South Wales written by Johanna Kijas and published by the New South Wales Department of Environment and Climate Change. I was curious about this history for two reasons. Firstly, history of … [Read more...] about There were always people here: a history of Yuraygir National Park
Musings on Democracy – Part 1
Write about democracy my supervisor said. I immediately felt overwhelmed. Democracy is such a big concept, developed over centuries since the Ancient Greeks. It is a also a loaded term - wars have been fought over it and it has been incorporated into political ideologies. The way to cut this task to size is to recognise that democracy is but a word. It only develops … [Read more...] about Musings on Democracy – Part 1