Sydney’s Oldest Unsolved Murders

by | Jul 24, 2019 | Blog

When people talk about the convicts sent to Australia across the early years of colonisation, there are two dominant stories that emerge. There’s the story of the unjustly treated convict: driven, by poverty, to steal basic supplies such as clothing and food to...

Australia’s first serial killer

by | Jun 25, 2019 | Blog

This week on 2SER Breakfast, Tess talked to Dr Rachel Franks about the ‘al-fresco murderer’ Frank Butler, who was possibly Australia’s first serial killer. Listen to Rachel and Tess on 2SER here Of all the different types of criminals, it’s the...

James Dunk, Bedlam at Botany Bay

by | Jun 11, 2019 | Book Reviews

James Dunk, Bedlam at Botany Bay NewSouth Books, 2019, 244 pp. (plus notes, select bibliography and index), ISBN: 9781742236179, p/bk, AUS$34.99   Looking at the great corpus of works that exist on Australia’s colonial history, there are so many available...

Edward Smith Hall and The Monitor

by | May 20, 2019 | Blog

This week on 2SER Breakfast, Dr Rachel Franks and host Tess Connery talked about the founders of one of Sydney’s earliest newspapers, Edward Smith Hall. Listen to the audio of Tess and Rachel’s conversation on 2SER here Newspapers have long been an...