Category: History & Culture

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History & Culture

The Digger’s view: WWI photos in colour

Monochrome images of war-torn landscapes, of dark skies and mud-laden boots trigger a distant memory of a bygone era. But not anymore. For over five years, policeman Juan Mahony persevered to revitalise a collection of World War I images, in colour, to make this slice of our history more accessible. Working alongside a team of digital artists, he made many visits to museums, studying original army uniforms and equipment from the Australian War Memorial, to achieve a real-life colour representation of individual soldiers and their stories. Juan was inspired by the 1916 death of his great uncle on the Western Front to get every detail right. He published the images in his book: The Digger’s View.

History & Culture

Making the Australian Geographic icon coin

For our 100th issue in October 2010, we invited celebrated Sydney artist Jim Tsinganos to weave a list of 100 national icons into a painting that would artfully incorporate all our true blue Australian emblems into a single image. In late 2013, the icons poster was spotted by a team of coin developers at the Australian Mint, led by creative director Frederica Heacock, who were working towards a new collectors’ coin that would reflect Aussie culture. Rendering a large and detailed image onto a 38mm coin while remaining faithful to the original idea proved a challenge. The coin set has been christened Distinctly Australian and was launched on Australia Day this year. There are only 30,000 available.

History & Culture

Gallery: The top 10 most iconic Australian foods

Aussie food classics suggests that it’s the simpler things that take our fancy. Whether at a family Christmas feast at the height of a scorching Australian summer or barracking at a local footy match in the depths of winter, Australians enjoy foods that suit our laid-back lifestyle. Here are five sweet and five savoury Australian foods that will pluck at your Aussie heartstrings to remind you of days spent around the good old Australian backyard barbecue, lounging on the beach or simply the everyday.