Tag: Australian

Slavery at home? The Australian Conscription Referendums of WWI

Slavery at home? The Australian Conscription Referendums of WWI

by | Mar 20, 2025 | | 0

Reading time: 11 minutes
On 31st July 1914, just days before the catastrophe of war was allowed to come to Europe, Australian Prime Minister Andrew Fisher made a solemn promise on behalf of his country to “stand beside the mother country to help and defend her to our last man and our last shilling.”
But as the months passed as the fighting ground on, and as stories of the horrors endured in Turkey and France trickled back to the home front, Australia’s young democracy faced one of its most harrowing trials yet as those on both sides of the issue battled to determine the path ahead.

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Free of the Trench: How British & Imperial Forces Overcame the Deadlock of the Western Front

Free of the Trench: How British & Imperial Forces Overcame the Deadlock of the Western Front

by | Feb 20, 2025 | | 0

Reading time: 12 minutes
The First World War came to an end just over 100 years ago, a mere moment’s time in human history. But as close as we are to it, a century is more than enough to surround that conflict with myth and misconception.

The image of the war on the Western Front, as brought to us through decades of outdated scholarship and popular fiction, is simple: two vast armies, each equipped with the latest murderous fruits of the industrial age, found they couldn’t decisively defeat one another in the field and so settled into a long, bloody, dirty, and consumptive war in which thousands of lives were thrown away every day, often for minuscule gains which would bring neither side meaningfully closer to victory.
The real story is more complicated. By 1916, it was plain to see that tactics like those championed by Haig, designed to draw out the enemy for a momentous set-piece battle, weren’t working, and even those neck-deep in the fight didn’t need the benefit of hindsight to recognise that.

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Intelligence agency’s 1981 assessment of climate-change threat was remarkably accurate

Intelligence agency’s 1981 assessment of climate-change threat was remarkably accurate

by | Feb 3, 2025 | | 0

Reading time: 5 minutes
Australia’s national intelligence agency has released a report that ‘examines the implications of the increasing accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as a result of the burning of fossil fuels, with special reference to Australia as a producer and exporter of coal’. It flags that ‘major economic and social adjustments’ are going to be required as a result.

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Inventing Special Forces: Operation Jaywick

Inventing Special Forces: Operation Jaywick

by | Jan 30, 2025 | | 0

Reading time: 11 minutes
Modern special forces are capable of astonishing feats of arms, from crippling their opponents’ infrastructure to derailing entire campaigns. While soldiers have been detailed for highly specialised and dangerous tasks since before history began, the first true forbears to today’s special forces were first established in the midst of the Second World War, when the Axis powers seemed poised to seize victory at any moment.

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Our savage history of fighting bushfires

Our savage history of fighting bushfires

by | Jan 20, 2025 | , | 0

Reading time: 6 minutes
Bushfires are tragically fought by families, neighbours, volunteers, and professional firefighters, all risking their lives. Facing a wall of roaring flames is a terrifying prospect, too often with the direst consequences. The deaths of these individuals must be honoured as continual reminders of the fragility of the human condition against nature, but also of the heroism that is often remembered posthumously.

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Where did the new year’s resolution come from? Well, we’ve been making them for 4,000 years

Where did the new year’s resolution come from? Well, we’ve been making them for 4,000 years

by | Dec 26, 2024 | | 0

Reading time: 5 minutes
As we welcome in the new year, a common activity across many cultures is the setting of new year resolutions. New year represents a significant temporal milestone in the calendar when many people set new goals for the year ahead. Here in Australia, over 70% of men and women (over 14 million Australians) are reported to have set at least one new year resolution in 2022.

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