Niamh Hanrahan is a PhD student at the University of Manchester in the UK, based in the Humanitarianism and Conflict Response Institute. Her PhD project is titled Beyond Europe: Jewish Journeys and Humanitarian Aid in Japan (1931-1953), covering a history of movement by Jewish refugees from Europe to Japan. Niamh was the postgraduate representative for the British and Irish Association for Holocaust Studies in the 2022/23 academic year. She has published research in blogs for the academic website Refugee History and for The Holocaust Centre North and has been awarded fellowships to conduct research in the USA, Germany, Japan, and Australia.

Project topic

Searching Beyond Europe: Tracing WWII Jewish Refugees from Japan to Australia in the National Archives of Australia

Project summary

Niamh's PhD thesis focuses on Holocaust-era Jewish refugees who made the journey from Europe to Japan to escape Nazi persecution and the aid networks which assisted them in this. Her research within the National Archives of Australia gathers further information on the onward journeys of these individuals, from Japan to Australia. It will focus on Jewish refugee passengers on the Kasima Maru, a ship which sailed from Japan to Australia in July 1941.

Elysha Rei is a PhD Candidate in the School of Creative Practice, at Queensland University of Technology.

Project topic

How can Nikkei Australian identity be archived through contemporary paper cutting arts practice?
(*‘Nikkei’ is a Japanese word used for Japanese diasporas and their descendants and is now used globally to unite Japanese diasporas from across the world).

Project Summary

Rei's project investigates transcultural identity that is imbued with the ambivalence of pride in Japanese cultural heritage, intergenerational remnants of pain from racial discrimination, and the experience of inhabiting a third space where ‘the negotiation of incommensurable differences creates a tension peculiar to borderline existences’¹. Expanding upon a paper cutting practice of 18 years, a new direction of work is being investigated where the materiality of paper and its connection to paper records and historical documents, are playing a role in the creative process and conceptual development of the work. Using archival records as a starting point for mapping Japanese Australian history, Rei's work intertwines documented histories, oral histories and cultural remnants that archive silent narratives of a Japanese-Australian migration and Nikkei identity in Australia in hand-cut paper artworks.

Access to records at the National Archives of Australia will be critical for creative and scholarly investigations surrounding Japanese Australian history – particularly with internment, repatriation, and war bride migration under the Immigration Restriction Act 1901. Digitised records will be used as points of visual references for artworks in paper cutting; primary source materials for a written exegesis that covers Japanese Australia history from the 1940s to 1950s; and contribute to the Past Wrongs Future Choices digital research infrastructure that documents and disseminates historical understanding of the mistreatment of people of Japanese descent during WWII and post-war contexts in allied countries.

1 Bhabha, H.K., 1994. The location of culture, Routledge, London, p. 218.

Anna is a PhD candidate in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Deakin University.

Project topic

Marriages between Australian servicemen and Asian war brides in occupation between 1945 and 1975.

Project summary

Anna's project seeks to analyse the marriage of Australian servicemen and Asian war brides in occupation between 1945 and 1975. She posits that war bride marriages are a new framework to understand the (re)emergence of Asian-Australian diasporas nearing the end of the White Australia Policy. The case studies of the Allied Occupation of Japan, the Malayan Emergency and the Vietnam War reveal much about Australian military occupation in Asia during the Cold War and decolonisation. The post-marriage migration experience of Japanese, Malayan and Vietnamese women provides insight into Australia’s changing migration policy towards its non-white neighbours and societal attitudes toward Asian women within Australia.

The National Australian Archive records are central to Anna's project, which seeks to understand how Asian-Australian war bride marriages were controlled by the military and government, perceived by the public and experienced by the couples themselves. The archive houses official government policy and correspondence related to Asian-Australian marriages, as well as the marriage files of couples, migration records of women and military service records of Australian servicemen who served during this period.

Renzhe Zhang graduated with an Honours degree in History from the University of Queensland. He is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Wollongong and his research topic is about the influence of the New Culture Movement on the Chinese Diaspora in Australia from the 1900s to the 1930s. This study investigates how the Chinese community was shaped by Australian social pressure and Chinese intellectual debates.

Project topic

The New Cultural Movement and the Chinese Diaspora in Australia, 1910s-1930s

Project summary

Renzhe's project aims to analyse the transformation of Chinese-Australian identity with the influence of White Australia and Chinese patriotism from the 1910s to 1930s. This period witnessed the New Culture Movement in China, which was a succession of debates centred on vernacular Chinese, individual liberty from the family, women’s emancipation, criticism on religion and superstition, and advocation of democracy. The ideological disputes in the Chinese community revealed how Chinese-Australian leaders constructed their leadership with their diverse ideological stances in the community. The influence of this ideological struggle on the overseas Chinese communities in America and Southeast Asia has been explored,¹ but no focus has been put on Chinese Australians. This period also witnessed concerted efforts to build Chinese-Australian communities with the leaders' patriotic mobilisation, either by legally fighting to change the immigration restriction or physically constructing community facilities such as the Chinese schools and restaurants.

Renzhe investigates public debates and community events to examine how the intellectual debate impacted transformation of the Chinese-Australian identity. His current research has found that the N.S.W. Chinese Chamber of Commerce and the Australian branch of the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang, KMT) played key roles in the intellectual debate in Australia during that period. The Chamber published the Tung Wah Times and the KMT published the Chinese Times and endorsed the Chinese Republic News. Pro-KMT editors published iconoclastic propaganda and argued China’s tradition was an obstacle for Chinese to achieve free and equal rights. However, the Chamber advocated advancing Confucianism to promote social stability and civil loyalty. Both sides witnessed China in upheaval and had opposite opinions about China’s future during the early twentieth century.

¹ Ching Fatt Yong & R.B. Mckenna, The Kuomintang Movement in British Malaya, 1912 – 1949 (Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1990); Ching Fatt Yong, The Origins of Malayan Communism (Singapore: South Seas Society, 1997), pp. 65– 78; David L. Kenley, New Culture in a New World: The May Fourth Movement and the Chinese Diaspora in Singapore, 1919- 1932 (New York: Routledge, 2003); Ching-Hwang Yen, The Chinese in Southeast Asia and Beyond: Socioeconomic and Political Dimensions (Hackensack: World Scientific Publishing, 2008).

Holly is a PhD candidate at Northwestern University.

Project topic

Cultural commerce: Making the British world in Australia, 1850 to 1975

Project summary

Holly's project will explore how media business shaped cultural connections between Australia and Britain from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. She will study how entrepreneurs succeeded or failed to control markets for media, attempting to shut out competition from domestic and other international sources. The case studies examined in the project are: Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management, the garden literature of William Robinson and Gertrude Jekyll, Gilbert & Sullivan's operas, interwar tabloids and newsprint, and Monty Python's Flying Circus.

Her works seeks to illustrate the importance of entrepreneurship and contingency in Anglo-Australian cultural history, as well as to emphasise the critical role that private media businesses played in the broader political project of the British world.

Loredana Giarrusso is a PhD Candidate at Latrobe University, Bundoora. Loredana has a legal background and her research interests include Australian Indigenous policy and political history, colonial history, constitutional reform, treaties and comparative studies of Indigenous affairs of New Zealand and Canada.

Project topic

Indigenous people and the Commonwealth: An investigation of Commonwealth government policies of 1972 to 1996 towards upholding Indigenous affairs policies.

Project summary

Loredana's project uses the conceptual framework of the 'colonial problem' in examining the Commonwealth experience of Indigenous affairs policy from 1972 to 1996. It explores the interactions between the Whitlam, Fraser, Hawke and Keating governments and Indigenous peoples by analysing broad areas of Indigenous affairs policy.

Her study considers the progression of policies of self-determination, self-management, land rights, treaty and reconciliation in the era under investigation. These policies are considered in the context of what they reveal about the relationship between the Australian state and Indigenous peoples.

Her project constructs an analytical narrative of the failure of national governments to adequately address Indigenous affairs policies. It attempts to understand why there has been a continual failure of national governments to maintain Indigenous affairs policies that provide for the representation of Indigenous peoples’ interests.

Jennifer is a PhD candidate at the Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University.

Project topic

Migrant rights activism in Melbourne and the development of multiculturalism and public culture, 1940s to the 1980s.

Project summary

Jennifer’s project is an historical investigation of migrants' rights activism in Melbourne and its role in shaping the development of multiculturalism and public culture from the 1940s to the 1980s. A historically significant time that saw a cultural and political shift away from government policies that advanced an assimilationist approach to settlement to policies oriented towards multiculturalism. Her thesis examines migrants' rights activity within the historical context of local urban settings and evolving community/public sectors of the time.

Stories of the success of multiculturalism in Australia readily credit politicians and policy architects, overlooking the foundational work over decades of migrants' rights activists who resisted assimilation, campaigned for equality and created social networks of support for migrants. This research explores the historic importance of 'on-the-ground' activity in realms such as education, welfare services and the workplace undertaken by migrants' rights activists and their allies to respond to local community need and create social change that shaped public culture, public institutions, and the lived reality of multiculturalism in Melbourne.

Susanne Quitmann is a doctoral candidate in modern history at LMU Munich, Germany, and a research associate in the DFG-funded project The Voices of British child migrants, which is associated with the Munich Centre for Global History. Susanne studied history, global history, and political science at the University of Heidelberg, Royal Holloway University of London, and Yale University.

Project topic

The Children’s Voices: A New Approach Towards the History of British Child Migrants Sent to Canada and Australia (1869 to 1960s)

Project summary

Susanne’s PhD project analyses children's voices in history using the example of children sent to Australia and Canada under the British child migration schemes (1860s to 1960s). Examining how historians can attend to marginalised actors' voices, the project ties in with Subaltern Studies, Global History, and Childhood Studies. It aims at refining the analytical concept of 'voices' to use it to analyse the experiences of British child migrants. Rather than limiting the analysis to voices’ narrative dimension, Susanne's research examines the dimensions of both narrative and sound/form of verbal as well as nonverbal voices. In doing so, it considers the contexts in which children's voices were and are heard, suppressed, and (mis)used throughout the decades.

The National Archives records are central to Susanne’s project for adding the Australian perspective and analysing child migrants' voices in legal and institutional processes (e.g. in decisions on migration/deportation and in the inspections of institutions receiving child migrants). They also allow further examination of archives' engagement with or silencing of children’s voices.

Louise is a PhD candidate at the University of Potsdam, Germany.

Project topic

Spaces of bordering along the shipping routes between Bremen and Australia across the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Project summary

Louise’s project will explore the history of immigration control practices as they developed along the shipping routes between Australia and Germany between the turn of the twentieth century and the interwar period. 

The project will look at laws passed and how controls over the movement of people were enforced: the techniques that customs and port officials, police, immigration bureaucrats, shipping agents and ships’ captains used to identify desirable and undesirable migrants, identify and track individual travellers, detect and deter clandestine migrants and control the movement of maritime workers. While much of the history of migration controls is written within national contexts, Louise will follow the path of work that analyses the emergence of the modern border regime as a global history: specifically, as a history grounded in colonialism and the construction of racial boundaries.

Vashti is a second year PhD student at the University of Western Australia, studying twentieth century Australian history. 

Project topic

Never again: anti-fascism in post war Australia (1955 to 2018).

Project summary

Vashti’s project will trace continuity and change in anti-fascist campaigning in the period since the Second World War up until the beginning of the Trump presidency. Her research explores six case studies, organised chronologically, to gauge the relationship between Australian anti-fascism and four phenomena. These are the far right itself, different radical leftist political currents, broader anti-racist social and trade union campaigns and international trends in anti-fascist activism. 

Given the global rise of Antifascist movements (‘Antifa’) in recent years, this is a topic of considerable academic and public interest in Australia and beyond. While there are previous analyses of far right politics, and pre-war anti-fascism, Vashti’s research is unearthing valuable new stories and perspectives that are extremely valuable for thinking through the present moment.

Marcus is currently a candidate for a Doctor of Philosophy at the Australian National University, Centre of Arab and Islamic Studies (Central Asia and the Middle East).

Project title

Mechanics fleeing communism: the Russian refugee diaspora in Iran and its resettlement in Australia, 1930 to 1960.

Project Summary

Marcus’ project will explore the Russian refugee diaspora in Iran that developed between the two World Wars and which then emigrated to Australia and the United States in the 1950s. 

To date there have been no substantive studies of this strand of the post revolution Russian diaspora, either internationally or for Australia. Most research has concentrated on Russian refugees from China and the displaced persons camps in Europe. 

Marcus will intensively utilise the records of the National Archives concentrating in particular on the immigration and naturalisation records and Alien Registration books for identified families. Families were identified from the Archives shipping and aircraft arrival records including some 30 Russian (including Ukrainian) families, comprising over 100 individuals that came to Australia from Iran between 1948 and 1960 and who did not arrive as displaced persons.

Julian is currently a candidate for a Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Adelaide. Julian is a Māori historian and educator with a passion for Indigenous cultures and knowledge systems. Julian is currently researching the history of citizenship education for Māori, Aboriginal, and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Project title

A comparative history of citizenship education for Māori, Aboriginal, and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.

Project summary

Julian’s project will compare how ideas of civic identity have been taught to Māori, Aboriginal, and Torres Strait Islander peoples in European education systems from 1814 to the present. His thesis will draw on longitudinal case studies to evaluate Indigenous engagement with, and resistance to, educational structures in light of our own social ideals, systems, and protocols.

Julian will combine a historical methodology with an innovative Maori theoretical framework in order to interpret the past in ways that include Indigenous knowledge and perspectives. The Commonwealth Governments’ involvement with the Northern Territory administration means that there are many records held in the collection of benefit to his project.

Yianni Cartledge, PhD Candidate, Flinders University

Biographical Note:

Yianni Cartledge is a candidate for PhD at the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Flinders University, under supervision of Associate Professor Andrekos Varnava and co-supervision of Professor Philip Payton. His PhD thesis explores the migration of Greek islanders, particularly from the Aegean Sea, to the Anglo-speaking world during the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries.

Yianni’s research interests include migration and the migrant experience, South Australian history, the British and Ottoman Empires, and the history of modern Greece, which can be seen through his Honours dissertation focussing on British Christian-humanitarianism during the 1822 Chios Massacre. An article originating in his Honours thesis, ‘The Chios Massacre (1822) and early British Christian-humanitarianism’ was published in the Historical Research journal in February 2020.

Project Summary:

Yianni's project explores the migration of Greek Aegean islanders to the Anglosphere between 1815 and 1930, focussing in particular on two corresponding case studies: the first being Greeks from the island of Chios emigrating to London (1815-1880s), although spreading to other parts of Britain, including Liverpool and Manchester; and the second being Greeks from the island of Ikaria settling in South Australia (1900-1930), most notably in Adelaide, Port Pirie and the towns of the South Australian West Coast. The study will discuss the reasons for emigration, methods of community building and integration into their respective places of settlement.

It is the hypothesis of Yianni's research that these migrations reflect the major political and economic world events of the period, local ethnic and national identity tensions between newly formed Greece and the Ottoman Empire, migration trends and policy in the Anglosphere, as well as the individual struggles, challenges and identity crises of early migrants. This will illustrate that these histories are linked and resulted in a significant early Aegean islander migration to the West.

Items held in the National Archives of Australia will be paramount to Yianni’s research, as they will help uncover record of the arrival, settlement, employment, naturalisation and even conscription of early Aegean migrants, as well as demonstrate how these migrants navigated the government policies and procedures of the time. The records will also provide a paper trail of migrant sponsorships that indicate how ‘chain migration’ was used to build communities.

Bolin Hu, PhD candidate, University of Auckland

Topic: All for China: The Propaganda Efforts of the Chinese Government and Community in Australia, 1931–1945

Biographical note

Bolin Hu is a PhD candidate in the History Department, School of Humanities at University of Auckland, New Zealand. His project, supervised by Associate Professor Malcolm Campbell and Professor Paul Clark, examines the transnational history of the Nanjing government and Chinese Australian community making propaganda efforts to gain the support of both Australian government and people during the Sino-Japanese War and Pacific War. Bolin’s research interests include histories of medicine, Sino-Australia relation, and Chinese in Australia and New Zealand before 1949.

Project Summary

Bolin’s project explores the propaganda efforts made by the Chinese government and community in Australia, mainly focusing on how they motivated Chinese residents and local Australians to participate in China’s anti-Japanese war in 1931–1945. Their publicity activities reveal the complicated interplays between Chinese community, Nanjing government, and local Australians, providing a new understanding of wartime propaganda.

Since the Mukden Incident in 1931, Chinese diplomatic representatives for Nanjing and overseas Chinese in Australia actively started propaganda campaigns to appeal to their counterparts and local Australians to support China’s war efforts. After the beginning of the Pacific War and the alliance between China and Australia, Chinese propaganda in Australia was increasingly officially controlled. The publicity policy also switched from exposing Japanese atrocities to building up a positive image of China, such as its strong war capability and the enhanced status of Chinese women. Meanwhile, the Australian general public gradually split into pro-China and pro-Japan groups through the 1930s and competed for public support. This dispute faded away with the outbreak of the Pacific War, and the pro-China group reached its peak in the 1940s when a series of associations were set up with the support of Chinese officials.

Through the National Archives of Australia, combined with recorded oral history, Bolin intends to access records, particularly the documents of the Department of External Affairs and the Chinese community in Australia. These documents will constitute an integral part of Bolin’s multi-archival research, including records held in Nanjing and Taibei, which will reveal aspects of the Chinese war propaganda efforts in Australia that are currently poorly understood.

Julia Russoniello, DMA candidate, University of Sydney

Julia’s project will explore classical music performance in Australia in the early twentieth-century. The research undertaken will assist with understanding the performance traditions of Australian violinists during the 1900–1950 era.

Topic: Looking Forward, Listening Back. Australian violinists of the Golden Age rediscovered through performance markings and historic sonic information.

Biographical note:

Sydney-based violinist and researcher Julia Russoniello is a current doctoral candidate at the University of Sydney. Specialising in historical performance, Julia has studied with leading historical performer-researchers Daniel Yeadon and Neal Peres Da Costa and has performed in masterclasses for internationally renowned historical violinists, Stephano Montenari, Federico Gugliemo and Elisa Citterio.

Julia has performed with the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra, Sydney Philharmonic Orchestra, Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Bach Akademie Australia, Pinchgut/Orchestra of the Antipodes, Salut! Baroque and the Golden Age Quartet and has been recorded live for ABC Classics, Fine Music 102.5 and Phoenix Central Park.

Project Summary:

Julia’s research project explores classical music performance in Australia in the early twentieth century. The scarcity of recordings of Australian artists 1900-1950 raises the question of how musical performances actually sounded and how musical notations were understood and interpreted by players of the time. Through the examination of pedagogical texts, concert reviews, concert programs, annotated scores, radio broadcasts, and audio recordings, this research project will shed light on the performing traditions of Australian violinists of this era.

The performance style of classical musicians shifted dramatically during the twentieth century. Widespread recordings from this era reveal the use of outdated modes of musical expression including extreme fluctuations in tempo, prominent portamento, pitch scoops and selective, fast vibrato. Whether these, and other expressive characteristics were part of the Australian musical ‘dialect’ is an important question, the result of which could inform interpretations of Australian music composed in this period. This research will not only enhance our understanding of the ways in which musical expression was understood and delivered in the early twentieth century, but it will augment our current understanding of the history of musical practices in Australia.

The documents and recordings obtained through the National Archives of Australia will be used in the analysis of local performing traditions and will be disseminated into a creative performance of Australian violin music from this era. Notated and annotated music as well as sonic information in this collection, will serve to establish evidence of fingering choices, bowing conventions and modifications to tempo and rhythm used in this period. The personal papers and Australian authored violin methods in the National Archives of Australia are unique sources that provide a snapshot of traditions hitherto unexamined by present-day performers and researchers.

Kate Kirby, PhD Candidate, University of the Sunshine Coast

Kate’s project will explore and investigate an era of significant change and development in Australian sports history organisation, with the shedding of proud amateur mindset for national and state government investment in sport policy.

Ilona Fekete, PhD candidate, University of Queensland

Topic: War criminals and political extremists in the Hungarian diaspora in Australia (1950-)

Biographical note

Ilona Fekete is a PhD candidate at the University of Queensland. Her dissertation examines case studies of identity maintenance within the Hungarian diaspora in Australia, investigating the evolution of national imagery and demonstrating the significance of this dynamic relationship to identity maintenance.

Ilona holds degrees in history and art history, and recently worked as the manager of the Commissariat Store Museum, Brisbane. Her research interests include diaspora heritage and diaspora nationalism.

In the past, Ilona focused on medical history and illustration, with special regard to the relationship between institutional training and textbooks for medical surgeons at the end of the 18th century. Beside a wide variety of Hungarian publications, one of her articles was published in Early Modern Science and Medicine.

Project summary

Between 1947 and 1954 more than 13,000 Hungarians relocated to Australia in the wake of World War II. Some of these New Australians were previously members of the extremist Arrow Cross Party, or 'Hungarist Movement', in Hungary. After emigrating, several former Arrow Cross members occupied leading positions in Hungarian diaspora or Australian extremist organisations in Australia. Other former Arrow Cross members or sympathisers lived under the radar in Australia for decades, committing themselves to subsidiary roles in the Hungarian community.

The project will document the extent and influence of the Arrow Cross in Australian Hungarian diaspora organisations. Due to a variety of sensitivities, prior research has shied away from investigating this subject. As such, the presence of extremists remained an ‘open secret'. However, the presence of extremists was crucial to the negotiation of Hungarian identity within the diaspora movement. 

Ilona's research analyses practices of identity-making in Hungarian cultural festivals, national days and objects that enable communities to embody the nation, as well as the impact of Australian assimilatory and multicultural policies, and recent efforts by Hungary’s 'new-nationalist' Fidesz government to influence the identity of the diasporic community in Australia.

The holdings of the National Archives of Australia are crucial to the success of the project. The National Archives holds extensive records concerning the background and activities of several key Hungarian extremists, as well as their influence on later diaspora movements. Additionally, they shed light on the attitudes of the Australian government and Hungarian community organisations to the presence of potential war criminals in the country.

Hirokazu Matsui, PhD candidate, Deakin University

Topic: True complementarity? Australia, Japan and multilateral aid, 1952–1967

Biographical note

Hirokazu Matsui is a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Arts and Education, Deakin University. His PhD thesis will examine how Australia perceived and reacted to change in Japan's international status in the early Cold War era, from a former enemy to a significant economic power which was expected to play some part in regional affairs in Asia, such as providing aid to developing countries.

He is interested in the history of Australian foreign policy, especially Australia-Japan relations and Australia's multilateral diplomacy. As a masters student, Hirokazu wrote on Australia's foreign policy regarding the creation of the United Nations, including the award-winning article 'The Australian Labor Government and the Creation of the United Nations: Discussions over the Criteria for Electing Non-Permanent Members of the Security Council'.

He is also a member of Contemporary History Research Group at Deakin University.

Project summary

Post-WWII Australia-Japan relations started from a position of lingering hostility. Nonetheless, in the 1950s and the 1960s, Australia and Japan found some common regional interests as they were both members of the Western bloc of the Cold War and developed countries in the Western Pacific. This fact, while often being overshadowed by rapid growth of bilateral trade, has been acknowledged by scholarly literature on Australia–Japan relations. Some of the literature mentions cooperation between Australian and Japan at the regional level, including through regional organisations, but there has been no detailed examination of the way in which Australia and Japan cooperated, the results of this cooperation and its limitations.

Hirokazu's project, which is a part of his broader thesis, fills this gap. His project focuses on Australia's policy towards Japan with particular reference to regional organisations which were involved with the provision of aid to developing countries in the region. These organisations include the Colombo Plan, the Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East and Asian Development Bank. His project will closely examine how Australia-Japan relations were played out within these multilateral frameworks and also how bilateral relations influenced the way in which these organisations functioned. This research will investigate areas of agreement as well the factors that limited or hindered cooperation between Australia and Japan, thereby testing whether the narrative of economic complementarity that dominates the historiography of Australia–Japan relations in the post-WWII era is applicable to this underappreciated but important field.

The scholarship will allow Hirokazu to access to records held by National Archives, especially documents of the then Department of External Affairs regarding  Australia’s policy towards regional organisations involved in aid to developing countries and its communication with the Japanese government. These documents will constitute an integral part of Hirokazu's multi-archival research, which will also include records held by Diplomatic Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan.

Madeleine Regan, PhD candidate, Flinders University

Topic: Establishing family market gardens and transplanting Veneto identity to the western suburbs of Adelaide, 1920s to 1970s

Biographical note

Madeleine Regan is a PhD candidate in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at Flinders University, Adelaide.

Madeleine’s research interests include oral history and its role in documenting narratives of individuals and communicating knowledge of under-represented groups. A further area of interest is the use of digital media to record the history of women and communities in the context of migration to, and settlement in, Australia. An oral historian and secretary of Oral History Australia SA/NT, Madeleine has coordinated oral history projects with Italian communities, local government and educational organisations.

Project summary

Madeleine’s project focuses on the migration and settlement of a small group of people who emigrated from two provinces in the Veneto region of Italy and settled in Adelaide from the late 1920s. It explores the context of individuals in Australian migration history through oral histories, archival research and the digital transmission of a migrant community history. While considerable research has been undertaken on post-World War II Italian migration, less information has been published about the origins and settlement history of small regional groups in Australia between the wars.

The experience of the 17 men and 1 woman and their families who became commercial market gardeners in urban Adelaide has been compiled through 58 oral history interviews recorded with family members who arrived as children, and second-generation family members.

Records in the collection of the National Archives of Australia will supplement the oral histories. Madeleine intends to use records relating to applications for naturalisation, purchase of land, conscription of men into the Civil Aliens Corps and other ‘enemy alien’ records to provide deeper understanding of the circumstances of individual migrants.

Beth Marsden, PhD candidate, La Trobe University

Topic: ‘Education for what?’ Schooling, mobility and Aboriginal people in Victoria in the mid-twentieth century.

Biographical note

Beth Marsden is a PhD candidate in History at La Trobe University, Melbourne. Her doctoral project investigates the history of Indigenous education in Victoria in the mid-twentieth century. Beth is interested in historical and present-day Indigenous education in Australia, histories of childhood, Indigenous resistance and mobilities, as well as contemporary education policy and curricula. Her published work has appeared in the History of Education Review, is forthcoming in Aboriginal History, Australian Historical Studies, and in an edited collection from Aboriginal Studies Press which explores the history of Aboriginal exemption.

Project summary

Using archival and oral history interview methodologies, Beth’s research utilises the growing theoretical framework of Indigenous mobilities to explore the experiences of Indigenous youth attending school in Victoria in the mid-twentieth century. The project focuses on both primary school education and post-compulsory schooling. It examines how Indigenous youth engaged with state school systems in rural areas of Victoria, and how their mobility was influenced by various factors including; family and kin, employment, housing, and avoidance of government interference. It also draws out connections between post-compulsory schooling in Victoria and the broader educational networks and pathways that were utilised by Indigenous youth and their families.

This research centres the experiences of children who moved to Victoria for the purpose of attending school. It develops a framework for understanding how the mobility of Indigenous children operated on a national level, through the cooperation of numerous state government departments, and via the networks between schools, institutions, government agencies, missions and church administrators.

Beth’s project aims to generate new understandings of the experiences of Indigenous students attending school in the state of Victoria and nationally.

Rob Konkel, PhD candidate, Princeton University

Topic: Building Blocs: Raw Materials and the Global Economy in the Age of Disequilibrium

Biographical note

Rob Konkel is a PhD candidate in the history department at Princeton University. His dissertation, supervised by Professor Jeremy Adelman, examines the significance of raw materials to the interwar global economy. Prior to beginning his PhD, Rob completed a B.A. in history at the University of Saskatchewan, and an M.Sc. in economic and social history at Oxford University where he was supervised by Professor Deborah Oxley. His master's thesis, a history of the World Bank's conceptualization of poverty, was published by The Journal of Global History as "The Monetization of Global Poverty: the Concept of Poverty in World Bank History, 1944-90." Rob has also spent several years with the Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation as a Research and Policy Analyst.

Project summary

Rob's dissertation charts a global history of the interwar period by putting trade, finance, and geopolitics at the centre of a story about rivalries over strategic raw materials, especially metallic minerals. Modern industry required steady supplies of tungsten, manganese, bauxite, and other minerals but deposits were scattered around the world and no state or empire was fully self-sufficient. The First World War had underscored the importance of securing access to metallic minerals and highlighted the threat of resource scarcity. Indeed, the dangers of resource exhaustion weighted heavily on state officials and industrial interests alike, and material difficulties contributed to German, Italian, and Japanese expansionism. This scramble for raw materials links together questions about imperialism, tariffs and quotas, cartelisation, the gold standard, and the splintering of the world into hostile trading blocs.

The world of the interwar years was instable, polycentric, and rife with economic imbalances. While the League of Nations and the nexus of international institutions clustered around Geneva created an image of a seamlessly integrated global economy tethered together by trade and finance, this image was at odds with the reality of war debts, reparations, plunging commodity prices, and trade imbalances. Citizens and business interests alike called for less global economic integration, and states carved out spheres of influence to secure access to scarce resources. This research will focus primarily upon the British and American cases, comparing the British preferential trading system with its dominions and the American proclivity toward internal commodity chains. Rob will also pay attention to producers of primary products like China, Canada, and Australia, which had to navigate the volatility of global markets and rising geopolitical tension.

Australia was a significant international player during this time, but its role is understated in the extant historical literature. Australia occupied a key position in the Anglo-American world due to its production of scarce strategic minerals and foodstuffs, and its geostrategic position in the Pacific. Both Great Britain and the United States lacked domestic deposits of key metallic minerals, making the mineral potential of Australia of paramount importance. By 1930, exploration was well underway in Australia, and investment was directed toward extraction. Rob will examine these issues using records in the collection of the National Archives of Australia, particularly records of the Department of External Affairs, the Prime Minister's Department, the Department of Trade and Commerce, the Mines Branch, Lands and Mines Department, and those related to the exploitation of Aboriginal lands.

Jessica Stroja, PhD candidate, Griffith University

Topic: From War Zones to New Homes: A Longitudinal study of Refugee Resettlement and Experiences in Queensland

Biographical note

Jessica Stroja is a PhD Candidate at Griffith University, where her thesis focuses on experiences of conflict and migration, particularly Displaced Persons and children resettled in Queensland following the Second World War. Her First Class Honours research looked at Australian responses to the Finnish Winter War. As a historian, she specialises in the areas of migration, conflict and local history, with an interest in community engagement with refugee and migrant experiences. Jessica maintains a strong interest in museums and heritage, and is the volunteer Resident Historian at Historic Ormiston House, a historic home in the Redlands region, where she works with the community to provide beneficial research outcomes for both the historic home and its visitors.

Project summary

Following the Second World War, the mass displacement of refugees in Europe was the largest refugee crisis that the world had experienced to date. The resettlement of Displaced Persons in Australia during this period was also the largest wave of migration the country had experienced up to that point in time. Jessica's project focuses on the resettlement of Displaced Persons and their children in Queensland following the Second World War. In particular, this project addresses the resettlement experiences of Polish, Latvian and Ukrainian Displaced Persons who were resettled in various Queensland regions.

This project assesses the significance of displacement, encampment and violence for refugees in non-culturally diverse locations, and considers the way in which Displaced Persons' involvement with the Department of Immigration and other government agencies influenced their resettlement experiences and memories. With a particular focus on children who were resettled as refugees in Queensland during this period, the project highlights the legacy of these experiences for families and children, and reveals the way in which this legacy continues to have ongoing implications for refugees throughout resettlement.

Using records in the collection of the National Archives of Australia, combined with fifty newly recorded oral histories, Jessica intends to access records surrounding the resettlement of Displaced Persons in Queensland, and official policies related to their early resettlement experiences. This will allow the project to develop a greater understanding of the ongoing effects of displacement and resettlement in areas of low cultural and linguistic diversity and, in particular, the way in which these circumstances and events affect various domains of life for refugees.

Laura Rovetto, PhD candidate, Victoria University

Topic: Peace Activism, Community Mobilisation: the social and political agency of the Campaign for International Cooperation and Disarmament, 1960-1985

Biographical note

Laura Rovetto is a history PhD candidate in the School of Arts and Education at Victoria University. Her thesis, supervised by Emeritus Professor Phillip Deery and Associate Professor Dianne Hall, examines the role of the Campaign for International Cooperation and Disarmament (CICD) in the Australian peace movement from the 1960s until the 1980s. Her Honours thesis, which examined CICD's approach to activism during the first Melbourne Vietnam Moratorium Campaign, from 1969-1970, was a key component in her being awarded both the 2016 Victoria University Medal for Academic Excellence and the Centenary Postgraduate Research Scholarship.

Project summary

Laura's project seeks to explain the significant contribution of the CICD to the Australian peace movement over a twenty-five year period. It argues that the effectiveness of the CICD was due to its willingness to resolve tensions between its defining, yet contradictory, features: on the one hand, its commitment to broad inclusion and extensive collaboration; on the other, its hierarchical organisational structure and its embrace of particular ideological positions.

Since its formation at the 1959 Melbourne Peace Congress, the CICD has been a continuous and coherent organisation. It fostered a particular set of community values and developed networks of local community alliances for the organisation and mobilisation of mass peace, disarmament and anti-nuclear protests. The historiography of the Australian peace movement during this period, has generally focused on student and youth activism and has neglected the CICD. This project will, therefore, represent the first scholarly analysis of the organisation and will contribute to redressing a significant gap in the history of grassroots political activism in post-war Australia.

Through the National Archives of Australia, Laura intends to access records created by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) concerning the CICD and its lineal predecessors, the Australian Peace Council and the Australia and New Zealand Congress for international Cooperation and Disarmament. ASIO records will represent a crucial counterpoint to CICD's organisational records by providing insight into "official' perspectives on the CICD and illuminate the scope and character of the organisation's activities.

David Saunders, PhD candidate, University of Hong Kong

Topic: Intra-imperial connections: Australia's involvement in North Borneo's post-war reconstruction and colonisation, 1945–63

Biographical note

David Saunders is a PhD candidate researching South-East Asian, global and imperial history at the University of Hong Kong. His dissertation examines the history of British North Borneo after the Second World War and its transition towards decolonisation and merger with Malaysia. He has previously studied at the University of St Andrews, and has spent time as a visiting research student at King's College, London.

Project summary

David's project examines British North Borneo after the Second World War, focusing primarily on the under-studied impact of Australian military, administrative and later economic involvement in the territory between 1945 and 1963. North Borneo's liberation, official incorporation into the British Empire as a crown colony before eventually merging with Malaysia, reveals a pattern of shifting administrations and ever-extending foreign incursion.

Through an analysis of documents pertaining to the post-war British Borneo Civil Affairs Unit (primarily staffed by Australian administrators), as well as files relating to trades of commodities such as oil, rubber, copra and tobacco, this project will show how Australia's involvement in North Borneo after the war represented a significant yet under-examined period of intra-imperial connection.

The loss of colonial power during the Second World War provided Australians with an opportunity to further participate within Britain's declining imperial system. Similarly, the geographic positioning of Borneo, as a focal point within South-East Asia, rendered the territory important to Australian politicians in a way that differed to typical British colonial policy. Upon liberation in 1945 it was seen as a potential buffer zone against future Japanese aggression, and later as a key point of entry into South-East Asia's rapidly growing economies.

Using files held in the National Archives' collection, this project will build upon a wider PhD thesis considering the history of North Borneo after the Second World War, and the various forms of competing foreign involvement in the territory.

Kathryn Avery, PhD candidate, Federation University

Topic: An oily stepping stone: Portuguese Timor, Japan and Australian security, 1902-1941

Biographical note

Kathryn Avery is a Research Priority Area PhD scholarship holder in the Collaborative Research Centre in Australian History at Federation University Australia. Her thesis focuses on the Australian government’s concerns over Japanese intentions in Portuguese Timor prior to the outbreak of the Pacific War. Kathryn's broad research interest is the history of Australian foreign policy, with a particular focus on Australian-British and Australian-Japanese relations. Kathryn also forms part of the history teaching team within the School of Arts at Federation University Australia.

Project summary

Situated within close proximity to Northern Australia, the small yet strategically important colony of Portuguese Timor played a significant role in Australian security considerations during the first half of the twentieth century prior to the outbreak of the Second World War in the Pacific. To date, understandings of Australian interests in Portuguese Timor have focused on the Japanese occupation period between 1942 and 1945, as well as the more recent history in Timor-Leste with respect to tensions over access to oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea. The significance of Portuguese Timor to Australia prior to the outbreak of the Second World War has received scant attention.

Australia's leaders feared for their nation's security should the colony fall into Japan's sphere of influence. Kathryn's thesis will explore the origins of the strategic significance of Portuguese Timor to Australian security, as well as the measures pursued by Australia's leaders to counter Japanese penetration of the colony, within the context of British Imperialism and the wider international crisis of the time. Further, it will examine inconsistencies in Australian policy that sought to appease Japan during its expansion into China, while taking a firmer stance in checking the Japanese when closer to the Australian mainland.

Lea Doughty, PhD candidate, University of Otago

Topic: Military Medicines: military pharmacy and medicine supply to the Anzac forces, 1914-1918

Biographical note

Lea Doughty is a PhD candidate at the School of Pharmacy, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. Her project, supervised by Dr Susan Heydon, Professor Darryl Tong (Otago) and Dr Peter Hobbins (University of Sydney), examines the experience and role development of ANZAC military pharmacists and the supply of medicines to the troops during World War I. She is particularly interested in the intersections and tensions between institutions of conflict and health.

Project summary

Medicines are usually invisible and taken for granted until suddenly they are not available. As such, the practice of pharmacy within a military context and the supply of medicines and therapeutics during times of conflict are areas of historiography that have been overlooked.

Trade in medicines was one of the earliest industries to be globalised, and Germany was the main supply for synthetic drugs such as aspirin, phenacetin, the anti-syphilitic Salvarsan, Veronal and formalin, all of which were developing and became available from the late nineteenth century. Medical-grade opium for the production of morphine was sourced from Turkey. At the outbreak of war in 1914, access to these products by the Allies was abruptly curtailed, resulting in immediate shortages and potential direct medical consequences.

The records in the National Archives' collection will be used to underpin aspects of the supply chain that are currently poorly understood. It is anticipated that the records will help to illuminate the process of purchasing from external suppliers, as well as the logistics involved in shipping through the lines of communication to the end destination. The availability of these records, in turn, may be of ongoing value to medical, military and economic historians seeking to understand the clinical, political and commercial basis for large-scale pharmaceutical manufacture in early twentieth-century Australia.

Miranda Francis, PhD candidate in History, La Trobe University

Topic: Why did Mrs 'Smith' send a submission to the Royal Commission into Human Relationships? Family life in 1970s Australia

Biographical note

Miranda Francis is a history PhD student in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at La Trobe University. Her project, supervised by Katie Holmes and Ruth Ford, examines mothering in post-1945 suburban Melbourne. It is based on life-history style interviews with women aged over 60. She is particularly interested in the interplay between contemporary oral evidence and archival records and has written about this: 'One woman’s crèche is a bureaucrat’s child-minding centre: "The Flat" at Footscray High School 1976–1986' in Provenance: The Journal of Public Record Office Victoria, vol 15, 2016–17.

Project summary

This project is to look at Justice Elizabeth Evatt's personal papers associated with the Royal Commission on Human Relationships (established by Federal Parliament on 21 August 1974) and in particular the individual submissions to the Commission.

It is part of a larger PhD thesis on parenting in post-1945 Australia which is founded on oral history but calls heavily on written archives. The core of the thesis is in-depth interviews with 30 women aged over 60. Many of these women were parenting in the 1970s and contemporaries of the people who sent submissions to the Royal Commission on Human Relationships. Indeed two interviewees in the project were members of activist groups, the Women's Electoral Lobby (WEL) and the National Council for Single Mothers and their Children (NCSMC), who prepared formal submissions.

These submissions present an opportunity to hear the voices of everyday Australians talk about their lives. Examining these submissions will give insights into the family relationships at the everyday level which could deepen historical understandings of the changing social behaviour and cultural values in 1970s Australia. These voices can be missed with more institutional type histories. Digitising some of this rich collection will make the material more accessible for researchers interested in both the submission’s content as well as understanding how individuals have responded historically to Royal Commissions. This is particularly relevant when considering the emphasis on personal testimony by the current Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Sexual Abuse.

Holly Taylor, PhD candidate, University of Washington

Topic: Preserving Places That Matter: The Origins of Social Value in Australian Heritage Conservation Policy

Biographical note

Holly Taylor is a PhD candidate at the University of Washington in the College of Built Environments Interdisciplinary PhD program. Her dissertation examines preservation policy and practice related to community values and the cultural significance of historic places. She holds degrees in cultural anthropology and architecture history and theory, directs a heritage consultancy founded in 2003, and also serves as an affiliate instructor for the University of Washington Department of Urban Design and Planning.

Project summary

In the context of the fiftieth anniversary of the 1966 US National Historic Preservation Act, Holly will explore how historic preservation protects places that people actually care about. Studies of the development of U.S. federal preservation regulations reveal perspectives limited to historical, architectural and archaeological values. In contrast, the Australian Heritage Commission Act 1975 and the subsequent 1979 Burra Charter recognise social significance as a core value, along with aesthetic, historic and scientific significance, providing an important alternative approach to conservation philosophy and research methods.

A key aspect of Holly's research seeks to understand the historical origins of the concept of social value, and how it was introduced into Australian heritage discourse during the Hope Inquiry process. Two general inspirations for social value are widely recognised: Aboriginal activism associated with self-determination, and union activism of the Green Bans movement. However, the specific sources for how these movements were translated into public heritage policy in Australia in a way that gave legal standing to community values remain unclear.

Holly intends to access records associated with the Committee of Inquiry into the National Estate (1973–74) chaired by Justice Robert M Hope, to understand how public submissions may have informed the Committee's recommendation to include social value among Australia's criteria for assessing heritage significance. This will provide greater insight into the role of community activism in shaping Australia's innovative approach to social value as part of the National Estate, which in turn influenced UNESCO world heritage policy. Although Australian federal policy has since shifted away from considering community significance, this historical study of social value will build an argument for adopting a similar policy in the US more than 40 years later.

Bethany Phillips-Peddlesden, PhD candidate, School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, University of Melbourne

Topic: Women and Politics: Maternalism, Party Politics and Political Wives

Natalie Fong, PhD candidate (Philosophy), Griffith University

Topic: 'Fresh Off the Boat': Chinese Merchants and Transnational Connections between China, Hong Kong and Australia

Biographical note

Natalie Fong is a PhD candidate in the School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science at Griffith University. Her thesis examines the roles played by Chinese merchants in organising the Northern Territory Chinese during the period 1880–1920, such as protests against discrimination, and their interactions with European business and political leaders. Natalie is descended from two prominent Northern Territory Chinese patriarchs – Wing Wah Loong (Fong How/Fong Sui Wing) and Low Dep Chitt. She is also a secondary school English and history teacher, and the Head of English and ESL at Citipointe Christian College, Brisbane.

Project summary

Natalie Fong argues that Chinese transnational business networks, building on historical trade and facilitated by advances in transport and communication, were a key factor in the initial dominance and success of the Chinese in the Northern Territory.

In the late 1800s to early 1900s, Chinese merchants from the southern Guangdong region of China dispersed all over the world, thanks to the busy port of Hong Kong. They established familial, transnational business networks – a model that divided assets and divided risks. This safety net helped secure their success. One place that they established businesses was the Northern Territory in Australia. By the late 1800s, the Chinese had become numerically and economically dominant. Chinese merchants capitalised on the long history of trade between northern Australia and south-east Asia, as well as Darwin’s accessibility from Hong Kong by steamship, to import and export goods and people. These networks may also have serviced Chinese businesses elsewhere in Australia, such as Sydney, Melbourne and Bendigo, and throughout south-east Asia.

Natalie intends to access records relating to key Chinese merchants and their business dealings, to shed further light on how these networks may have operated. This will provide a fuller picture of Chinese business dealings in Australia and internationally. She will also explore historiographical concepts such as imperialism, transnationalism and ‘sojourning versus settling’.

Jo Grant, PhD candidate (History), Griffith University

Topic: Internationalism and the ‘Primitive’ during the 1950s: Julian Huxley’s, Arnold Toynbee’s and Clyde Kluckhohn’s Tours to Aboriginal Missions in the Northern Territory

Biographical note

Jo Grant is a PhD candidate in the School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science at the Nathan campus of Griffith University.  Her dissertation examines the Australian lecture tours of several public intellectuals, particularly Bertrand Russell and Julian Huxley, during the early 1950s, and discusses the significance of these tours to the history of ideas of Australia.

Project summary

Jo Grant will examine the visits made by prominent internationalists to several Aboriginal and Indigenous missions in the Northern Territory during the early years of the Cold War, including anthropologist Clyde Kluckhohn, zoologist Julian Huxley, and historian Arnold Toynbee.

At a time when racial ideologies were being globally contested alongside a growing humanitarian concern about minorities after the Second World War, government policy in Australia was shifting towards the assimilation of Aborigines into European settler society.  Paul Hasluck, the Federal Minister for Territories, invited Kluckhohn, Huxley and Toynbee to spend several weeks in the Northern Territory to witness the ‘civilising project’ in practice while they were in Australia on lecture tours for the Australian Institute of International Affairs.

Through an outline of these mission tours, this project will discuss how Aborigines and Indigenous peoples featured in the internationalist imagination during the 1950s.  It will ask how the encounters of these internationalists with Aboriginal Australians, mediated through the mission space, reveals the ways in which ideas of the ‘primitive’ circulated around the world in the thought of Kluckhohn, Huxley and Toynbee, and how their thinking was shaped by their travels.

Katherine Roscoe, PhD candidate (History), University of Leicester

Topic: Island Chains: the transportation of convicts to islands around colonial Australia, 1788-1901

Biographical note

Katherine Roscoe is a PhD candidate in the School of History at the University of Leicester, United Kingdom. Her thesis examines the transportation of convicts and prisoners to islands surrounding the Australian mainland. Her research interests are colonialism and imperialism, the history of crime and punishment, and maritime history. Katherine works as part of the European Research Council project the ‘Carceral Archipelago’, which is the first global history of convicts and penal colonies from 1415 to 1960 (convictvoyages.org).

In 2014 she received an Australian Bicentennial Scholarship from the Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, King’s College London, to undertake research in Sydney and Perth. She has published ‘“Too many kill ’em. Too many make ’em ill”: the Commission into Rottnest Island Prison as the context for Section 70’ in a special issue of Studies in Western Australian History (vol. 3, 2016), and co-edited a special issue on 'Networks in Imperial History', Journal of World History (vol. 3, no. 4, 2015).

Project summary

Katherine Roscoe argues that the transportation of European, Aboriginal and Chinese convicts to offshore islands was essential to the colonisation of the vast Australian mainland. Using prison records and colonial office correspondence as the primary source material, six chapters shift the historical lens to the peripheries of Australia. Each chapter focuses on how island geography shaped the penal establishments and how they, in turn, shaped the administration of empire. The thesis uses three case studies – Melville Island in the Northern Territory (1824–28), Cockatoo Island in New South Wales (1839–69), and Rottnest Island in Western Australia (1839–1903) – to understand the role of maritime penal spaces in the settler–colonial project. Exploiting a unique tension of islands as both isolated and connected by sea, the thesis advances historical understanding of the relationship between punishment, labour and environment at the very fringes of empire.

This scholarship will enable Katherine to access archival material about convict labour on Rottnest Island (Wadjemup), including correspondence files and plans and drawings of lighthouses and lighthouse sites dating back to the late 1800s. Aboriginal prisoners on Rottnest built not one, but two, lighthouses to guide ships to the busy port at Fremantle – one of countless examples of convicts building the maritime infrastructure necessary for global trade. Rottnest’s inmates also harvested salt, an essential commodity for preserving goods, which was sold at Fremantle. Some of Rottnest’s inmates also worked as servants for numerous governors of Western Australia who would holiday on the island with their families. This prefaced ‘Rotto’s’ transition to the leisure destination it is today, with 570,000 tourists visiting in 2014–15.