BROADSHEETS, BROADCASTS AND BOTANY BAY

Abstract

The “Australians and the Past” survey in the late 1990s showed that the vast majority of people gained their principal historical understanding from some form of entertainment across their lifetime. For over a century the media has been a key source in the development of Australians’ historical understanding and historical consciousness. This article explores some of the many ways history has been presented by Australian journalists and other media practitioners, focusing on the press and radio, since World War I. The article surveys the coverage of the 1938 sesquicentenary of the British settlement of Australia, history pages in Australian newspapers, and an unusual historical newspaper published in 1948–9. It traces how the emergence of the Australian Broadcasting Commission and commercial radio during the interwar years created a new outlet for popular historians led by Frank Clune and distinguished professors such as S. H. Roberts. In doing so, it considers the role of journalism, and the media more generally, in creating a national narrative around Anzac Day; recognising indigenous dispossession; and facilitating the emergence of Australian public historians and intellectuals.

Keywords:

• Australian Broadcasting Commission
• history in the Australian media
• newspapers
• newspaper history pages
• public intellectuals
• radio

Notes

1. Australian foreign and war correspondents to write contemporaneous accounts include H. S. Gullett, Alan Moorhead, Ronald Monson and Chester Wilmot.

2. The release of the “Murdoch letter” by the Public Record Office caused a sensation as late as 1968.

3. National Archives of Australia (NAA)/Victoria: MP522/1, 2GB, Main File, letter from A. E. Bennett to Chief Manager, Telegraph & Wireless, 7 April 1926.

4. I am grateful to Margaret Van Heekeren for alerting me to “Brin-ga”.

5. National Library of Australia (NLA): MS 4951, Frank Clune Papers, Box 28, Folder 168, “The Storming of Hill 971”, 22 April 1937.

6. Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (SLNSW): ML MSS 3261, Frank Grose Papers, Box 1, Minutes of meetings of 2GB Community Chest, 1945–1949, The Anzac Dawn Ceremony of Remembrance Program, 25 April 1946; Minutes of meeting of Radio Community Chest, 11 May 1962; Synopsis of activities contained in annual report for year ended 30 June 1965.

7. Murdoch University Library, Perth: Irene Greenwood Collection, Box 9, untitled program schedule for Woman to Woman, 26–29 April 1948.

8. NLA: MS 4951, Clune Papers, Box 28, Folder 168, ABC National Talks Programme, January to April 1938.

9. NLA: MS 4951, Clune Papers, Box 10, Folder 57, letter from J. K. Moir to Clune, 28 November 1938.

10. NLA: MS 4951, Clune Papers, Box 28, Folder 168, ABC National Talks Programme, January to April 1938.

11. NLA: MS 4951, Clune Papers, Box 28, Folder 168, letter from John Hetherington to Clune, 20 November 1939.

12. NLA: MS 4951, Clune Papers, Box 10, Folder 57, letters from Clune to Charles Moses, 6 February 1940; Clune to Thomas Matthew, 8 October 1943.

13. NLA: MS 4951, Clune Papers, Box 28, Folder 168, Short Story Magazine, n.d. (c.1948).

14. NLA: MS 4951, Clune Papers, Box 210, Folder 7.

15. See http://www.fxrs.com.au/Programming-And-Services/Features/It-Happened-Today.aspx.

16. NAA/Western Australia: K308, WP/1/19 PART 1, ABCB Agendum, 1 June 1965.

17. See http://www.abc.net.au/rn/boyerlectures.

18. SLNSW: ML MSS 4256, Philip Leslie Geeves Papers 1841–1983, Add-on 1912, Box 1, Folder: Notes for talks …, Royal Australian Historical Society Nomination for Fellowship, 26 September 1972.

19. SLNSW: ML MSS 4256, Geeves Papers, Add-on 1912, Box 1, Folder: “Personal Matters”, letter from Geeves to “Brian”, 24 August 1977. For correspondence with listeners, see ML MSS 4256, Geeves Papers, Boxes MLK 3620–6, 3628.

20. SLNSW: ML MSS 4256, Geeves Papers, Add-on 1912, Box 1, Folder: “Personal Matters’, letters from Ron Hurst to Geeves, 15 August 1979; Pat Dasey to Geeves, 19 November 1980.

21. SLNSW: ML MSS 4256, Geeves Papers, Add-on 1912, Box 1, Folder: “Personal Matters’, letter from I. Hicks to Geeves, 20 November 1980; ML MSS 4256, Geeves Papers, Box MLK 3128, Envelope: Correspondence 1980, letter from Frances Pollan to Betty-Jane May, 14 July 1980.

22. SLNSW: ML MSS 4256, Geeves Papers, Add-on 1912, Box 1, Folder: Research in Progress, “Your Family Tree Begins With You!”, n.d.

23. See http://www.peterluck.com.au/biography.

24. See http://www.abc.net.au/rn/hindsight/about/.

25. See http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/history.htm.

26. See http://www.abc.net.au/rn/rearvision/about/.

27. For a British case study of the centrality of patriotic values to the operations of the daily press, see Conboy (2008).