Using records in the National Archives collection, Mickey Dewar looks at the stories and circumstances of the people who lived in Darwin in the 1950s.
Darwin is a city of transience, whose residents have been affected by cyclones and bombing. The 1950s were particularly unstable. A common experience for residents of postwar Darwin, irrespective of their background or ethnicity, was a disturbing sense of dislocation. The challenge for the federal government in the postwar years was to normalise the Territory and rebuild the town – to create a place that the people could call home.
Dr Mickey Dewar has worked and published in Northern Territory history for nearly 30 years. Two of her books have been short-listed for the NSW Premier’s History Awards for Community and Regional History. In 1998 she also received the Jessie Litchfield Award for Literature.
In her diverse career, Dr Dewar has taught in Arnhem Land, held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Northern Territory University (now Charles Darwin University), and worked as a political adviser and contract historian. For many years she was Curator of Territory History at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, responsible for the heritage management of a number of listed sites including Fannie Bay Gaol and Lyons Cottage. She has also curated a number of exhibitions including the development of the permanent Cyclone Tracy Gallery.
Dr Dewar is currently working as a freelance historian and museums policy consultant based in Darwin, and teaching northern Australian history at Charles Darwin University. She was the recipient of a Northern Territory government history grant in 2007.
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Date & Time 28 October 2008 12.30pm |
Location Menzies Room
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Audience Public Admission Free |
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Free, but bookings essential
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