Historical Society of the Northern Territory

25/04/2026

At Darwin's Anzac Day dawn service today, three Society members met up with each other. Bev Phelts was selling poppies for the RSL which raised money for Legacy. From left: Penny Baird, Bev Phelts & Allan Mitchell

13/04/2026

On Sunday 12 April, historian and author, Derek Pugh talked about his recent motorbike ride around India taking in sections of the Old Silk Road and heritage sites

30/03/2026

The Historical Society held its AGM on Sunday 29 March.
The Society’s new Committee Members are -

President: Derek Pugh; Vice President: Bev Phelts; Secretary: Libby Siebert; Treasurer: Clare Corfield. others - Brian Reid, Clayton Fredericksen, Vida Goodvach, Rosemary Cameron & Peter Siebert.

We thank outgoing Committee Members, Matt James and Jane Munday for their valuable contributions and wish them well following their interstate moves.

At the AGM, President Derek Pugh presented Jared Archibald his Federation of Australian Historical Societies Fellowship Award.
Fellowships are awarded in recognition of an outstanding and sustained contribution to the community history and heritage movement at the national level.

02/02/2026

The Society’s annual booksale was a great success with around 70-80 people attending. Book donations were from Clayton Fredericksen, Albert Foreman, Jan Richardson, Jim Leach, & Wendy Asche

27/01/2026

The Historical Society is holding a booksale this Sunday 1 February 2pm to 4pm - at 1/16 Charlton Court, Woolner
CASH ONLY

New books but old stock slashed to $5 each,
2nd hand books all $1 and DVD’s 50c.

We have a great range of books on Territory history, archeology, anthropology, general interest to suit everyone. We are taking CASH ONLY so raid your piggy banks. The Genealogical Society of the NT will also be selling their books at the sale.

05/12/2025

A short film on Jose Petrick's life can be watched on this link -

http://www.the100project.com www.facebook.com/the100project

The film clip was produced by TrickleUp Media

The 100 Project celebrates the lives and stories of 100-year-olds across Australia.

01/12/2025

The Society held its Christmas Soiree yesterday (Sunday 30 November). On behalf of the Committee, we hope that its members and followers have a lovely Christmas and New Year. Stay safe and all the best for 2026.

09/11/2025

Our 7th Oration was held at History House on Sunday 9 November. Our guest speaker was Dr Wendy Garden

Wendy obtained her doctorate from the University of Melbourne. She is Head of Audience, Education & Learning at the Museum & Art Gallery of the NT and is President of the Australian Museums & Galleries Association, NT Branch. Her research and writing interests have focused on photographic portraiture in India and Australia and the photomedia reinterpretations of nineteenth century photographs by contemporary artists.

Wendy’s talk was titled “Capturing time past and present: the McArthur River Mine in visual representation”

The expansion of the McArthur River mine cut the tail of the Rainbow Serpent in half, poisoned the surrounding waterways, the town camp water supply and caused the death of 400 cattle.

Aggrieved by the contamination of his ancestral lands, Garrwa elder Jack Green created confronting paintings that brought attention to the environmental damage caused by the mine. He enlisted Darwin based artist Therese Ritchie to create portrait photographs of people from Borroloola who were affected by the ecological threat. The exhibition Open Cut opened at the Northern Centre for Contemporary Art in 2017 followed by the online exhibition Lead in My Grandmother’s Body in 2020.

This led to collaborations between Green, Ritchie, Garrwa/Yanyuwa artist Nancy McDinny, Garrwa/Gangalidda artist Stewart Hoosan and anthropologist Sean Kerins. Their exhibitions drew upon oral histories of settlement to contrast the fast violence of colonial dispossession with the slow violence of environmental poisoning.

With the permission from the artists, Wendy discussed and showed a selection of the artists’ works.

27/10/2025

The History Talks Conference held on the weekend 25 & 26 October was a very successful event that covered a great range of Territory topics. Over 100 people attended the conference with most attending from down south. Big thanks to the organisers from the Professional Historians Association.

20/10/2025

History Conference on this Saturday at the NT Library, 2nd level. The Historical Society will be holding a book stall at the conference. Lots of old stock brand new books being sold as cheap as $5.
CASH ONLY.
The public is welcome to attend. Free entry. See attached program

18/07/2025

Survey - The Society is conducting a survey to better understand what services are valued. We welcome any suggestions for improvement and how we might attract new members.
Please complete this quick survey by the end of August 2025.
It should take 5-10 minutes to complete.
All responses will be treated as confidential and anonymous.
The results of this survey will be reported in our newsletter. If you would prefer to receive results direct, please provide your name and email address.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/historical-society-survey

17/07/2025

Northern Territory History Book Awards
The Award recognises the most significant book about NT history published in the previous 12 months.
To be eligible books must be a work on NT history, written in English or one of the First Nations languages of the Northern Territory. The Awards are judged by a panel of industry experts including academics, historians and/or curators working in the field of Northern Territory history. The winner of the Award receives $1000 in prize money.

The Society had four publications entered in the Award –
Gwenda Baker’s The Peacemakers: Three Wangurri brothers
Chris Haynes’ The Bureaucrat and the Man in the Creekbed
Allan O’Neil’s Midwives, Merchants and Miners
Robyn Smith’s Licence to Kill: Massacre Men of Australia’s North

The awards were held on 16 July and the Historical Society is pleased to announce that Robyn Smith’s book, Licence to Kill was short listed. Her Award was presented by Jinson Charls, Minister for People, Sport & Culture