History at UWA

The Call for Papers for the 2026 Australian Historical Association Conference is now live: Macquarie University, 29 June - 3 July, on the theme of "Changing Minds".

https://theaha.org.au/aha-conference-2026/?fbclid=IwY2xjawObmpNleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFJZHZrYmZ5dndLeFRpWHNxc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHt17Ww9Z7OEqoos8B-O-8uvgHxibfIS0h11jUkVUJfdpECHmyOAF8KYI_RAA_aem_9IeKMKMnZaEn9y2UcAu7tw

AHA Conference 2026 - The Australian Historical Association Monday 29 June–Friday 3 July 2026, Macquarie University The 45th Australian Historical Association (AHA) Conference will be hosted by Macquarie University. The organising committee are excited to welcome historians from […]

Congratulations to Joe Christensen on his forthcoming book! OUT FEB 2026

NOT JUST A BUNNINGS MAN: The Life and Times of Tom (G. M.) Bunning By Joseph Christensen

G. M. ‘Tom’ Bunning helped to drive the ascent of Bunnings as one of the great successes of Western Australian private enterprise and a household name nationwide. The youngest son of the company’s founder, and one half of a successful executive partnership with elder brother Charles, Tom joined Bunnings on the eve of the Great Depression and remained with it throughout the long post-war boom, before orchestrating the sale of a stake in the family business to Wesfarmers following the stock market crash of 1987, paving the way for the takeover of Bunnings that occurred after his death in 1991.
Not Just a Bunnings Man charts Tom’s long career as an astute and highly-regarded corporate and community leader, detailing the challenges and triumphs that lay behind the transformation of a local sawmiller and timber supplier into the state’s leading building supplies and hardware retailer. It deals at length with his military service and the three and a half years he spent as a Prisoner of War at Singapore. Drawing on extensive private and company records, Joseph Christensen uncovers the personal side to the Bunnings story, exploring the life and times of one of the most respected industrialists and public figures in twentieth-century Western Australia.

UWA School of Humanities
UWA Research
UWA Publishing

NOT JUST A BUNNINGS MAN: The Life and Times of Tom (G. M.) Bunning
By Joseph Christensen

OUT FEB 2026

G. M. ‘Tom’ Bunning helped to drive the ascent of Bunnings as one of the great successes of Western Australian private enterprise and a household name nationwide. The youngest son of the company’s founder, and one half of a successful executive partnership with elder brother Charles, Tom joined Bunnings on the eve of the Great Depression and remained with it throughout the long post-war boom, before orchestrating the sale of a stake in the family business to Wesfarmers following the stock market crash of 1987, paving the way for the takeover of Bunnings that occurred after his death in 1991.

Not Just a Bunnings Man charts Tom’s long career as an astute and highly-regarded corporate and community leader, detailing the challenges and triumphs that lay behind the transformation of a local sawmiller and timber supplier into the state’s leading building supplies and hardware retailer. It deals at length with his military service and the three and a half years he spent as a Prisoner of War at Singapore. Drawing on extensive private and company records, Joseph Christensen uncovers the personal side to the Bunnings story, exploring the life and times of one of the most respected industrialists and public figures in twentieth-century Western Australia.

Available for pre-order now via your local bookshop or direct from UWA Publishing: https://uwap.uwa.edu.au/products/not-just-a-bunnings-man

Cover design by Greg Jorss | Upside Creative.

Many congratulations to John Kinder on the publication of this keenly-awaited book, exploring the life and times of Raffaele Martelli, Missionary in Western Australia!
UWA Publishing
UWA School of Humanities
UWA Research
UWA Historical Society

THE CANON OF ANCONA
Raffaele Martelli, Missionary in Western Australia
by John J Kinder

OUT FEB 2026

Born in Italy, Raffaele Martelli was headed for a brilliant career as a priest and professor but his passion for Italian unification and civil rights put him at odds with the church establishment. After a chance encounter with Rosendo Salvado, founder of the New Norcia Mission, he sailed to Fremantle in 1853, at the age of 42.

Directed by church authorities to work among the white population, his passion for social justice led him to build churches and schools, work side by side with Protestant pastors, and look out for the downtrodden. When he finally managed to work with Aboriginal people, the worsening nature of the colonial frontier presented challenges he felt unable to meet. The Canon of Ancona captures a unique voice in early Western Australia – the voice of an outsider.

Available for pre-order now: https://uwap.uwa.edu.au/products/the-canon-of-ancona

Cover design by Elizabeth Gourlay.

Dr Caroline Ingram was the winner of the 2025 Margaret Medcalf Award! Dr Caroline Ingram was recognised for her research for an article ‘Death at Butterabby: the case of Belo and Mumbleby and Aboriginal women’s place in the nineteenth-century criminal justice system’

At a special ceremony on Friday 24 October 2025 the Hon. Simone McGurk MLA, Minister for Creative Industries, announced that Dr Caroline Ingram was the winner of the 2025 Margaret Medcalf Award. Dr Ingram was recognised for her research for an article ‘Death at Butterabby: the case of Belo and Mumbleby and Aboriginal women’s place in the nineteenth-century criminal justice system’:

Many congratulations to Caroline Ingram for several landmark achievements! Caroline's book was launched today: Women on Trial : Criminal Trials in Colonial Western Australia (Palgrave Macmillan, in the Palgrave Histories of Policing, Punishment and Justice ).

ALSO! Last week she received TWO awards: the 2025 School of Humanities Early-Career Research Award. Awarded annually for individual investigators within the first seven effective full-time academic years of receiving their PhD degree or research doctorate equivalent, who have demonstrated exceptional promise of pursuing a career in research or scholarship.

Awarded the 2025 Margaret Medcalf award for the article 'Death at Butterabbey: The Case of Belo and Mumbleby and Aboriginal Women's Place in the nineteenth-century Criminal Justice System', published in History Australia, Vol. 21: No. 3, 2024.

The Award, which acknowledges excellence in research and referencing of State Archives, honours Miss Margaret Medcalf OAM, Western Australia’s second State Archivist, for her landmark contribution to the development of the State archives collection in Western Australia, which was established in 1945 and is 80 years old this year.
State Records Office of Western Australia
UWA School of Humanities

Berndt Research Foundation Grants 2026. To apply, please email [email protected] for an application pack.

Lecturers/Senior Lecturers, Humanities & Social Sciences. UNSW: location Canberra.
Who You Are (skills and experience):
• A PhD (or close to completion) in a humanities discipline relevant to the study of warfare. This may include, but is not limited to, history, strategic studies, security studies, politics, and area studies.
• Preference for an ability to teach at an undergraduate or postgraduate level courses such as Australian Military History / Military Ethics / Theory and Application of Land Power.
• A track record (or advanced plans for) teaching and researching in area relevant for the study of warfare, and/or relevant work experience in this area.
• Proven commitment to proactively keeping up to date with discipline knowledge and developments.

Lecturers/Senior Lecturers, Humanities & Social Sciences Join our internationally recognised team of academics and share your knowledge in a humanities discipline relevant to the study of warfare. We have full and part-time teaching opportunities on offer.

The latest issue 53(5) of JICH has been published!

The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History Volume 53, Issue 5 of The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History

Michael Aird's lecture tomorrow night (Thursday 18 Sept) will be live-streamed for those unable to attend: https://perthvideo.net/brf-2025

Berndt Research Foundation Biennial Lecture with Michael Aird Join us for the Berndt Research Foundation Biennial Lecture featuring Michael Aird at the University Club of Western Australia