In mid-2016, the University of Sydney abruptly announced that it would be closing Sydney College of the Arts, its internationally-renowned arts school. Within the space of a few months, the school, wh

In November 1975, the elected Labor Party government of Australia was sacked without notice by Sir John Kerr, the governor-general. Having single-handedly gotten rid of the elected government, Sir Joh

When the British Empire invaded Australia in 1788, the colonys new ruling class had a problem there was no pre-existing working class in Australia waiting around to work for them. Governments and e

In 1977, the premier of Queensland, Joh Bjelke-Petersen, abolished the right to hold street protests. Dont bother applying for a march permit, he declared. You wont get one. Thats government pol

In 1996, newly elected politician Pauline Hanson swept to national prominence after making an extraordinarily racist and inflammatory maiden speech in federal parliament attacking Aboriginal people an

In the 1940s, the Communist Party of Australia was approaching the peak of its power as the largest and most influential left-wing organisation in Australian history. The Communist Party of Australia

Wee Waa, in northern New South Wales, is at the centre of the cotton industry in Australia. Tens of thousands of hectares of cotton crops surround the town, which describes itself as the cotton capit

In the late 1960s, thousands of Turkish migrants began moving to Australia as part of a wave of post-World War II immigration that permanently changed the face of Australian cities. For the Australian

The Pilbara region of Western Australia is one of the remotest places on the planet. Its also one of the most economically significant regions not just in Australia, but the world, with almost indesc

In the early 1900s, radicals and militant unionists across Australia founded the Industrial Workers of the World, arguably the most legendary left-wing organisation in Australian history. The IWW or