History

Australian History as It was Taught

Laurie Hergenhan

The press frequently carries comment on the contemporary difficulties of teaching history and in particular of interesting students in Australian history. I recall my own experience. Back in the 1950s at Sydney University, Australian history was an option in third year, following compulsory year-long surveys of Ancient and Modern European history. The lecturer for the Australian course was Duncan MacCallum, famous for launching the First Fleet late in second term—or was it early in third? He was the one eccentric professor for callow undergraduates to feel superior to. Other staff by comparison appeared able lecturers, but for the uninitiated proficiency can come at a cost, only realised later. MacCallum’s course stood out as a case of prolonged deferral, in the chronological not the postmodern sense. I wonder now what would have happened if Australian black “pre-history” had been on the agenda.

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