Oxford Australia Blog

Sharing our love of education, language, and books

Category: History

  • So you want to be a world-famous scientist?

    So you want to be a world-famous scientist?

    Here are five tips based on success stories of the past but designed for ambitious young women of today In 1909, the Australian suffragist Muriel Matters hit headlines around the world when she flew over London in a dirigible, showering the crowds below her with thousands of campaign leaflets. Although British women were still not…

  • The Land Is Our History

    The Land Is Our History

    The Land Is Our History author Miranda Johnson was awarded the Australian Historical Association’s W K Hancock Prize, which recognises an Australian scholar who has published a first book in any field of history in 2014 or 2015.  To coincide with NAIDOC Week, here is an excerpt: The late 1960s was a watershed moment for…

  • How well do you know the Australian Constitution? Take our quiz to find out

    How well do you know the Australian Constitution? Take our quiz to find out

    Which provisions of the Australian Constitution reference Australia’s First Peoples? The preamble Section 51(xxvi) Sections 51(xxvi) and 127 None of the above 2. How did the Australian Constitution become law? By a vote of delegates to the Australian Constitutional Conventions By enactment of a British Act of Parliament By approval in a referendum By ratification…

  • From Bounty to Tragedy: What Strandings Reveal About Our Changing Relations with Whales

    From Bounty to Tragedy: What Strandings Reveal About Our Changing Relations with Whales

    By Jason Colby, author of Orca: How We Came to Know and Love the Ocean’s Greatest Predator In late March, 150 short-finned pilot whales were stranded in Hamelin Bay on the southwestern tip of Australia.  The public response was extraordinary. Within hours, more than 100 volunteers mounted a rescue mission, working tirelessly to return the…

  • The Anzac Legend

    Ever since news of the landing at Gallipoli first reached Australia via the reporting of the British war correspondent Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett, the achievements of the AIF have become embedded in Australian national consciousness. By the end of the war the AIF had come to be regarded as one of the premier Allied fighting forces, and [General…

  • The History of ‘Mate’

    Mate is one of those words that is used widely in Englishes other than Australian English, and yet has a special resonance in Australia. Although it had a very detailed entry in the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (the letter M was completed 1904–8), the Australian National Dictionary (AND) included mate in its first edition…

  • World War One: links to explore

    As Anzac Day approaches, we have collected some of our favourite pieces about the Great War from the Oxford Australia blog and around the Press online. You can read about the history of the iconic Anzac biscuit, rediscover soldier slang from First World War or listen to the remarkable story of John Simpson and his…

  • World War One: a snapshot in quotes

    Assassination has never changed the history of the world. – Benjamin Disraeli, Lord Beaconsfield, speech, House of Commons, 1 May 1865 On June 28th 1914, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated by a Serbian nationalist, Gavrilo Princip, while visiting Sarajevo. This one event, this assassination, was the catalyst for four years of…