Australian History

Discussion of the book 'Australia's First Cold War 1945-1953', Volume 1, edited by Ann Curthoys and John Merritt (1984). The article includes autobiographical material about the author's Australian childhood during the Cold War, and its influence/impact on his political development.

Autobiographical account of the author's reading regarding the Vietnam War, and its impact on his anti-war politics. The author was conscripted by the Australian government for war service during the 1960s and became a conscientious objector and a prominent anti-war activist.

An account of the origins of the Eight-Hour-Day movement in Australia in the 1850s amongst stonemasons, and the Chartist influence. This article was subsequently republished in 'Recorder', newsletter of the Melbourne Branch of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, Issue 253, March 2007, pp. 1, 5, 6.

An account of aspects of the journalism of Australian left-wing journalist Rupert Lockwood (1908-97), in particular his ideas on working-class journalism. For most of his working life, Lockwood worked for the labour movement press in Australia as a journalist, and editor.

A response to an essay by John Birmingham on the Australian way of war in 'Quarterly Essay' No. 20.  Cahill argues that the modern revival of public interest in, and support for, the Anzac Legend/tradition is the result of a deliberate campaign by vested interests since the end of the Cold War, and not the result of a 'strange accident of history'.

This article traces the role of amphibious operations in the evolution of Australian defense policy. It argues that the Australian experience with amphibious operations has been ironic, in that while Australia’s military forces conducted them in both world wars to support its interests and those of its major alliance partners, the potential for managing the nation’s own regional security was not
realized. Thus, during the Cold War and immediate post–Cold War years the amphibious capabilities of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) were not robust. However, with the end of the Cold War the ADF was forced to reorient its security strategy toward one requiring moderate projection and sustainment of forces
to promote regional stability. As the necessary capabilities were being developed in response to the demands of the new era of “Regional Defence,” moreover, major shifts in the strategic environment were under way. The rise of China, the
movement of the global strategic center of gravity to the Asia-Pacific region, and, after 2011, the U.S. “pivot,” or “rebalance,” to the region have reshaped Australia’s
security future.

This article is an edited version of a paper presented to ‘On the Waterfront: Union Gains and Struggles 1890-1998’, a conference organised by the Sydney Branch of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, Sydney University, 20 February, 1999. The author examines the roots of the international support received by the Maritime Union of Australian (MUA) in 1998 during the 'War on the Waterfront'. Messages of support for the MUA flooded in from an atlas of nations – from a staggering array of unions and peak union bodies, from political parties and organisations, and from a Who’s Who of individuals. Noam Chomsky and 1000 academics rubbed shoulders with Desmond Tutu and Gerry Adams. Internationally, solidarity actions took place, or were planned. The author argues that this flood of support was rooted in the record of internationalism created by the Seamen's Union of Australia, one of the key unions that helped form the MUA via amalgamation in 1993. Cahill argues that increasingly unions will have to develop international strategies to counter global corporations.

This presentation is the story of how the Red Cross constructed a landscape of giving that was directly linked to patriotism  in place. The Camden district Red Cross was an organisation that was joined by conservative country women who wrapped themselves in the imagery and iconography of the Red Cross and supported their boys when they away at war after its formation in 1914.
Camden women conducted sewing, knitting,  cooking and fundraising through local branches, Voluntary Aid Detachments, the Junior Red Cross and supporting Red Cross hospitals and homes.
By the end of the First World War Camden Red Cross workers owned the story of the Camden homefront, which they had to re-invigorate after 1939.
Red Cross activities empowered local women to use their agency to create the most important wartime organisation in the history of the Camden district.

This one hour documentary is a people's history of the Australian regional industrial centre (coal mining, steel making) of Wollongong (NSW), from the 19th century through to the present. The film features activist participants. Radical historian Rowan Cahill is one of the featured interviewees.

The outbreak of the First World War in 1914 saw thousands of women across rural Australia set up local Red Cross branches. Country women sewed, knitted and cooked for God, King and Country, while they were encouraged to see themselves as ‘ministering angels’ dutifully serving ‘their boys’ and the imperial cause. Their successes meant that by 1918 they owned the story of the homefront war effort in many localities. Was this really a spontaneous outbreak of patriotic voluntarism by country women and who really benefitted from the incredible homefront success of the Red Cross?

The McAleer Story is a short biography of Geoff and Olive McAleer and their family business McAleer Motors. The firm was the Camden Ford Dealership for many years and was one of the largest employers in the Camden District. Geoff and Olive are Camden identities and have made a considerable contribution to the local community.

Ministering Angels is the story of conservative country women doing their patriotic duty in an outpost of the British Empire. From 1914 Camden district women joined local Red Cross branches and their affiliates in the towns and villages around the colonial estate of the Macarthur family at Camden Park. They sewed, knitted and cooked for God, King and Country throughout the First and Second World Wars, and during the years in-between. They ran stalls and raffles, and received considerable community support through cash donations from individuals and community organisations for Red Cross activities.

Using the themes of soldier and civilian welfare, patriotism, duty, sacrifice, motherhood, class and religion, the narrative explores how the placed-based nature of the Red Cross branch network provided an opportunity for the organisation to harness parochialism and localism for national patriotic purposes. The work shows how a local study links the Camden district Red Cross with the broader issues within Australian history and debates involving local history, philanthropy, feminism, conservatism, religion and other areas, while at the same time illustrating the multi-layered nature of the issues that shape global, national and regional history that can impact rural volunteering.

The book delves into the story of how Camden’s Edwardian women, the Macarthur Onslows and others of their ilk, provided leadership at a local, state and national level and created ground-breaking opportunities that empowered women to exercise their agency by undertaking patriotic activities for the first time. In their wake Camden women created the most important voluntary organisation in district history, a small part of the narrative of the Australian Red Cross, arguably the country’s most important not-for-profit organisation. Their stories were the essence of place, and the success of the district branches meant that over time homefront volunteering became synonymous with the Red Cross.

Ministering Angels is a local Red Cross study of volunteering in war and peace that provides a small window into the national and transnational perspectives of one of the world’s most important humanitarian organisations.