history and culture Archives

The tangled mess that choked Australia

A huge area of the nation’s inland was once smothered with invasive prickly pear.

GALLERY: Australia’s Prime Ministers

They’ve come from electorates throughout the continent and worked at occupations as varied as coalminer, drover, doctor and solicitor. Sometimes revered, sometimes despised, 28 men and 1 woman – represented by their official portraits – have taken on the nation’s top job, often heralding and at other times following winds of change. Whether they served for eight days or 19 years, each took on the responsibility of being prime minister of Australia.

History & Culture

How Australia played the world’s first music on a computer

It might not sound like the best music in the world, but Australia was the first by a matter of months at playing a tune on a computer.

History & Culture

VIDEO: Australia’s first atomic bomb test, 1952

Dramatic documentary footage captures Operation Hurricane, the British’s first atomic bomb test conducted in the Montbello Islands off Western Australia.

History & Culture

GALLERY: 100 years of Taronga Zoo

Today marks 100 years since the opening of Taronga Zoo at its current site in Mosman on the north shore of Sydney Harbour. The first public zoo in New South Wales, Taronga has come a long way since the early days. We take a look back through its history. Click on the image to scroll, or swipe right-to-left if using a touchscreen device.

History & Culture

Top 10 Aussie TV dramas

The fondly remembered and frequently spoken of, from Number 96 to Summer Bay.

History & Culture

Computing gives us tools to preserve disappearing languages

A clever process similar to Google’s image search is helping to preserve some of the world’s 7000 languages that are at risk of disappearing.

History & Culture

Australia’s top 10 ghost towns

Hidden in the Australian bush and buried beneath dust lie wrecks and ruins of towns that once bustled with life.

History & Culture

History of cycling in Australia

Bicycles have a long and colourful history in Australia, stemming from the rudimentary machines of the late 19th century to the sleek, streamlined pushies of today.