Professional Historian and History Consultancy Services Brisbane
Category: Blog
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Letter to Professor Carolyn Evans, Vice-Chancellor, Griffith University (30 August 2023)
Dear Professor Evans, Many thanks for acknowledging my story. The only reason to share it with you is that there are no positions for a person of my high caliber. Looking, this morning, in the ‘Jobs at Griffith’ and filtering for the School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science, the only position advertised…
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Types of Races — Rats, Foxes, or Tortoises
The “The Tortoise and the Hare” is one of Aesop’s Fables and is numbered 226 in the Perry Index. The account of a race between unequal partners has attracted conflicting interpretations. The fable itself is a variant of a common folktale theme in which ingenuity and trickery (rather than doggedness) are employed to overcome a…
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The Southern Brisbane Suburban Forum Inc.’s Briefing-Submission on the State Government’s South East Queensland Regional Plan 2023 Update (SEQRP).
The Southern Brisbane Suburban Forum Inc.’s Briefing-Submission on the State Government’s South East Queensland Regional Plan 2023 Update (SEQRP). Please read and download the document here. SBSF Briefing on the State SEQ Plan (Final 18 Aug 23)
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The Wake-Up Message to the Head-in-the-Sand Culture-History Warriors
The Wake-Up Message to the Head-in-the-Sand Culture-History Warriors…the world has changed and you are left at its margins, raging with no clear intelligence. You have become marginalised in understanding the new world, as you are marginalised in your poverty, both concrete and abstract. That poverty comes from power-brokers who have played you in the…
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Are Queensland power-brokers to learn from the FREE VCE History Roadshow?
Hi Stephen, Just a friendly reminder that I am serious about a former answer to my question and the email to you on 3 August (attached); from the Royal Historical Society of Queensland, the equivalent of the Royal Historical Society of Victoria, and also the National Trust of Australia Queensland, History Queensland Inc., and the Queensland…
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Part Three: Urban Rebellion and Community Education
Today, I welcome the opportunity to say a few words on linking “town planning rebellion” and the Brisbane history(ies) of local studies and the examination of municipal governance. Two names. In the case of the former, Rod Fisher, and, in the case, of the latter, John Laverty. Both have past. It is not only…
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PART TWO: Historical Enterprises 1) Not Spoken, 2) Not Heard, 3) Not Understood
The political rhetoric diverts from the critical challenges and the better solutions. But it is even worse, in that a moment of thought, any “John, Dick, or Harry” can see through the masking — and I am sure Harry, Dick, John, have already. Then what? Surely we must act, but act effectively. So,…
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1982 and 2023, looking to 2032
Back in 2012, I and Dr Jonathan Richards examined and reported on the 1982 Cabinet Minutes for the Queensland State Archives. By accident, in addressing a concern from a Brisbane resident, and looking over work of the last decade, I discovered that the State of Queensland is politically stuck: the same issues, and the same…
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Conspiratorial Force, mostly no, mundane force of inertia, mostly yes…
As perspectivism — that we perceive as a perspective in the moment; each person can decide for themselves how the world is. It is then the argument of social reality of each. I do not see how direct realism is possible, however, our theoretical orientation cannot be simply stated (full-stop). There is not only mere…
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Judith Brett on Character
Judith Brett on Character https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2023/august/judith-brett/pwc-and-question-character I am very impressed with Judith’s (if I can be informal in my personal character) essay in The Monthly (August 2023). There have been a few of us Australian historians and urban sociologists thinking about the concept of character in Australian politics, including politics of the…