History Lab

By Impact Studios

What's History Lab about?

History Lab || exploring the gaps between us and the past || This series is made in collaboration by the Australian Centre for Public History and Impact Studios at the University of Technology, Sydney.

Download our free app to listen on your phone

History Lab episodes:

09.04.2023
6. Last Drinks
In 1887 there were no less than 22 hotels in Darlinghurst. Over the next century and a half, the character, culture and clientele of Darlinghurst pubs evolved. This story explores the impact on Darlinghurst of two episodes of liquor licensing...
09.04.2023
5. Room With A View
Terraces, flats, squats, bedsits, mansions, towers, camps and hostels: in Darlinghurst, housing is a mixed bag. This audio story explores the range of lifestyles afforded by Darlinghurst’s dense diversity of dwellings. Image: Pad with a View, Kings Cross 1970-71 (Photographer: Rennie...
09.04.2023
4. Pandemic Times
At St Vincent's Hospital, the Sisters of Charity have been delivering care to the people of Darlinghurst since 1857. This audio story visits St Vincent’s during three historic public health emergencies: the Spanish Flu, the HIV/AIDS crisis and COVID-19. Image: Sister...
09.04.2023
3. Red Light Green Light
In the rapidly gentrifying Darlinghurst of the 1980s, a turf war raged over one of its earliest trades. In this story, we visit the street corners and safe houses where sex workers competed for customers, looked out for each other...
09.04.2023
2. Eccentrics
Darlinghurst has always been a magnet and a haven for exiles and misfits. With writer and Darlo-phile Sunil Badami as guide, this audio story celebrates a handful of local characters and eccentrics, reflecting on the material conditions that enable unconventional...
09.04.2023
1. Lost Waterways
If you listen after rain, you can still hear the rush of water that used to flow from the sandstone ridge at the apex of Darlinghurst down to the harbour. This audio story goes in search of the creeks and...
09.04.2023
Introducing: Listen to Darlinghurst
Welcome to a special History Lab series, Listen to Darlinghurst. In this mini episode, History Lab host Anna Clark and Listen to Darlinghurst producer Catherine Freyne introduce the series. Image: Darlinghurst Rd 1954 by Mark Strizic (State Library of Victoria) Credits Producer: Catherine...
10.05.2021
What remains of Joe Governor?
After Jimmy’s trial, what happened to his brother Joe? Joe has mostly been forgotten by history, and his presence in the archives is little more than a whisper. From coronial records, family tales and a visit to a...
09.28.2021
Death Row Diary
How does the law deal with an outlaw? Jimmy Governor is captured and his legal case becomes a lightning rod for justice in the new federation. But how did Australia’s most-wanted murderer get one of the best lawyers in...
09.21.2021
The Last Outlaws
This is the tale of a prison colony trying to become a country and the murder case that stood in its way, but this is not a true crime podcast. Jimmy and Joe Governor, two brothers from Wiradjuri and...
09.16.2021
Introducing History Lab Season Four - The Last Outlaws
The Last Outlaws is the latest audio series to be released by Impact Studios, an audio production house embedded in the University of Technology Sydney. The trilogy podcast is based on UTS Law Professor Katherine Biber’s tenacious and careful...
05.05.2020
Introducing 'The New Social Contract' - a new podcast by the makers of History Lab
How will Australian universities fare in a post-pandemic world? It depends on an influential but rarely talked about relationship between the state, its institutions, and the public. Discover more in the first podcast episode of The New Social Contract. Brought...
03.11.2020
A close match
Three days before Spain’s general elections in 2004 a series of bombs exploded on crowded Madrid commuter trains, killing almost 200 people. The Spanish authorities found a plastic bag a few blocks away from one of the bomb...
02.17.2020
Reading the signs
When was the last time you were asked to sign something and did you stop to think how the strange squiggly mark you make on a page could be used? The signature is a performative act, crucial to...
02.03.2020
Making a fortune
'Making a Fortune' looks at the popularity and persecution of two of the most formidable fortune tellers of Federation Australia. In the first decade of the 20th century, Australians were focused on the future. It was the dawn of...
12.18.2019
Bonus Cast - The Law's Way of Knowing?
History Lab host Dr Tamson Pietsch hands over the mic to Dr Alecia Simmonds, an interdisciplinary scholar of law and history at the University of Technology Sydney. In this bonus episode they dissect how it is the law ‘knows’ and...
12.12.2019
In case I die in this mess
Death, money and family are the key ingredients in any last will and testament. They also make a killer cocktail that unleashes a special force not present in any other part of the law. In this episode of History...
12.10.2019
Introducing Season Three of History Lab - The Law's Way of Knowing
History Lab is back for a third season, fresh from wins at the New York Radio Festival Awards and the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia. In this special four-part series we’ll be exploring the ‘law’s way of knowing’, looking...
05.09.2019
Introducing Uniform- A new season of All Things Equal
Missing your History Lab fix? We’ve got something else for you in the meantime. Introducing a new season of All Things Equal. This series will take you into the school yard and beyond, where kids learn that things aren't always...
12.18.2018
Making history in audio
History Lab audio makers explore how we've tried to understand the past through sound in season two
12.11.2018
Skeletons of Empire
In the aftermath of World War One, nations came together in an attempt to ensure war on the same devastating scale could never occur again. The result? The League of Nations: a revolutionary idea to form the world’s first international...
12.04.2018
Invisible hands
Where do jelly babies come from? Mass-produced things are all around us. But they all start with a single object. In this episode, Olivia goes looking for the patternmakers, whose invisible hands are the original creators of much of the...
11.27.2018
The Bank, the Sergeant and his bonus
In 1817, the Bank of New South Wales opened as the first financial institution in the Australian colonies. But when the first customers arrived for the grand opening, they found someone had already made a deposit. Where did the money...
07.24.2018
Fishing for answers
Sydney's iconic Opera House plays host to musicians and dancers, actors and singers. But beneath the notes of their voices, another song echoes across the city’s waters. Indigenous Eora fisherwomen passed down their knowledge through their songs while paddling their...
07.10.2018
Bonus episode | The making of History Lab |
What does it take to make History Lab? This bonus interlude episode lifts the curtain on all that goes into making history for your ears! Executive Producer Emma Lancaster steps out from behind the headphones and asks you...
06.27.2018
When the Titanic sank in the desert
In the middle of a mining town in outback Australia, over 400 kilometres from the closest ocean, stands a monument dedicated to the memory of the Titanic. On the surface the story of Broken Hill’s Titanic Memorial can be...
06.12.2018
Damages for a broken heart
Quietly buried away in Western Sydney’s state archives is a secret history of love. Lists of lingerie, love letters and lockets of hair, are stapled to writs from over 200 years ago. In the 19th century a broken engagement...
05.28.2018
Lindy Chamberlain and the afterlife of evidence
What happens to evidence after a criminal trial? Tamson goes looking for answers and finds them in the shadow of one of the worst miscarriages of justice in Australian history - the Chamberlain trials Producer: Olivia Rosenman Collaborating historian:...
11.28.2017
Episode Zero - Where the past isn't past
This season on History Lab we are exploring the gaps between us and the past Join us.

What's History Lab about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

History Lab episodes:

6. Last Drinks

5. Room With A View

4. Pandemic Times

3. Red Light Green Light

2. Eccentrics

1. Lost Waterways

Introducing: Listen to Darlinghurst

What remains of Joe Governor?

Death Row Diary

The Last Outlaws

Introducing History Lab Season Four - The Last Outlaws

Introducing 'The New Social Contract' - a new podcast by the makers of History Lab

A close match

Reading the signs

Making a fortune

Bonus Cast - The Law's Way of Knowing?

In case I die in this mess

Introducing Season Three of History Lab - The Law's Way of Knowing

Introducing Uniform- A new season of All Things Equal

Making history in audio

Skeletons of Empire

Invisible hands

The Bank, the Sergeant and his bonus

Fishing for answers

Bonus episode | The making of History Lab |

When the Titanic sank in the desert

Damages for a broken heart

Lindy Chamberlain and the afterlife of evidence

Episode Zero - Where the past isn't past