Australian Studies Commons^™

Rachel Franks, Double Agent: A Librarian And A Crime Author - William Blick Interviews Rachel Franks (January 2024), William Blick

Publications and Research

The following is an interview from January 2024 with Librarian and Crime Scholar, Rachel Franks and was posted on the Captivating Criminality Blog:

Rachel Franks is the Coordinator, Scholarship at the State Library of New South Wales and an Honorary Associate Lecture at The University of Newcastle (Australia). She holds PhDs in Australian crime fiction (Central Queensland University) and in true crime texts (University of Sydney). A qualified educator and librarian, her extensive work on crime fiction, true crime, popular culture and information science has been presented at numerous conferences, as well as on radio and television. An award-winning …

On The Margins, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

Review Of Port Kembla: A Memoir (2019) - A Local History That Captures The Diversity Of Australia, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

The Far Left In Australia, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

Ian Gordon. Kid Comic Strips: A Genre Across Four Countries. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. ---. Superman: The Persistence Of An American Icon. New Jersey: Rutgers Up, 2017., Cathy L. Ryan

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Review of Ian Gordon. Kid Comic Strips: A Genre Across Four Countries. Palgrave Studies in Comics and Graphic Novels, Ed. Roger Saban. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. Review of Ian Gordon. Superman: The Persistence of an American Icon. New Jersey: Rutgers UP, 2017.

The Barber Who Read History And Was Overwhelmed, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

World Churches Vertical File, Mcgarvey Ice

Center for Restoration Studies Vertical Files Finding Aids

This set of files is especially useful to scholars of the history missions, particularly among Churches of Christ in the twentieth century. Students and researchers interested in applied missiology among Restorationist traditions, Stone-Campbell movements, and Churches of Christ will also find them helpful. For assistance with specific files or items, contact Mac Ice - mac.ice@acu.edu, or 325.674.2144.

Denis Kevans: Poet, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

A brief account of the poetry of Australian social movement poet Denis Kevans (1939-2005).

Mullen's Choices, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

Obituary/biographical note concerning Geoff Mullen (1947-2014), and his anti-conscription activities (1967-1972) in Australia during the Vietnam War.

Home Front Ww2: Myths And Realties, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

This is a revised version of the author's 2014 Brisbane Labour History Association Alex McDonald lecture. In this paper the author takes apart the right-wing accounts, particularly by Hal Colebatch ('Australia's Secret War, 2013), that demonise the Australian trade union leadership and the Communist Party of Australia for 'treasonous' industrial disputation during World War II.

The Lost Ideal, Rowan Cahill, R Connell, Brian Freeman, Terry Irving, Bob Scribner

Terry Irving

Now a document of historical interest and significance, this is the foundation manifesto of the Free University, Sydney. Conducted in rented premises in Redfern and nearby inner-Sydney suburbs, this utopian education experiment ran from December 1967 until it closed in 1972. At its height, during the Summer of 1968-1969, some 300 people were involved.

Home Front Ww2: Myths And Realities, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

Beginning with recent attempts by conservative interests to depict some Australian trade unions as having acted in 'traitorous' ways during World War 2 by engaging in activities that variously sabotaged the home front war effort, this lecture examines the claims, and the myth of the social solidarity of Australian society 1939-45.

The Radical History Of Sydney University: Student Activism In The 60s, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

A personal account of radical activism at Sydney University during the 1960s by two activist/participants, Rowan Cahill and Terry Irving. The talk was part of the campaign by Sydney University students to mobilise for the National Rally for Education Rights held on 26 March 2014.

The Lost Ideal, Rowan Cahill, R Connell, Brian Freeman, Terry Irving, Bob Scribner

Terence H Irving, Dr (Terry)

Now a document of historical interest and significance, this is the foundation manifesto of the Free University, Sydney. Conducted in rented premises in Redfern and nearby inner-Sydney suburbs, this utopian education experiment ran from December 1967 until it closed in 1972. At its height, during the Summer of 1968-1969, some 300 people were involved.

Police-Building And The Responsibility To Protect: Civil Society, Gender And Human Rights Culture In Oceania, Charles Hawksley, Nichole Georgeou

Nichole Georgeou

Forthcoming: This book examines how the United Nations and states provide assistance for the police services of developing states to help them meet their human rights obligations to their citizens, under the responsibility to protect (R2P) provisions. It examines police-capacity building ("police-building") by international donors in Timor-Leste, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea (PNG). All three states have been described as "fragile states" and "states of concern", and all have witnessed significant social tensions and violence in the past decades. The authors argue that globally police-building forms part of an attempt to make states "safe" so that they can adhere …

The Comparison And Contrast Of South Africa’S Apartheid With Australia’S Stolen Generations., Alexis Lynn Powers

Georgia State Undergraduate Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Power For The People, S. A. Mchugh

Siobhan McHugh

As part of the Speakers Corner lecture series, award-winning author Siobhan McHugh spoke at the National Archives on 16 August 2009 about her research into the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme. Through the personal stories of the workers and their families, and drawing on her book, The Snowy: The People Behind the Power, Siobhan shared her insights into the lives of the multinational workforce that built the ‘Snowy’ in post-war Australia.

The Art And Craft Of Radio Documentary: Some Australian Accents., Siobhan A. Mchugh

Siobhan McHugh

No abstract provided.

Review: People And Politics In Regional New South Wales, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

Histories of Australian towns and local areas abound, usually the work of enthusiastic local residents distributed through community based museum and historical society networks. Aimed at local audiences, these histories tend to be triumphalist, cataloguing ‘progress’ in terms of population changes and infrastructure growth. There is little in the way of explanation or analysis; local identities appear as a ‘cast of characters’ rather than as flesh and blood historical agents; politics is noticeably absent. For one state, the two volume People & Politics in Regional New South Wales, 1856 to 2006, addresses this political absence. Given the huge size of …

Review - Pete Thomas, And Greg Mallory (Editor), The Coalminers Of Queensland: A Narrative History Of The Queensland Colliery Employees Union, Volume 2: The Pete Thomas Essays, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

In 1986 journalist Pete Thomas published the first volume of his proposed two-volume narrative history of the Queensland Colliery Employees Union, The Coalminers of Queensland. But he died before completing the task. With the support of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), Mining and Energy Division (Queensland District Branch), labour historian Greg Mallory has edited Volume 2 from Pete’s unpublished manuscripts.

On Winning The 40 Hour Week, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

The 40-hour week was approved by the Commonwealth Arbitration Court on 8 September 1947, to take effect from 1 January 1948. The 40-hour campaign, the 35-hour campaign that followed in the late 1950s, the 44-hour campaign that preceded these, and union attempts between all three to fix the working week at either 30 or 33 hours, were parts of a long movement for the codification and reduction of Australian working hours that began in the mid 1850s with struggles by workers to establish the principle of the 8-hour day. Stonemasons in Sydney and Melbourne gained the first successes during 1855 …

Adelaide And The Birth Of Anzac Day, Gareth Knapman

Gareth Knapman

No abstract provided.

'A Blood-Stained Corpse In The Butler's Pantry’: The Queensland Bush Book Club, Robin Wagner

All Musselman Library Staff Works

Lending libraries were not the norm in 1934 when the Carnegie Corporation of New York sent American librarian, Ralph Munn, to conduct a study of the condition of Australian libraries. In his initial survey Munn learned of the Queensland Bush Book Club, an organization of well-to-do, philanthropic women from Brisbane who had established a book lending service for settlers in the Outback. They hoped to ease the drudgery and lighten the burden faced by isolated women and their families in the rural areas. The antidote was a regular parcel of “proper” reading matter which included books, newspapers and magazines. They …

Radio Narrative: Considerations On Form And Aesthetic, Siobhan Mchugh

Siobhan McHugh

No abstract provided.

Oral History And The Radio Documentary/Feature: Introducing The Cohrd (Crafted Oral History Radio Documentary), Siobhan Mchugh

Siobhan McHugh

No abstract provided.

'A Little Bit Of Love For Me And A Murder For My Old Man': The Queensland Bush Book Club, Robin Wagner

All Musselman Library Staff Works

This paper addresses rural book distribution in an era before free public libraries came to Australia. Well-to-do, city women established clubs, which solicited donations of “proper reading matter” and raised funds for the purchase of books for their “deprived sisters” in the Outback. They took advantage of a well-developed rail system to deliver book parcels to rural families. In New South Wales and Queensland they were known as Bush Book Clubs.

Testimonials found in the Clubs’ annual reports provide a snapshot of the hard scrabble frontier life and the gratitude with which these parcels were received. This paper looks at …

Constructing Indigenousness In The Late Modern World, Robert Cribb, Li Narangoa

Robert Cribb

Examines changing meanings of the term 'indigenous" in relation to other ideas that have been valued in various (mainly Western) philosophical system, such as priority, attachment to the land, and technical knowledge.

Introduction, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

In this introduction to a collection of recollections of thirty-nine participants in the turbulent period 1965-1975 in Australia, Cahill argues the period was a cultural revolution. The future was seeded with movements and ideas that changed Australian society and culture, and enlarged the space for democratic action.

Behind The Rhetoric, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

A contemporary critical account of changes taking place in the NSW state education system in the late 1990s-2001 under the leadership of Dr. Ken Boston, Director-General of Education and Training in NSW. The author argues that Boston's 'devolution' rhetoric masks a determined conservative and Rightist push to politically and ideologically centralise the education system and in the process emasculate teacher initiative, imagination, and enterprise.

Vietnam Reading, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

During Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War, the author was prominent in the anti-war movement, and a conscientious objector to the system of compulsory military service in place at the time. In this article he accounts for the intellectual development which shaped his politics. The focus of the article is the reading he did during the 1960s.