eNewsletter
Newsletter 20 November 2025
From the President
The decorations are already in the shops and the year is hurtling towards the holidays. For those of you thinking about presents for your history-loving family and friends, you could do much worse than the HCSA's 2025 book Nooks and Crannies from Wakefield Press, a wonderful collection that highlights the multifaceted nature of South Australia's history.
Further information and purchase through Wakefield Press
Or perhaps you might consider a HCSA membership to go with those seasonal socks and hankies? You can pick that up here.
Applications for our HCSA / State Library of South Australia Fellowship have now closed. Stay tuned for news of our new fellow once our selection panel has come to a decision.
Finally, a quick reminder for those offering summer history events or who have history news that we can help spruik, please make sure that you send in your announcements to us nice and early for our final, December newsletter.
All the best,
Matt
News
Labour History Society Newsletter Spring 2025
The latest edition of Labour History News is now available, with some corrections the society has noted below:
- Here is a link to a new 3-part podcast series on the Dismissal published by John Menadue's marvelous resource series Pearls & Irritations: Link here
- Two items with hyperlinks that do not open:
A museum of convict transportation (6 min video)
Link here
Tracking hard right - Trump is delivering the Project 25 agenda
Link to the Heritage Foundation Project 2025 Tracker
Burnside Historical Society Bulletin November 2025
The latest edition of the BHS Bulletin is out now
Read it on their website here
Don Dunstan Foundation November Newsletter
The latest edition of Dunstan News is now available.
Read it on their website here
Muriel Matters Society Newsletter October 2025
The latest edition of the society newsletter is now available.
Read it on their website here
CHASS Calls for a National Approach to support for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences in Australian universities
The Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (CHASS) has issued a media release about the national crisis in humanities, arts, and social sciences (HASS) in Australian Universities.
Read it on their website here
Seeking information and leads on Italian Internees sent to the NT
Fred Marrone is seeking information for a project on the history of Italians in the NT. He is seeking the names and occupations of Italians who were sent to work or migrated to the NT from 1845 to 1995, and the work they were involved in.
If you are able to help, please contact him on 0408 508 819 or via email: [email protected]
Save the Queen: The Priscilla Project
A project is underway to restore the Priscilla bus from the film 'The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert'. She was discovered on a property in rural New South Wales, having survived fire, floods, and exposure to the elements. The History Trust of South Australia is seeking donations to restore the bus and display her at the National Motor Museum in Birdwood.
Further information through the HTSA
Around the country
National Library of Australia 2025 Community Heritage Grant (CHG) recipients announced
50 community organisations are receiving a CHG in 2025. The program is currently in ints 31st year of operation and supports community organisations to care for Australian cultural collections of national significance.
Further information and the full list of recipients are available through the National Library website
State Library of NSW 2026 fellows announced
The State Library has awarded $314,000 in prestigious research Fellowships across nine categories.
Further information and list of fellows available through the State Library NSW website
Lectures, exhibitions, and events
SA Medical Heritage Society (SAMHS) November meeting
Featuring John Crompton, AM, RFD, who will be presenting on 'Lessons learnt teaching in the Asia-Pacific region for 40+ years.'
27 November, 6pm, at Dulwich Community Centre, 14 Union Street, Dulwich. Replies to secretary Maggi Boult: [email protected]
Further information here (pdf flyer)
J.C. Bannon Oration
The 2025 J.C. Bannon Oration on “St Mark’s and law, politics and history” will be presented by Associate Professor Paul Sendziuk on Wednesday, 26 November, at 7:30pm at St Mark’s College, 46 Pennington Terrace, North Adelaide, and streamed online. The J.C. Bannon Oration is given in memory of the Hon Dr John Bannon AO, Premier of South Australia from 1982 to 1992, and Master of St Mark’s College from 2000 to 2007.
Further information and registration through Humanitix
The oration will be preceded by a book launch of Vision and hope: a history of St. Mark's College 1925-2025.
Stache stories: Australia's whiskered past
Discover how the moustache has shaped Australian identity, fashion, and policy over 150 years, from politicians to cricketers.
November 25, 12pm. Hetzel Lecture Theatre, North Terrace, Adelaide.
Further information and registration through Eventbrite
Online exhibition: 1975
This exhibition at the National Library of Australia is open until 9 March 2026, and available to explore virtually online.
Explore the music, fashion, politics, literature, news, film and more from the era that shaped Australian life and transformed the way we saw the world.
View the online exhibition through the National Library website
Our Story: Aboriginal-Chinese people in Australia
An exhibition at the National Museum of Australia which sheds light on the little-known history of Aboriginal and Chinese relations in colonial Australia.
Until 27 January 2026.
Further information through the museum website
Book releases
Nooks and Crannies, by the History Council of South Australia
South Australian historical groups and museums keen to boost their income are invited to order copies of the History Council of South Australia’s new publication Nooks and Crannies at wholesale price from publisher Wakefield Press.
Nooks and Crannies: Stories of South Australia is an eclectic collection of short essays on South Australian inventions, migration, industry, heritage, museums and associations, both new and old, Indigenous and settler. RRP: $39.95. For more information or to order, contact Michael Bollen at Wakefield Press at [email protected]
Please note: wholesale is 40% off the RRP (or $23.97) with free delivery for orders over $100!
Ikarians in South Australia, 1900-1945, by Yianni Cartledge
This scholarly monograph examines the little-known Ikarian Greek diaspora, focusing on their emigration, settlement, community building and integration in South Australia between 1900 and 1945.
Further information and purchase through Anthem Press
Vision and hope: a history of St. Mark's College 1925-2025, by Carolyn Collins and Paul Sendziuk
Vision and Hope is not a standard institutional history, nor does it shy away from discussion of unsavoury aspects of St Mark College’s history. For 100 years, the College has been a formative experience and stepping stone, producing leaders in science, medicine, politics, law and the arts. There have also been challenges, disappointments and moments of true despair, which have forced College leaders to radically rethink significant aspects of College life. Combining both extensive oral histories and archival research, Vision and Hope is a vivid contribution to the history of education set against the background of wider social themes and local, national and global events, including a world war, economic depressions and, more recently, a pandemic.
Book launch: 26 November, 5.15. St. Mark's College, 46 Pennington Terrace, North Adelaide. The book launch will be followed by the 2025 J.C. Bannon Oration.
Further information and registration through Humanitix.
The Other Kavels: Brandenburg to the Barossa, by John Schubert
With the story of August Fiedler, pioneer of the Barossa wine industry. Through the lives of Pastor August Kavel’s parents, siblings and wives, John Schubert tells a new story of the Prussian Lutherans who emigrated to SA in 1838, established settlements at Klemzig, Hahndorf and Langmeil, founded a Lutheran church in Australia, and impacted the life of the colony.
Published by Friends of the Lutheran Archives, The Other Kavels will be launched by John Angas at Langmeil Church, Tanunda, on Saturday 25 October at 2pm. Meet the author, enjoy Barossa hospitality, and take a tour of the historic church and cemetery. The Other Kavels costs $35 and is available at Lutheran Archives or FoLA events. To order on-line at $35 + $11.10 post & packaging, email [email protected] (please include your postal address).
Book release: 'I buy this piece of ground here’: An Italian market-gardener community in Adelaide, 1920s - 1970s, by Madeleine Regan
The book is a group biography that examines the lives and work of a group of Italian migrant families from the Veneto region. The group arrived in Australia in the 1920s and formed a new community and identity as market gardeners in outer suburban Adelaide during the 1930s. It considers the impact of the Depression, fascism, World War II, the White Australia environment that excluded southern Europeans, and, finally, the suburbanisation that overtook their community. The book investigates settlement processes in a period of Australian migration history often overlooked in favour of post-World War II studies of mass migration and multiculturalism.
The monograph is adapted from Madeleine’s PhD and makes extensive use of a collection of 65 oral histories recorded over 17 years with the sons and daughters and grandchildren of the first generation of Veneto migrants and others closely connected to the market gardens.
The book is available for purchase or free download thorough ANU Press
The Royal Sappers and Miners in South Australia 1839 to 1860: Its role in the Survey of South Australia, by Anthony Frank Harris and Andrew Peake OAM
In 1839 the newly established Province of South Australia was in disarray, facing bankruptcy, following the resignation of Colonel William Light as Surveyor General. Following his resignation, several of his fellow surveyors also resigned and the survey of South Australia virtually ceased, meaning that land was not available for sale, which would fund the migration scheme to bring colonists to the colony.
The solution was found in arranging for a team of fifteen Royal Sappers and Miners, led by a Royal Engineering officer, to come to South Australia in 1839. They became the back-bone of the Survey Office for the next twenty-one years, and their commanding officer became the Colony’s Surveyor-General.
This publication traces the lives of the forty men of the Royal Sappers and Miners who served in South Australia between 1839 and 1860. Most of these men married and settled in South Australia following their discharge.
Further information and purchase details here (pdf flyer)
Book release: Murder on North Terrace, by Lainie Anderson
In Murder on North Terrace the indomitable Miss Cocks and Ethel Bromley return for Book Two in the bestselling and charmingly cosy Petticoat Police Mystery Series, inspired by one of Australia's first policewomen.
Further information and purchase through Hachette
Opportunities
Applications for the 2026 HCSA fellowship are now open
The HCSA Fellowship provides support for all Australians researching and writing about South Australian history. The Fellowship is an annual prize of $2,000.
In addition to the prize, the State Library of South Australia will provide space in the library for the Fellowship winner to conduct their research, as well as the use of a computer and up to 10 hours of research support.
Further information on our website here.
