People's History of Australia

Australian history isn't made by politicians and the powerful - it's made by ordinary people fighting together for a better life
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Ep 10 – The epic story of mining unionism in the Pilbara

The Pilbara region of Western Australia is one of the remotest places on the planet. It’s also one of the most economically significant regions not just in Australia, but...

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Ep 9 – The Industrial Workers of the World in Australia

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 –...

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Ep 8 – The 1973 Ford Broadmeadows riot

In the decades following the end of the Second World War, Australia witnessed the biggest wave of migration in its history. Millions of people from Asia, Europe and the...

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Ep 7 – The 1978 Sydney Mardi Gras

In 1978, Sydney’s first ever Mardi Gras took place. The Australia in which the parade happened, however, was profoundly different to today. LGBTQI people faced intense discrimination and persecution,...

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Ep 6 – The 1969 Clarrie O’Shea general strike

In May 1969, Clarrie O’Shea, the secretary of the Victorian branch of the tram workers’ union, was jailed for refusing to pay fines his union had been hit with...

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Ep 5 – The hidden history of Australia in World War I

Few periods of Australian history are as heavily mythologised as World War I. From school textbooks to Anzac Day ceremonies, we’re told that Australia was born as a nation...

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About this site

GSG
Coal strike 1949
MUA 1998
Womens lib 1975

People’s History of Australia is a podcast and blog looking at Australian history from the perspective of ordinary people fighting together for a better life. While most of the history we get taught focuses on the deeds of the great and powerful, we want to turn this upside down, and amplify those moments when ordinary people across Australia have made history – by coming together, overcoming the barriers and divisions that keep us isolated and atomised, and struggling collectively for justice.