History Lab

39. From page to screen: the Idea of Australia

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 historical ideas into entertaining and informative television.Recorded live at Gleebooks and hosted by the ABC’s Cassie McCullough, the discussion explores:how the team mined Australia’s vast screen archive to build a visual language for the seriesthe responsibility of telling national stories that deal with both pride and painthe challenge of engaging the TikTok generation while doing justice to complex historieshow they used the medium to explore the contradictions at the heart of Australia's history and self-mythologythe translation process from page to screen: what is lost, what is gained, and what surprised themIf you haven’t watched the series yet, all four episodes — hosted by actor Rachel Griffiths — are still available on SBS On Demand.This episode is brought to you in partnership with our friends at Gleebooks. Head to the Gleebooks events page to discover more great history events featuring some of Australia’s best and best known authors.CreditsThis episode was introduced by Tamson Pietsch, and mixed by Siobhan Moylan.History Lab is an Impact Studios podcast. Its executive producer is Sarah Gilbert.

38. Kim Williams on Memory, Institutions and Freedom

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 delivered his oration at the Library, on Gadigal land, on 25 June, 2025.Kim Williams AM has had a long involvement in the arts, entertainment and media industries here and overseas and has held various leadership positions since the late 1970s, including as Chief Executive at News Corp Australia, Foxtel, Fox Studios Australia, the Australian Film Commission, Southern Star Entertainment and Music Viva Australia.History Lab is an Impact Studios podcast, made in collaboration with the Australian Centre for Public History at UTS.

37. [Caribbean Echoes 6] Caribbean Convicts

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 stalwarts of the community, but they all worked hard to make a new home for themselves. VoicesCassandra Pybus is a FAHA Fellow and specialises in historical narratives about people who have been marginalised, forgotten or written out of history. An award-winning author she has published 13 books including Black Founders: The Unknown Story of Australia’s First Black Settlers and the bestselling biography, Truganini. She has held research professorships at the University of Sydney, Georgetown University in Washington DC, the University of Texas and King’s College London. Elizabeth Wiedemann is a local historian in Inverell, NSW.Marg Young is a relative through marriage of Dick Holt, Richard Holt’s Son who is featured in the program.Felix Cross is a composer, director and producer whose work has been performed nationally and internationally. From 1996 to 2015, he was the Artistic Director of Nitro/Black Theatre Co-op in England, developing and producing new musical-theatre from a black British perspective. He also worked as a composer for a number of major theatre companies in England. In 2012, he was awarded an MBE for services to Musical Theatre. In 2013 he moved with his family to Australia, working as a freelance director and composer. In 2025, he’s living back in London, while studying for a PhD at Western Sydney University.Michael St George is one of the most unique performance artists to have emerged from Jamaica. Of Maroon heritage, he’s a poet/singer/songwriter who has worked with national and international artists and dedicates his work to equity, justice and universal love. St George uses poetry and music to dismantle borders, celebrate the power of diversity and self-elevation. The Ontario Federation of Labour presented St. George with the Art and Culture Award for outstanding contribution to his field.Archival documents read by Scott Cumming and Christian PriceCreditsThis series was produced on the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation and Burramatagal people of the Dharug nation.Narrator, writer, and producer: Sienna BrownSound recordist, writer, and producer: Ben EtheringtonSupervising producer: Jane Curtis, UTS Impact StudiosExecutive producer: Sarah Gilbert, UTS Impact StudiosSound designer and engineer: John JacobsAn earlier version of this episode was made for the ABC Radio National's History Listen programme, with Michelle Rayner as Executive Producer.SupportThe research for this series was funded by the Australian Research Council Discovery Project Creole Voices in the Caribbean and Australia: Poetics and Decolonisation (DP220101256).We are also grateful to the Writing and Society Research Centre and School of Humanities and Communication Arts at Western Sydney University for their generous support in the production of this series.

36. [Caribbean Echoes 5]: Live from the Abercrombie with Zahra Newman and Alana Valentine

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 of bringing Nellie Small, the subject of History Lab episode 33, back to the stage in her cabaret Send for Nellie! And we hear about Nellie’s solidarity with Indigenous performers. The panel also talks bloopers and highlights from their performing careers in this conversation recorded in a packed room at the Abercrombie Hotel in Sydney on October 23, 2025. Guests Zahra Newman was born in Port Antonio, Jamaica, and moved to Australia at age 14. A graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts, Newman has an extensive list of credits in theatre, television, and film. Notable works include her performance as Nabalungi in the original Australian cast of The Book of Mormon, and her lead role in the adaptation of Maxine Beneba Clarke’s memoir The Hate Race. She has received a Green Room Award, a Sydney Theatre Award, and multiple Helpmann Award nominations. Newman played all 23 characters in the Sydney Theatre Company’s recent one-person production of Dracula. Alana Valentine is a librettist, playwright, and director who has had a long and celebrated career. One highlight is working with acclaimed First Nations performer, Ursula Yovich, on Barbara and The Camp Dogs, which toured nationally, was the recipient of four Helpmann Awards including Best Original Score and Best Musical and four Green Room Awards in Melbourne. She’s collaborated with the First nations choreographer and director Stephen Page on eight works including the multi-award winning Bennelong and the Opera ceremony Baleen Moondjan, which has just played the Brisbane Festival in 2025. Her cabaret Send For Nellie, which repositioned vaudeville legend Nellie Small in the Queer cultural firmament, debuted at the Sydney Festival in 2024. Jamaican-born Sienna Brown writes historical fiction that centres on the Caribbean Experience in Australia. Her novel Master of My Fate (2019), won the MUD Literary Prize at Adelaide Writers Week for the best debut novel and was shortlisted for the ARA Historical Novel Prize. In 2021, she was commissioned by ABC Radio National to create Caribbean Convicts in Australia. Since 2022, she's been a Research Associate at Western Sydney University as part of the ARC Discovery Project Creole Voices in the Caribbean and Australia. Ben Etherington is an associate professor at Western Sydney University. His teaching and critical work centres on literary decolonisation and he’s currently writing a history of poetry in West Indian Creole languages from the end of slavery to independence. Ben has produced a number audio features including a documentary for ABC Radio National on Gangallida activist Clarence Walden, which he co-produced with Waanyi author Alexis Wright. His book Literary Primitivism (2018) won the Australian University Heads of English prize for literary scholarship and, from 2026, he will be an Australian Research Council Future Fellow working on the project The Decolonisation of Literary Culture. Credits This series was produced on the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation and Burramatagal people of the Dharug nation. Writer and producer: Ben Etherington Producer: Sienna Brown Supervising producer: Jane Curtis Executive producer: Sarah Gilbert Sound designer and engineer: Simon Branthwaite The research for this series was funded by the Australian Research Council Discovery Project Creole Voices in the Caribbean and Australia: Poetics and Decolonisation (DP220101256). We are also grateful to the Writing and Society Research Centre and School of Humanities and Communication Arts at Western Sydney University for their generous support in the production of this series.

35. History Lab Live: The Last Outlaws

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 published its award-winning Last Outlaws episodes (you can find them in eps 15-17) - a collaboration with Biber and the Governor family. Now, Biber has told the story in a book. In this episode, she speaks with historian Alecia Simmonds about the connection between the fate of the Governor brothers and the birth of modern Australia. The Last Outlaws: The crimes of Jimmy & Joe Governor and the birth of Modern Australia is published by Simon & Schuster. It is the product of decades of archival research, field work and interviews, and of a long collaboration with Jimmy Governor’s descendants.This episode is brought to you in partnership with our friends at Gleebooks. Head to the Gleebooks events page to discover more great literary events featuring some of Australia’s best and best known authors. GuestsKatherine Biber is a writer, legal scholar, criminologist, historian and Professor of Law at UTS. Katherine undertook the research for The Last Outlaws in cooperation with descendants of Jimmy Governor. Her History Lab podcast trilogy, made as part of this collaboration, won multiple awards, including the NSW Premier’s History Award, the Australian Podcast Award (2022 podcast of the year) and the Australian Legal Research Award.Katherine teaches and researches Evidence. Her scholarly interests lie in photographic evidence, documentary evidence, criminal evidence and histories of evidence.Alecia Simmonds is a multi-award winning scholar and writer who works at the interface of law and history. Her most recent book Courting: An Intimate History of Love and the Law won the NSW Premier's Prize for best book in Australian history, the Australian Law Research Awards for best book, the biennial Hancock Prize for best book and the Australian and New Zealand Legal History award for best book 2023. It was also shortlisted for the Prime Minister's Award and the Ernest Scott Award. CreditsFully Lit is made by Impact Studios, a media production house based on Gadigal land at UTS, Sydney. This episode was recorded at Sydney's Gleebooks, also on Gadigal land.