History

deep history

the last of lands - the emptiest

In the remote past a vanguard of modern humans embarked on an audacious journey, making a sea crossing to a land they could not see and knew nothing about. Making landfall, however, was just the beginning of one of history’s most epic stories.

colonial history

the myth of terra nullius

by Robbo Bennetts
first published, here, August 2025

Coming Soon

no rock without a name

by Robbo Bennetts
first published, here, 22 July 2024

In this essay I examine the nature of ownership of land and assets in Aboriginal Australia before dispossession. In particular I challenge conventional notions that land was traditionally owned by tribes or nations.

black resistance in Tasmania

"The Black Resistance is a powerful contribution to the movement for a new Australian history - a history centred on the first Australians. It presents massive evidence of a splendid tradition of heroic resistance by the Aboriginal people and establishes that violent struggle against foreign invasion was an on-going and continent wide response."
From the blurb on the back cover of Black Resistance.

the protest movement

standing on the tail of the dragon

In 1972, as a young Maoist, Robbo Bennetts travelled to China during the tail of the Cultural Revolution. Here are his recollections.

labour history

the fall and rise of the Westgate Bridge

by Robbo Bennetts
first published in October 2020 in www.westgatebridge.com.au

Robbo Bennetts worked on the Westgate Bridge as a rigger after its collapse. Here he retells some of the stories of men who built the Bridge, including memories of one of Australia’s greatest industrial disasters.