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The characters and dramatic events that have
shaped New South Wales have been
captured by historian Beverley Kingston in the
first history of the state to be published in over
a century.
By Alex Clark.
“While other states managed to maintain their own identity, after 1901 NSW seemed submerged in the federation or seen as the Australian archetype,” says Beverley Kingston, an honorary research fellow in the School of History. “While it’s difficult to disentangle the first 50 years of white settlement, NSW rapidly developed its own history.”
Beginning with the convict colony at Port Jackson, Kingston exposes the myriad of influential characters as she traces significant events of the past 235 years. Her favourites include former Premiers George Reid, who governed NSW prior to Federation and Joe Cahill, who brought the Opera House to Sydney’s foreshore. “Reid wouldn’t get anywhere in politics today, he’s so unattractive,” jokes Kingston. “But he was so good in politics because he could read the mood.”
From first contact between Aborigines and Europeans to the impact of World War I and the move to ban more war memorials because they made people miserable, Kingston recalls the struggles and triumphs of groups and individuals.
“People wanted to hold on to the good things that had come out of the war like ‘mateship’,” says Kingston. “But it simultaneously had a very depressing effect, particularly on children. The Minister for Education, Tom Mutch, banned war trophies in schools during the early 1920s.”
Kingston, who taught Australian history at UNSW for more than 30 years, was aware of the scant background material available to students and leapt at the invitation from Cambridge University Press to author the first in a series of historical accounts of Australia’s states and territories.
As NSW editor of the working party for the Australian Dictionary of Biography for more than 10 years, Kingston has drawn on her fascination for people’s lives, both public and private, to tell a story distinct to NSW. “I love memoirs, letters and biographies, I’ve read more biographies than I can remember.”.
The former premier, Bob Carr, whose resignation in August 2005 completes Kingston’s historical account, launched the book at the Royal Mint in Sydney on 23 May to mark the 150th anniversary of the NSW Parliament’s first sitting.
Source: Uniken, Issue 34, June 2006
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