skip to content

Latest News & Coming Events

12 March 2026
DOES HISTORY HAVE A FUTURE IN CANBERRA?

Professor Frank Bongiorno will deliver the 2026 Canberra Day Oration at the National Library of Australia on 12 March.

We live in a world where an understanding of history often seems an inadequate guide to the present and future, yet it is also among the very few tools we have. Canberra has long been a place where history is produced, in a range of forms, and it has been understood as offering this kind of guidance.

Canberra history-making has resisted the allure of the ivory-tower; it has frequently been an injunction to act in and on the world, not merely to understand it. In this year's Canberra Day Oration, Frank Bongiorno will explore Canberra as a place of 'history-making', and he will consider what a future for history in Canberra might look like – in an era where sound historical practice can seem almost countercultural.

See details, including booking, at:

www.library.gov.au/whats-on/events/canberra-day-oration-2026-frank-bongiorno-am

10 February 2026
MEMBERS' GENERAL MEETING - TWO TALKS

The first for the year will begin with a brief overview of what's planned for 2026. This will be followed by two talks.

'The Mysterious Ruin in Stonyhurst Paddock.' Allen Mawer will enlarge upon the intriguing references in 'Down Mugga Lane' to the remains of what seems to have been a stone cottage on Mugga Lane.

'The old McPherson home at Duntroon and William Avery.' Nick Swain will take some old photographs from the Tillyard-Wardle collection and use them to piece together the story of Isabelle Avery (née McPherson. Born at Duntroon) and her husband William.

Your attendance is recommended – guests welcome.

Venue: Wesley Centre, National Circuit, Forrest
Time: 5pm for 5.30pm start
Cost: Donation to cover venue costs appreciated
Free parking from 5pm.

News Archive >

News RSS Feed