Blackheath History Forum in Blue Mountains National Park | Non-profit organisation

Blackheath History Forum

Locality: Blue Mountains National Park

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24.01.2022 Our forthcoming speaker David Walker speaks with Richard Fidler, in Conversations: Listening to China. A fascinating insight into his life and experience as the Chair of Australian Studies at Peking University. This Saturday he will be talking on the Blackheath History Forum abut his most recent publication 'Stranded Nation'. Check out our YouTube link to the live stream at 4pm on Saturday. https://www.abc.net.au//conversations/david-walker/11027416

22.01.2022 'One is a cunning, carefully crafted allusion to human life ultimately found wanting when cut adrift from his support network. The other is R2D2. ' @lynchonswan via Canberra Insider This Saturday at 4pm - Patrick Mullins - ‘None of you will ever believe it’: writing the biography of Billy McMahon' https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4Ol4MYrWDxIBygnV-zdmAg/

22.01.2022 Live Streaming at 4pm, Saturday, October 17 on our YouTube channel Lynette Russell Professor of History at Monash University Co-author of Australia’s First Naturalists: Indigenous People’s Contribution to Early Zoology (NewSouth, 2019), winner of Whitley Award for Historical Zoology.... Indigenous Zoologists: Thinking, writing and presenting interdisciplinary histories. As a writer who has traced their heritage to ‘both sides of the frontier’, convict and Aboriginal, I have, over the past 30 years, used this as a lens to explore early Aboriginal-European interactions. These interactions run the full gamut from violent and hostile to domestic and familial. A key concern is always how we know what we know and how knowledge of the past has been depicted in the popular arena. In Australia’s First Naturalists we were able to show moments of friendship, exploitation, and collaboration which I will explore here. A hallmark of my career, publications and research has been to work in an interdisciplinary space. Doing this has seen me collaborate with archaeologists, archival systems scientists, linguists, geneticists and most recently the zoologist Penny Olsen. In this talk, I will reflect on how working with these scientists has enabled me to create a much more complete and nuanced picture of the past, despite the potential pitfalls of working with different knowledge systems. In addition, I have sought to document and reveal Indigenous agency and knowledge in much of my writing.

21.01.2022 Ready yourself for Dr Alice Gorman's engaging talk on Space Archaeology with a Sputnik Cocktail - ''Vodka and sour grapes' W.S. Burrows. (link to recipe cannot be posted as it violates Facebook's 'Community Standards' )

20.01.2022 Our behind-the-scenes Forum member Emily O'Gorman has just announced the forthcoming publication of her new book 'Wetlands in a Dry Land: More-than-human Histories of Australia's Murray-Darling Basin' in 2021 with University of Washington Press. In the name of agriculture, urban growth, and disease control, humans have drained, filled, or otherwise destroyed nearly 87 percent of the world’s wetlands over the past three centuries. Unintended consequences include biodiversity loss, poor water quality, and the erosion of cultural sites, and only in the past few decades have wetlands been widely recognized as worth preserving. Emily O’Gorman asks, What has counted as a wetland, for whom, and with what consequences? https://uwapress.uw.edu//97802957/wetlands-in-a-dry-land/

20.01.2022 If you missed it here is today's BHF fascinating talk by Patrick Mullins about Tiberius with a Telephone - the complex Political life of Billy McMahon. https://youtu.be/6ontMPzXFag

20.01.2022 Catch up on this great talk if you missed it yesterday.

20.01.2022 On November 14th at 4 pm Terry Irving will be live streaming on our YouTube channel the tragic connection of Blackheath with the 'best-known Australian-born intellectual of the first half of the twentieth century'. This is a recent review of his book, 'The Fatal Lure of Politics: The Life and Thought of Vere Gordon Childe' https://insidestory.org.au/twin-passions/

15.01.2022 In 30 minutes the Blackheath Forum will be live streaming the last event of the 2020 online season - thank you all who watched our live-streamed talks or caught... up with them on our YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4Ol4MYrWDxIBygnV-zdmAg/ Here is a delicious Apple and Walnut Cake to cook for afternoon Tea during the talk or for a Sunday catch up. Apple and walnut cake This is a mash-up of various recipes including Nigella and New Idea and a few other additions. Ingredients cup (dark) brown sugar cup sugar cup oil 60g soft butter 100g sultanas or raisins 75ml rum or water 2 eggs 2 tsp vanilla 2 cups plain flour 2 tsp cinnamon salt 2 tsp baking powder 2 (Granny Smith) apples 1 cup chopped walnuts small lemon, zest and juice For topping I (Granny Smith) apple thinly sliced Extra cinnamon and sugar to sprinkle Directions Pre-heat oven to 190C Grease and flour medium-sized cake tin (eg 20cm diameter) In a small pot bring sultanas/raisins and rum/water to boil, plumping them up, and set aside Peel, core and dice apples, squeeze lemon juice over to keep from browning. In a large mixing bowl, break the eggs, saving a bit of egg-white. Stir in the sugars, oil, butter, vanilla (if the butter is soft enough this can be done with a spoon). Sift in the flour, cinnamon, salt and baking powder and fold in. Add the apples, walnuts and sultanas/raisins. It will be a fairly thick batter. Add the rum/water if too thick, stir it all in. Spread in the prepared cake tin. Decorate the top with thin slices of apple, used egg white to glaze them, sprinkle cinnamon/sugar mix on top. Bake for 40-50 minutes, until after poking a skewer in, it comes out clean. Stand for 10 mins before taking out of the tin, cool on rack. Eat warm or cold

15.01.2022 Time to prepare Afternoon Tea for tomorrow's BHF live stream at 4pm. Lesley-Ann's luscious recipe for Raspberry and Chocolate Brownies with a nice cuppa. Lynette Russell will be discussing "Indigenous Zoologists: Thinking, Writing and Presenting Interdisciplinary Histories". This will be live streamed at 4pm on Saturday 17 October here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4Ol4MYrWDxIBygnV-zdmAg

15.01.2022 In one week Terry Irving will be live streaming on our YouTube channel the V G Childe lecture, the last event for the Forum's 2020 season. Author of 'The Fatal Lure of Politics: the Life and Thought of Vere Gordon Childe' he will sketch Childe’s socialist life from the 1910s to his death in 1957, under six headings: - discovering the ‘rising tide’ of socialism in Sydney; ... - becoming a revolutionary in Oxford; - vacillating in Sydney and Brisbane; - consorting with Communism in Britain; - revolutionising prehistory, - and rationalising at Govett’s Leap. The book is available at Monash University Publishing with free postage; https://publishing.monash.edu/p/the-fatal-lure-of-politics/ -

13.01.2022 Tune in history lovers, wherever you are!

13.01.2022 Looking forward to the final presentation in the Blackheath History Forum’s 2020 season. Tune in live 4pm Saturday 14th, or watch later on the website.

13.01.2022 If you missed this great talk, catch up on the Forum’s website!

12.01.2022 If you missed Dr Space Junk's talk on Saturday it's now available on our YouTube Channel. https://youtu.be/jAcWqsZ30-Q Check it out while you enjoy Vanguard's Revenge cocktail, inspired as a counter to the bitterness of the Sputnik cocktail. (originally created for space lawyer Kelly Yeoh). 1 part gin... 1 part Bickford's Pink Grapefruit cordial 4 parts Prosecco Garnish with a glace or maraschino cherry into which 4 toothpicks have been stuck at right angles, to mimic the Vanguard 1 satellite launched by the US in 1958 and now the oldest human object in orbit. (The smaller half of a spirit measure for the 1 part will make enough for one not-skimpy drink). Image: By Hydrargyrum - National Space Science Data Center: Vanguard 1, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37862277

12.01.2022 IN one hour, at 4pm, Patrick Mullins will be talking about Billy McMahon, long been regarded as 'Australia’s worst prime minister'. Tune in, watch and learn... https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4Ol4MYrWDxIBygnV-zdmAg/

11.01.2022 Tea and Scones recipe for while you listen to Patrick Mullins talk about his experience writing Billy McMahon’s biography - Tiberius with a Telephone. This Saturday at 4pm on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4Ol4MYrWDxIBygnV-zdmAg/ Kimberley’s take on Bill Granger’s ‘Simple Scones’ https://www.abc.net.au/radio/recipes/simple-scones/8922892... Ingredients 1 tablespoon icing (confectioners') sugar 310 g (21/2 cups) plain (all-purpose) flour 11/2 tablespoons baking powder A pinch of salt 250 ml (1 cup) milk 30 g (1 oz) butter, melted Method 1. Preheat the oven to 220C (425F/Gas 7). 2. Sift the icing sugar, flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. 3. Add the milk and butter and stir to combine with a knife. 4. Knead quickly and lightly until smooth and then press out onto a floured surface. 5. Use a glass to cut out rounds roughly 5 cm (2 inches) in diameter and 3 cm (11/4 inches) deep and place them close together on a greased baking tray. 6. Gather the scraps together, lightly knead again, then cut out more rounds. 7. Cook for 8 to 10 minutes, until puffed and golden. Kimberley’s tips and tricks: Don’t knead the dough for too long; just until it comes together nicely and has a bit of a spring in it. Use a champagne glass to cut them to size and pack them in tightly. They may not always cook through in the time stated, take them out of the oven and turn the whole pack of scones (NOT individually) upside down and give in a few minutes more. Rest them in a tea towel

11.01.2022 "This is a history of race, white prestige and belonging in a world shaken and transformed by decolonisation. " https://uwap.uwa.edu.au/products/stranded-nation Our 4th talk in the Blackheath History Forum, 2020 online series is next Saturday at 4 pm. Put it in your calendar! youtube.com/channel/UC4Ol4MYrWDxIBygnV-zdmAg/featured

08.01.2022 If you missed yesterday's great talk from David Walker talking about Australia's historic perceptions and relations with China here's the link: https://youtu.be/ETEELNsSmAs

06.01.2022 The next presentation in the Blackheath History forum series is by David Walker who will be discussing "From ‘Anxious Nation’ to ‘Stranded Nation’: whatever happened to Australia and Asia?". This will be live-streamed at 4pm on Saturday 3 October on our YouTube channel. If you are wanting more off-Earth experiences following our last talk by Alice Gorman (aka Dr Space Junk), this is a link to all of Alice Gorman's articles for The Conversation:... https://theconversation.com/prof/alice-gorman-4234/articles Instructions on posting comments and questions to our speakers are now at the top of our 2020 program webpage. We encourage you to post comments and questions during and immediately following each presentation so that these can be posed to the speaker. A reminder that all talks are available as recordings following the live broadcast and can be viewed on our YouTube channel. Please subscribe to the channel and "like" the talks!

06.01.2022 As Dr Space Junk explains in her talk on our YouTube channel this is a major problem. https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/1310403353348771840

05.01.2022 Is your Afternoon Tea fare ready for this Saturday's streamed talk with David Walker? Here's a recipe for a delicious Blueberry, almond, and lemon cake you can prepare in advance. "Yotam Ottolenghi's Blueberry, almond, and lemon cake Yotam Ottolenghi’s Blueberry, almond and lemon cake is one of my favourite recipes in Simple and has been a popular slice in our History Forum afternoon teas. Although it sounds a bit fiddly, in fact it is straightforward and quite delicious w...hen blueberries are inexpensive. Recipe 150 g unsalted butter (take it out of the fridge at least an hour or so before you start) 190 g caster sugar Grated zest of one lemon + tablespoon of lemon juice Beat these together for around five minutes until the mixture is quite light and fluffy. Whilst this is happening, lightly beat three eggs together with a teaspoon of vanilla and once the mixture is fluffy, add these slowly. I find it almost always curdles but don’t worry! Sift 90 g of self-raising flour and add to the mixture with 110 g of almond meal. Fold in by hand around 150 g of blueberries. Pour into a good sized loaf tin that you have lined with baking paper and bake in a 180 degree oven for 15 minutes. Before the cake has completely set, scatter another 50-100 g of blueberries over the top and continue cooking for another 15 minutes. At this point, cover the loaf loosely with foil and cook for a further 25-30 minutes. Once cooled, and removed from the tin, mix together 70 g of sifted icing sugar with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and drizzle over the top. If you can resist eating the entire loaf that day, refrigerate the remains.

01.01.2022 Did you know there is the equivalent of 8.4 million Cane toad's worth of junk in Earth space? Find out more fascinating facts at our Live-streamed talk with Dr Alice Gorman, aka Dr Space Junk. 4 pm today at our BHF YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4Ol4MYrWDxIBygnV-zdmAg

01.01.2022 These scones sell out at our live events, try them at home on Saturday or, failing that, tuck into anything with a cup of tea or a glass of wine and enjoy this very fresh take on Billy McMahon and the Liberal Party that made him. 4 pm Saturday or on the BHF website after that.