In the relatively short time, since its creation in 2003, History Australia has grown to become an important showcase displaying the scope, dynamism and creativity of historical research in our region and beyond. In addition to its role in publishing innovative research, the journal serves as a forum for critical debate on issues relating to historical education, and the wider social and political context in which the historical profession operates and in which historical knowledge and narratives circulate. The journal seeks to speak to all those, in Australia and beyond, who are interested in history and its role in the wider world.
This issue of History Australia marks the beginning of a new phase in the career of the journal. It is the first issue to appear with a new international publisher, Taylor & Francis. The journal will also move from three to four issues per year. Together, these developments will assist the journal to continue to broaden its audience and its influence. More readers across the world will now have an opportunity to explore and engage with History Australia. Our contributors and our readers will feel the benefits of that wider reach.
This issue also represents an end as well as a beginning. It is the final issue to appear under the editorial team based at the Australian National University (ANU). We have edited the journal for three years. During this time, we have sought to build on the many strengths of the journal that we inherited, by continuing this process of broadening its geographic and thematic framework to reflect the rich diversity of work produced in and about Australia. We have encouraged a global outlook that reflects the changing nature of the field and the culture of its practitioners.
It is fitting, therefore, that our final issue should be a special issue devoted to the theme of modern British history in the Antipodes. Guest-edited by Leigh Boucher and Kate Fullagar from Macquarie University, this issue seeks to bring the latest developments in the field of British history to the journal, including a reflective article from the author of the forthcoming Cambridge History of Britain from 1750 to the Present, James Vernon. The issue also, importantly, showcases recent developments in British historical studies in Australia by bringing together a diverse collection of Australian scholars producing new perspectives upon the British past. Collectively, albeit in diverse ways, the articles gathered here seek to illustrate the way in which much of modern British history, together with much of the best modern British historiography, have been produced in a dynamic and constitutive process of interaction with the wider world.
In addition to this collection, the issue contains an autobiographical essay from another eminent Australian historian of Britain, Wilfrid Prest. It is the latest in an occasional series of essays that we have run over the term of our tenure, by inviting reflective contributions from figures whose professional and personal journeys reveal aspects of the wider history of history in this country. The history of Britain has played an important role in the history of Australia for more than 200 years, and it continues to do so in a range of ways of which Australians are not always fully aware. This issue also serves to remind us that Australia, in its way, has played a significant role in the history of Britain and it continues to help to shape the way that history is understood.
Professor Prest also pays a handsome tribute to the important role of Dr John Bannon in the South Australian history world. After completing a highly successful political career that included a decade as premier, Dr Bannon produced a distinguished body of publications on the political history of South Australia and its relationship to the wider Australian story. He also nurtured the work of others – especially on the history of Federation, such as through his co-editorship with John Williams of the New Federalist – and he was a great supporter of history in his roles as chairman of the National Archives of Australia’s Advisory Council and president of the History Council of South Australia. History Australia echoes the many expressions of regret that have appeared in the media since Dr Bannon’s untimely passing in December 2015, and we offer our condolences to his wife, Angela, and their family.
A journal can only be as good as the community of scholars that contributes to it and supports it in other ways. As this will be our final editorial for the journal, we would like to take this opportunity to thank the many people and organisations that have helped to make History Australia what it has become and is becoming. We thank the members of the Executive Committee of the Australian Historical Association for their faith in us when we took on the role and for their consistent support throughout our tenure. We are also grateful to the editorial board of History Australia for its assistance. Our exhibition and book review editors, Sarah Pinto and Zora Simic, must be recognised for their great contribution over the past three years. These sections are fundamental to the success of any journal. We would like to thank Monash University Publishing. Its staff have helped us to produce attractive and well-presented issues with great professionalism and a minimum of fuss. At the same time, we thank the new publisher, Taylor & Francis, for its recognition of the journal’s value and, prospectively, for the role it will play in History Australia’s future growth and evolution. At the ANU, we would like to acknowledge the financial and in-kind support we have received from the School of History, the Research School of Social Sciences and the School of Culture, History and Language in the College of Asia and the Pacific. Without that support the task of editing the journal would have been impossible. We are grateful to all our referees, without whom a journal cannot function, and of course we thank our authors. They have been a pleasure to work with and they make the journal what it is. Finally, as editors, we acknowledge our assistant editor Karen Downing for all she has done to help us, not only with the administrative side of the journal, but also with its aesthetic values and intellectual content. Her assistance has been, in the true sense of the word, invaluable.
We welcome the new editorial team, based at Flinders University, of Matthew Fitzpatrick, Catherine Kevin and Melanie Oppenheimer and assistant editor Karen Agutter. We also welcome the new exhibitions editor, Laina Hall, and the new book review editors, Andrekos Varnava and Nathan Wise. We are sure that the journal will continue to thrive in their hands.
Tomoko Akami, Frank Bongiorno and Alexander CookEditors, History Australia