What made Australia's fringe cultural scene so generative in the 1980s — and what can it teach us about sustaining creative industries today? Tony Moore and Mark Gibson, co-authors with Chris McAuliffe and Maura Edmond) join Reg Mombassa (of Mental as Anything and Mambo fame) to launch their book Fringe to Famous: Cultural Production in Australia After the Creative Industries . In a wide-ranging discussion, hosted by journalist and academic Catharine Lumby, the panel examines how music, comedy, ...
May 14, 2026•46 min•Ep. 49
What happens to women's art when the world stops looking? That's the question at the heart of A Woman's Eye: Her Art , Drusilla Modjeska's book about a century of women artists who made radical, visionary work — and were then, largely, forgotten. Recorded live at Gleebooks before a packed house, this is a conversation about art history as a political act: who gets remembered, who gets written out, and why it keeps happening. In conversation with literary biographer Bernadette Brennan — who is cu...
Apr 30, 2026•53 min•Ep. 48
In this episode of History Lab Live , we revisit a remarkable moment in Australian history: the 1960 visit of Paul Robeson and his wife, Eslanda Robeson . Paul Robeson was one of the most famous voices in the world — a singer who could fill concert halls, but also a lawyer, actor, athlete, and one of the most outspoken civil rights activists of the 20th century. Alongside him was Eslanda, an anthropologist, author, actress and political organiser. Their arrival in Australia came after nearly a d...
Apr 16, 2026•27 min•Ep. 47
In this episode from History Lab's archive, we stay in Darlinghurst with the award winning Red Light Green Light story from our Listen to Darlinghurst series. Going back to the street corners and safe houses where sex workers competed for customers in Darlinghurst in the 1980s, you will hear the stories of members of the community who fought for law reform and sex worker's rights. The last time we heard this story, a petition had been started to bring back the statue of Joy, one of relatively fe...
Apr 01, 2026•14 min•Ep. 46
In this bonus episode, History Lab's Tamson Pietsch speaks with historian Leigh Boucher about the making of Darlinghurst's AIDS Crisis — our three-part History Lab series exploring one of the most intense and concentrated episodes of loss, activism, and community life in Australian history (if you haven't listened yet, go to episodes 42-44 of History Lab). Leigh is an historian based at Macquarie University who has lived in Darlinghurst for years. Walking the streets of the neighbourhood every d...
Mar 18, 2026•37 min•Ep. 45
By the early 1990s, AIDS had reached its devastating peak in Darlinghurst. Obituaries filled the pages of the Star Observer , funerals became routine. Sickness and loss touched almost every friendship and street in the neighbourhood. In this episode, we move inside the hospitals, hospices and homes where nurses, carers and volunteers supported a generation of young men facing terminal illness. Beyond the wards, grief and anger spilled into public life — through candlelight vigils, the AIDS Memor...
Mar 05, 2026•44 min•Ep. 44
By the mid-1980s, the epidemic had taken hold in Darlinghurst. Fear was rising, homophobia was intensifying, and uncertainty shaped everyday life. Who had the virus? What did a positive test mean? And could the state be trusted with that information? In this episode, historian Leigh Boucher moves into the heart of the crisis as the neighbourhood marshals every last drop of queer energy, love, creativity and strength to hold back the tide. Safe sex campaigns and innovative health responses prolif...
Feb 25, 2026•38 min•Ep. 43
In the late 1970s and early 80s, Sydney’s Darlinghurst was the place to be for queer fun, sex and joy – all bubbling alongside a measure of danger. Packed bars, late-night gyms, house music, new friendships and the thrill of seeing and being seen. For many, this was the place to connect, to belong, to “grow up under the mirror ball.” In the first episode of this three-part series, historian Leigh Boucher steps into that world of parties, cruising, chosen families and hard-won freedom — a queer n...
Feb 19, 2026•42 min•Ep. 42
Australia’s response to HIV and AIDS is often remembered as a national success story — one shaped by public health policy, activism and community action. But how does that history change when you zoom in close? Darlinghurst’s AIDS Crisis is a three-part History Lab Original series with historian Leigh Boucher. Focusing on the Sydney neighbourhood at the centre of the epidemic, the series traces how the crisis was lived day by day — through friendships and care networks, and in the hospital wards...
Feb 13, 2026•2 min
Professor Heather Goodall was a pioneering historian whose research transformed understandings of Indigenous history, both in her field and in the broader community. Her work demonstrated a deep personal and professional commitment to social and environmental justice. In this episode we pay tribute to her and celebrate her legacy. Heather died peacefully on 29 January 2026, aged 75. In this special episode, we hear her reflecting on her life’s work — more than five decades of historical research...
Feb 05, 2026•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 41
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 realignment, or an old pattern repeating under new conditions? Our guests track the election’s deeper storylin...
Jan 23, 2026•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 40
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, editorial tensions and narrative strategies that are all part of turning big, sometimes challenging...
Jan 07, 2026•54 min•Ep. 39
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. The episode is brought to you in partnership with the State Library of New South Wales . Williams ...
Dec 17, 2025•55 min•Ep. 38
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 and the other men who arrived that day. As they fanned out across the country, some became bushrangers, others stal...
Dec 04, 2025•29 min•Ep. 37
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 politics that afflicted earlier generations of Caribbean immigrants. Alana takes us through the joys...
Nov 20, 2025•46 min•Ep. 36
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 capture fascinated and terrified a nation on the eve of its Federation. Back in 2021, History Lab publish...
Nov 06, 2025•50 min•Ep. 35
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 enslavement, to freedom, to becoming matriarch of an Australian family that would include football legen...
Oct 17, 2025•40 min•Ep. 33
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 show business circles around Sydney in the 1940 and 50s, the phrase was: “When a show’s not strong enou...
Oct 10, 2025•49 min•Ep. 33
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 John Maynard talks about the links between Jackson and the first official Black heavyweight world champ...
Sep 24, 2025•46 min•Ep. 32
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 champion and chasing the world title in the United States. But he was no ordinary boxer. He moonlit as an ...
Sep 24, 2025•42 min•Ep. 31
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. History Lab Live – recordings of public history talks from libraries, bookshops, and university halls, wh...
Sep 23, 2025•4 min•Ep. 30
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 Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country in Melbourne, to hear firsthand of the Commission's work. Along the way, yo...
Jul 07, 2025•25 min•Ep. 29
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 episode may contain the names of people who have died. Credits Producers: Tom Allinson and Ninah Kopel Col...
Jul 06, 2025•38 min•Ep. 28
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 Tuffery , a New Zealand-based artist of Samoan, Tahitian, and Cook Islander heritage, reimagines Captain Co...
Mar 25, 2025•42 min•Season 6Ep. 27
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 Polynesian navigator and artist who traveled with Captain Cook. His illustrations of first contact tell a diffe...
Mar 25, 2025•37 min•Season 6Ep. 26
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 identity seemingly reshaped for a colonial gaze. Do these portraits tell us more about Bennelong or the...
Mar 25, 2025•41 min•Season 6Ep. 25
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 America discuss the practice of colonial portraiture, including Daniel Browning, Jo Rey, Alice Te Punga Somerville, Gordon Henry and J...
Mar 22, 2025•2 min
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 asking questions that provoke curiosity, that are attentive to sources and their limits, and that challenge us to t...
Mar 20, 2025•6 min
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 suicide destination. On the Edge is a long-form binaural/VR soundwork exploring South Head’s spatia...
Jan 15, 2025•28 min•Ep. 24
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 like as a convict kid? How did you remember your loved ones? How did everyone get along in the Gold Rush? I...
Jun 17, 2024•3 min
