eNewsletter
Newsletter May 2026
President's message
We’re really in the thick of the History Festival at present, with quizzes, talks, films, walking tours, exhibitions, discussion groups and a myriad of other activities firing off around the state. It has been heartening to see all of these activities organised and attended by lovers of history. If you’ve missed something, be sure to stop by the History Council’s facebook page to see some photos and commentary from some great events.
From our perspective, we’re very excited about the final event of this festival, where the History Council bestows its various prizes upon historians and history groups who have done tremendous work in the field. Before too long we’ll be able to let you know who has taken out our awards for 2026. Stay tuned!
We’re also pleased to be presenting a workshop next month (details below) on how to get the media interested in the history projects that you or your group are involved in. Hosted by our very media savvy VP Lainie Anderson, it is free to HCSA members and $30 for non-members. That’s pretty close to the cost of membership – why not join?
Enjoy the rest of the festival! Matt
News
Workshop: Media tips and tricks for history groups
17 June, 7-8pm
Free for History Council of South Australia members, $30 for non-members.
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.
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
Connect with the Past – People in the Landscape
What: 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
Mapping your Ancestors with Helen V Smith
With the increased online access to world maps, both current and historical, there has never been a better time to add maps to your genealogy, no matter where and when your ancestor lived.
Tuesday 2 June at 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Free for Genealogy SA members / $20 non-members
Further information and registration through Trybooking
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
SA Great History Quiz!
Professional Historians Association (SA) and the State Library of South Australia present the SA Great History Quiz with SA’s own History Advocate Kiera Lindsey as quizmaster.
Gather your most knowledgeable friends and book a table of five players for three rounds of questions, each exploring one of the State Library’s celebrated collections. The highest scoring team will win a fabulous prize and full bragging rights!
Booking fee: $50 for a table of 5
Event details:
Monday, 25 May 2026
6:30pm to 8:30pm
Hetzel Lecture Theatre, Institute Building, cnr North Terrace and Kintore Avenue, Adelaide
2026 History Teachers Association of South Australia State Conference: "Accepting History"
When: Friday 22nd May, 2026
Where: The Education Development Centre, Hindmarsh
Time: 8.15am - 4.00pm.
Keynote speakers will include Catherine Kevin (Flinders University) and Rachel Perkins (Culture is Life)
Workshops will be presented by Secondary, Middle and Primary Years Teachers, as well as industry experts, on the effective teaching of historical skills of enquiry, SACE Subject Renewal and the SA Curriculum for Public Education.
Workshop overviews available here [PDF]
Further information and registration through Humanitix
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 June 5 Malcolm 'Rulebrook' Ashwood - The definitive rulebook: SA sporting stories
Burnside City Uniting Church, 384 Portrush Road, Tusmore. Visitors are welcome but are asked for a $5 donation.
Book releases
For Love of Country
Join Her Excellency the Governor and members of the Aboriginal and veteran communities at the launch of the second edition of HCSA member Ian Smith's book, For Love of Country: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander service personnel from South Australia since Federation after the annual Aboriginal Veterans' Commemorative Service.
Friday 29 May: Service starts at 10:30 am at the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander War Memorial (parking is available on the Torrens Parade Ground, near the memorial). The book launch, including a light lunch, will be at approximately 11:45 am in the Drill Hall (also at Torrens Parade Ground). All are welcome. Limited copies of the book will be available for purchase after the launch for $75 (card facility available).
If you plan to attend the launch, please advise catering numbers via [email protected] as soon as possible.
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].
Opportunities
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. More information through the ANU website
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
