eNewsletter
Newsletter June 2026
From the President
It was my great honour to be able to present the annual History Council of South Australia Historian Awards to some very worthy winners at the end of the History Festival. You can find the winners’ names and a summary of their achievements in this newsletter. It was a fantastic occasion and a fitting conclusion to the festival. A big thank you to Wakefield Press for its continued support of the awards and congratulations to the History Trust on another fantastic festival that saw many of our members offer some really outstanding events. Remember to nominate your favourite historian or historical society when next year’s nominations open.
A big thank you as well to our VP Lainie Anderson for her workshop covering how historians and history societies can engage with the press to promote their work and causes. Looking over the horizon, the History Council is now gearing up for its regional lecture and workshops, which this year will take place on Kangaroo Island!
Stay warm! Matt
News
HCSA Awards 2026
The History Council was very pleased to be able to take part in the closing event of the History Festival and to bestow its annual prizes on historians. Congratulations to the following winners:
- Author and curator Tim Reeves has been named South Australia’s 2026 Historian of the Year in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the state’s architectural and gay history.
- Emerging Historian: Taylor Lupp – For innovative research including uncovering the site of Colonel William Light’s 1836 survey camp at Rapid Bay and bringing new understanding to South Australia’s early colonial history.
- Lifelong Historian: Dr Geoffrey Bishop – For decades of dedicated leadership, scholarship and volunteer service preserving South Australia’s community and institutional history.
- Digital Technologies Historian: Daniel Clarke – For using documentary filmmaking and digital storytelling to preserve and share Kangaroo Island’s environmental, maritime and community histories.
- Contribution to Regional or Community History: Loxton Historical Village – For its enduring commitment to preserving and sharing Riverland history through immersive heritage experiences, volunteerism and community engagement.
- Excellence in Oral History: Birutė Beal – For preserving the stories of Lithuanian post-war migrants through dedicated oral history and archival work.
- Wakefield Press Essay Prize: Samuel Cox – Author of the essay Phoenix Journal: The “pilot-ship” of Australian Modernism, a stunning work of cultural history that brings 1930s Adelaide alive as a literary and artistic centre.
- Wakefield Essay Special Commendation: Stephen Valambras Graham’s ‘Framing Virtue: Public Portraits and Civic Identity in Victorian Adelaide’, which discusses portraiture in colonial Adelaide, highlighting its social and cultural logic in a society still searching to express itself.
Advocacy News
The Australian Government is now consulting on a new National Cultural Policy, the successor to Revive: a place for every story, a story for every place. Alongside the History Councils of Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia, the HCSA is working on a joint submission to ensure that the place of history in the cultural life of the nation has a proper weighting in the new document.
Burnside Historical Society June Bulletin
The latest edition of the society's bulleting is available here (pdf).
Labour History News Autumn 2026
Labour History Society publishes a quarterly e-newsletter.
Grandparenting in Australia: a history (1945-2025)
A project team documenting the history of grandparenting in Australia is seeking oral history interviewees and/or 3-6 participants for a focus group in Adelaide/SA. It is an Australian Research Council-funded project (ARC DP250100728, Ethics Approval ANU H/2025/0115).
Participation involves a focus group lasting around 2 hours. They hope to run this before the end of July. It will be conducted in a comfortable, conversational setting. They are interested in hearing about experiences of grandparenting and being grandparented, biological and non-biological grandparenting. They are also keen to recruit several generations of the same family (provided grandchildren are over 18 years old).
Please note that participation is completely voluntary, and while no financial compensation is provided, your contribution will be invaluable to this important research.
If you’re interested in participating or would like more information about the project, the team would love to hear from you. Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions – they are happy to discuss the research in more detail and explain what participation would involve for you, your friends or your family.
Please contact: [email protected]
You can find out more about the project here:
ABC Radio National: The untold story of grandparenting in Australia
State Library of South Australia Research Library temporary closure
The State Library's Research Library will temporarily close from Monday 20 April for upgrade works and to prepare the space for the City Library. Reopening is anticipated in July 2026.
Further information through the library website here.
Swiss Researcher Seeking Letters and Diaries
Isabella Barbaric is a doctoral candidate at the University of Zurich. She is looking for letters and diaries for her research on the language of Swiss migrants to Australia 1850-2025. Isabella’s research project outline is available in German and English through the Universität Zürich website.
Isabella’s research outline also includes her email address. She would be very appreciative of assistance which HCSA members might be able to provide.
History Teachers' Association of South Australia 2026 Competitions
National History Challenge
A free research-based competition for Australian students. This year's theme is Voices.
Closing date 28 August 2026.
Further information on the challenge website here
Simpson Prize
The Simpson Prize is a civics-based, national research competition for Year 9 and 10 students which focuses on the service of Australians in World War One and World War Two. The question for this year’s national competition is: ‘How useful are artefacts and artwork as historical sources when researching the experience of Australians who served in either the First World War or Second World War?’
Discuss with reference to either WW1 or WW2.
Submissions due 4 November 2026.
Further information on the prize's website here
Premier's Anzac Spirit School Prize
Students who are awarded the prize are invited to participate in a commemorative study tour. Open to South Australian students in year 9 and 10.
Entries open 27 April 2026 and close 3 July 2026 at 5pm.
Further information on the department for education website here
Storage needed for John McDouall Stuart artefacts
The John McDouall Stuart Society is on the lookout for storage space for its collection. The society’s artefacts are held in ten boxes requiring about five square metres of secure storage space. The society’s display cabinets (currently dis-assembled) need an additional 10sqm of space. Ultimately, the goal is to have the collection located in a safe, secure space, open at times for general public viewing.
For further information or to assist, please contact society Co-President Tim Moore on [email protected].
New website for the Federation of Australian Historical Societies
The latest quarterly edition of the Federation of Australian Historical Societies newsletter is out now, celebrating the launch of the new FAHS website, new associate member benefits, preparations for the society’s upcoming 50th anniversary and Australia Day Honours history recipients from around the nation.
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.
Lectures, exhibitions, and events
2026 Wilson History Oration: Reflections on being a social justice historian: Connecting kin, locating the lost and advocating for change
Presented by Karen George
Adelaide University, Napier Building, Lecture Theatre G03
Date: Thursday, 16 July
Time: 6 pm (Adelaide time)
Cost: $5 in-person or via Zoom at no charge (the Zoom link will be provided two days prior to the presentation).
Further information and registration through the PHA website here.
Labour History Society Public Meeting at Box Factory Community Centre – Sunday 12 July
Leila Clendon will discuss her University of Adelaide History Honours thesis in a presentation titled ‘Remembering Australia’s Longest Strike: The 1946 Pilbara Strike 80 years On’.
For details see the event flyer here (pdf).
IPAN National Conference at Old Stock Exchange (Friday 24 July – Sunday 26 July)
LHS is supporting the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network’s (IPAN) 2026 National Conference and the associated national tour of Abby Martin, US journalist and film maker.
There’s a Point to It: A History of Immanuel Lutheran Church, Point Pass
Speaker: Samuel Doering
Thursday 25 June at 7.30pm, at Immanuel Lutheran Church, 139 Archer St, North Adelaide SA 5006
For 150 years, Immanuel Church has stood as a landmark of faith, learning, and community in South Australia. From its role as the home congregation of the first Neuendettelsau-trained pastor in Australia to its central place in Georg Leidig’s bold vision for Immanuel College, the church has been at the heart of the Lutheran story.
Drawing on rich material from Lutheran Archives - and the research behind his new book There’s a Point to It (launched April 2026) - historian Samuel Doering tells the compelling story of one of Australia’s most influential Lutheran centres. The book will be available for purchase at the meeting.
All welcome, $5 donation, supper included.
Investigating the History of Old Objects
Have you inherited some mysterious family heirlooms, or found some fascinating treasures in a op shop? Join us as Alison Hicks takes you through her strategies for discovering the history, and thus the provenance, of a range of old objects: jewellery, ornaments, furniture, tools and more.
Wednesday 1 July at 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm
Free for Genealogy SA members / $20 non-members
Further information and registration through Trybooking
Genetic Genealogy: Beyond the Basics
Are you ready to take the next step in your DNA analysis journey? Want to prove hypotheses and solve mysteries, confirm ancestry or identify non-paternal events? Learn how to take your genetic genealogy skills to the next level with this workshop!
Sunday 19 July at 10:00 am to 4:00 pm
$89 Genealogy SA members / $139 non-members
Connect with the Past – People in the Landscape
People in the landscape is a talk on Barngarla country with Maritime Museum Curator Paul Mazourek about the amazing story of the landscape development and people’s histories in the Northern Spencer Gulf.
Cost: FREE
Where: Pt Lowly Lighthouse
When: Every Thursday in June and July 2026. All talks are from 2pm – 3pm. June 4, 11, 18, 25 and July 2, 9, 16, 23, 30.
Painting the port: a display of the 1855 Hankey panorama of Port Adelaide
This watercolour panorama of daily life at Port Adelaide covers nine pages and almost two metres in length. The work was undertaken before many of the buildings shown were destroyed in the great fire of 1857, preserving a moment in time.
This unique panorama was carefully conserved by the State Library and is now on public display for the first time in over 170 years.
1 May to 30 June, at the Treasures Wall, Spence Wing, State Library of South Australia
Using DNA for Family History
Have you taken a DNA test, and you’re not sure what to make of the results? Join us for these hands-on, in-person, interactive workshops and learn how to get started with your DNA for family history!
Sunday 14 & 28 June at 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm
$79 Genealogy SA members / $129 non-members
Historical Society of South Australia speaker program 2026
The society have released their speaker program for the year.
View the full schedule and further information through their website
The next talk is July 3 Richard Venus – More to Todd than a Telegraph Line
Burnside City Uniting Church, 384 Portrush Road, Tusmore. Visitors are welcome but are asked for a $5 donation.
Book releases
Introduction to Whyalla Coastline
This new book includes several chapters covering marine and terrestrial environment and early Aboriginal and European history.
Available from Whyalla Visitor Information Centre. Phone and email orders also available.
Tel: 1800 088 589 (Free); 08 8645 7900
Email: [email protected]
Cost: $16.50 (incl GST)
The sixth edition of the Oral History Handbook
Beth M Robertson has published the Sixth Edition of the Oral History Handbook: Preserving Voices and Memories for the Historical Record.
The First Edition of the Oral History Handbook was published in 1983 as an A5 booklet by the committee of South Australia’s Oral History Association, of which Beth was a member. She has authored the expansion and transformation of the title through five subsequent editions, during which it became recognised as the national standard for oral history practice in Australia.
The Oral History Handbook provides clear, concise and current information about the purpose, value, and reliability of oral history; the ethical and legal foundations of best practice; how to plan and manage an oral history project or whole-of-life interview; adaptable interview structures; the technology and practices required to achieve high-quality recordings; the skills needed to conduct effective interviews; and undertaking accurate transcription in an AI environment.
It summarises cutting edge scholarship about memory and remembering and, in a departure from previous editions, focuses on ways in which interviewers, project managers and researchers can support the ethical use of oral histories. This is presented through three lenses: ways of evaluating the reliability and validity of interviews, preparing archive-ready descriptive metadata and interview summaries, and editing oral histories. The new book also includes a comprehensive index.
The book is self-published under the auspices of Oral History Australia and is available via the sales website. RRP: $40.00 plus postage ($8.50 for single orders).
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!
Calls for papers
Call for Submissions: ’Technologies that Changed History’
Agora, the professional journal of the History Teachers’ Association of Victoria, is seeking submissions for an issue on the theme ’Technologies that Changed History’. Articles should focus on topics that can be taught as part of History studies in school.
Submissions of up to 2000 words (plus footnotes) are required by August. Please pitch submission ideas, including their applicably to the History curriculum, to the Editor at [email protected].
Call for Papers: Current Debates - Journal of Imperial & Commonwealth History
Subject Fields:
British History / Studies, Colonial and Post-Colonial History / Studies, Contemporary History, Criticism and Theory, Political History / Studies
In January 2025 The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History launched a section devoted to opinion and commentary. Here is published shorter pieces (1,000-4,000 words) on topical issues or debates broadly construed within the field of the British Empire and Commonwealth, or imperialism and colonialism more generally. In order to address current affairs in a timely manner and to retain the integrity of the opinion piece essays/discussion pieces published in this Current Debates section are not subject to peer-review.
Opportunities
Deane Miller Fellowship
A new initiative supporting the research ad development of new work inspired by the State Library of South Australia's collections. Open to artists, writers, researchers, and creatives working across disciplines.
Applications close 31 July 2026, 5pm.
Eric Fry Research Grant 2026
The grant provides $1,000 for an honours or postgraduate student to do research on a labour history topic, broadly defined, at the ANU’s Noel Butlin Archives Centre. It is a long-running initiative, but we were unable to offer a grant last year. Applications close on 30 June 2026.
Bernadette Bean SA Records Management Award 2026 nominations
Nominations are now open for the 2026 award, providing an opportunity to recognise the unsung champions of records, information and archives management - and related fields.
Nominations close 8 July 2026
