The Latest Breaking News from Arthur Phillip

Before the budget: how Governor Phillip managed without cash in the colony

On January 18 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip and the ships of the First Fleet landed on the shores of New South Wales.

The Conversation · Oct 5

Bennelong in London review – Indigenous warrior meets the actor playing him in this funny, clever play

Jane Harrison’s play is alive to the challenge of telling Bennelong’s story, teasing out tensions between past and present perspectives on a contested figure

The Guardian - AU · Jul 24

Bennelong in London is an inquisitive play that will make you rethink the past as you know it

Bennelong in London, written by award-winning Muruwari playwright Jane Harrison, is a thoughtful and engaging work that explores history, identity, and performance through an inventive theatrical premise.

The Conversation · Jul 24

'You cannot be Sirius': First Fleet link 'concern' prompts building name change

But no objections to nearby building named after a convict ship.

The Canberra Times · Apr 9, 2024

Australia Day is on the nose – it’s becoming harder to defend celebrating the date of an apocalypse

No matter how indignantly the woke-as-a-pejorative crowd screech on their op-ed pages and airwaves, the cultural tide on 26 January is ebbing fast

The Guardian - AU · Jan 25, 2024

Misunderstood and mis-remembered: what is the real story of Bennelong and the colonial Captain Phillip?

History has told the story of a failed Wangal mediator and enlightened English humanitarian, but a new book sheds new light on the complex relationship

The Guardian - AU · Dec 16, 2023

Bennelong and Phillip: wrestling with our historical assumptions through the entangled lives of two very different men

Despite the inherent chance and coincidence of Australian history, there’s a certain sense of inevitability when we trace our national narrative in hindsight. The sequence of chapters in our textbooks and syllabuses seems logical and coherent. Colonisation follows European imperialism and exploration. Suffrage follows the discovery of gold. Federation is…

The Conversation · Nov 1, 2023

Alan Kohler: Happy Australia Day. Let’s make it a two-day festival

January 26 is a ridiculous national day for Australia Day, but it’s the one we’ve got, and we’re stuck with it.

The New Daily · Jan 25, 2023

Sydney: A Biography is Louis Nowra's love letter to his adopted city

Louis Nowra’s inspired biography of Sydney starts with a surprise visit to the city. He grew up in a housing commission estate in Melbourne. In 1959, while on a trip with his father to Wollongong in a truck to pick up a load of coke (for fireplaces, not drinking), his…

The Conversation · Dec 14, 2022

Friday essay: a slave state - how blackbirding in colonial Australia created a legacy of racism

In July 2021, Jack Dempsey, the mayor of Bundaberg, delivered an official apology for Northern Queensland’s past reliance on the indentured labour of Pacific Islanders, many of whom were kidnapped (or “blackbirded”) and forced to work on the state’s cane plantations. “To say sorry,” explained Dempsey, “is a start in…

The Conversation · Aug 4, 2022