Shooting the Picture Press Photography in Australia
Shooting The Picture is the story of Australian press photography from 1888 to today—the power of the medium, seismic changes in the newspaper industry, and photographers who were often more colourful than their subjects.
Fighting Hard: The Victorian Aborigines Advancement League
Fighting Hard tells a history of the Aborigines Advancement League, the oldest Aboriginal organization in Australia. As both a welfare and activist body, the League can be seen as the mother of all Aboriginal Victorian community organizations, having spawned a diverse range of organizations.
Investigative journalist Antony Loewenstein has won an award for his book on Israel’s military-industrial complex.
The book The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World examines how the occupied Palestinian territories are used by Israel as a testing ground for new weapons.
He won the book category at The Walkley Awards, Australia’s biggest journalism awards.
The collection of cases covered by Emily Webb's SUBURBAN TRUE CRIME go back to the 1940's, through to more recent times, covering a wide range of different murders and disappearances that have occurred in Australian suburban locations.
Today in Labor History November 4, 1839: The Newport Rising began. It was the last large-scale armed rebellion against authority in mainland Britain. It began when approximately 4,000 Chartists, led by John Frost, marched on the town of Newport. When several were arrested, other Chartists, including coal miners, many armed with homemade weapons, marched on the Westgate Hotel (where they were held) to liberate them. Up to 24 were killed when soldiers were ordered to open fire on them. The Chartists were fighting for the adoption of the People’s Charter, which called for universal suffrage, the secret ballot, and the right of regular working people to serve in the House of Commons. Three leaders of the uprising were sentenced to death, but popular protests got their sentences commuted to Transportation for Life, probably to Australia or Van Dieman’s Land (Tasmania). America’s first cop, Allan Pinkerton, supposedly participated in this rebellion. He was a known Chartist in those days, a physical force man who loved to battle cops and Tory thugs. Because of his history of street violence and vandalism, he had to flee Britain in the dark of the night, ultimately settling in Illinois, where he eventually set up the private detective agency that would go on to murder numerous union organizers, and set up hundreds more for long prison stints through the use of agents provocateur and perjured testimonies.
The riots were depicted in the following novels: “Sir Cosmo Digby,” by James Augustus St John (1843), “Rape of the Fair Country,” by Alexander Cordell (1959) and “Children of Rebecca,” by Vivien Annis Bailey (1995).
🇦🇺 Australia: Federal COVID-19 reporting is moving to a monthly reporting schedule, with today being the final weekly report. The next report is expected 10th November 2023.
The Diemen Alexander by Marie Hietz has just been released! Set in Hobart, it's SF featuring zoology, comparative anatomy and venture capitalism. It also explores the ethics of human responsibility towards animals, the earth and each other, and the truth that power goes to the person most prepared to wield it.
Described as "Jurassic Park meets ET - in the best possible way.’
This week I wrote about the "worst EV policy in the world," which seems to have breathed its last in #Australia.
"The High Court has struck down a Victoria law that imposed a road-user charge on EVs. The tax was A$2.6 cents to $2.8 cents per kilometer per year and intended to make up for the gas taxes not paid by EV drivers. Drivers were required to submit annual photos of their odometers to the tax authority.”
Recently finished reading Flawed Hero by Chris Masters - the story behind the case against Ben Roberts-Smith VC. This is one of two books on the recent defamation trial bought by BRS against various parties including Masters, and fellow journalist Nick McKenzie (his book on the same case is Crossing the Line).
Via Magabala Books, an Australian Indigenous publisher:
"The 2023 Australian Indigenous Coffee Creative Grants are closing soon!
A grant for First Nation storytellers, writers, illustrators and artists"
☠️ On Saturday 14 Oct, I will be on a panel with @pirateradiomap and Stephen Dunifer:
Walking the Plank in the United Stages: Stories of Un/lawful Radio Transmission
We'll be virtual for the in-person event. If anyone on here is in #NSW & interested in #PirateRadio#MediaActivism, come check it out! Free to register
I feel privileged to be invited back on ABC #Radio National/ #Religion & #Ethics to celebrate 💯 year anniversary of Khalil Gibran’s ‘The Prophet’ — a #book I encountered as a young teenager & which shaped the person/ #writer I am, today.
(My section begins at 18 minute mark).
Big Thanks, to sensitive host Meredith Lake of Soul Search for this gift 🙏🏼✨
"Labor has been accused of running a “protection racket” for state premiers by opting to hold an inquiry into Australia’s COVID response instead of a royal commission with the power to compel witnesses."