WWII in East Timor: An Australian Army Site and Travel Guide (2/2 Commando Association of Australia, 2024) is an overdue addition to the history of a campaign that remains surprisingly little known in Australia, despite its significance to Australia’s part in the war. Working district by district – from Dili south to Aileu, Ainaro and Manufahi, west to Liquiçá, Ermera, Bobonaro, Cova Lima and Oecusse, and east to Manatuto, Baucau, Viqueque and Lautem – this book offers a fresh, site-based perspective on the Second World War in East Timor (Timor-Leste).

The book’s starting point is the “Gazetteer of Towns and Villages in Portuguese Timor”, compiled in 1943 by the Allied Geographical Section. With meticulous precision, Willis revisits these sites and adds GPS coordinates, maps, wartime photographs by Sergeant Keith Davis, contemporary photographs taken at the same locations, and paintings by Australian war artist Charles Bush. These are supplemented with accounts from the Australian War Memorial and National Archives, Trove, unit and campaign histories, Timorese testimony, and new material from sources in Portuguese, Dutch, Japanese and Tetum. In doing so, it brings together diverse sources – archival, oral and site-based – that have not previously been assembled in one place.

Following these sites, the book traces the arrival of Sparrow Force on the island of Timor in December 1941 and the landing five days later of a combined Australian and Dutch detachment in neutral Portuguese territory at Dili, through to the Japanese assault of 20 February 1942 and the guerrilla campaign that followed. It also covers sites relevant to the two and a half years of occupation after the January 1943 Allied withdrawal, including the extensive Japanese defensive infrastructure built using Timorese forced labour, famine, executions, Allied bombing of towns and villages, and the role of the covert Services Reconnaissance Department operations.

The book is targeted toward Australian defence and diplomatic personnel posted to Timor-Leste, professional military education and staff, and veterans, descendants and travellers who want to locate the places where battles were fought and ambushes laid. It makes an important contribution to Timor-Leste’s potential as a heritage tourism destination, with the economic benefits such a sector brings. Above all, it serves to acknowledge the Timorese people whose support made the Australian campaign possible, and the landscapes on which this shared history is written.

The book can be purchased from the 2/2 Commando Association of Australia.

Edward Willis is a committee member of the 2/2 Commando Association of Australia and a former Deputy University Librarian at Curtin University. His father, William Edward (Bill) Willis, served with the Signals Section of the No. 2 Australian Independent Company on Portuguese Timor in 1942. He has been travelling to Timor-Leste to survey wartime sites since 2008, and prepared this guide with the support of a grant from the Australian Army History Unit.

This episode is hosted by Dr Natali Pearson.

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Hamish Maxwell-Stewart and Michael Quinlan’s Unfree Workers: Insubordination and Resistance in Convict Australia, 1788–1860 (draws

The first half of Unfree Workers

A sentence to penal transportation was no trivial thing. The convicts

Maxwell-Stewart and Quinlan show the material links between violence

Maxwell-Stewart and Quinlan’s Unfree Workers, reminding us that while colonial capitalism is a system of exploitation, it necessarily depends upon class conflict.

The process of transportation was a site for resistance. The convict

Van Diemen’s Land’s extraordinary record-keeping—itself an instrument

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In this episode of the Language on the Move Podcast, Dr Agnes Bodis talks to Hannah Madin and Catherine White. Hannah is a Teaching and Learning Officer at the Department of Education in the Northern Territory (Australia), and Catherine White is a Teaching and Learning Coach in secondary education.

We are zooming in on learning English as an additional language or dialect in remote communities in Australia’s Northern Territory (NT). There are numerous Aboriginal languages spoken there as well as dialects of English. However, the language of schooling remains Standard Australian English.

We discuss this mismatch between first or home languages, language of education, and teacher preparedness. Hannah and Catherine outline a collaborative project by the NT Department of Education to remove these barriers to learning in the school context. The project is called “Roadmap to Stage 1 Essential English and Mathematics” and includes not only the creation of teaching support materials, but the creation of an online Community of Practice, a professional learning program and school visits.

For additional resources, show notes, and transcripts, go here.

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Nuclear Archipelago: Secrets, Power and the Biggest Atomic Blast in Australia

The book explores the politics, the secrecy and the controversies,

Elizabeth Tynan

Morteza Hajizadeh

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There were two days to Christmas

It’s

The culmination of over two years of field research and hundreds of hours of interviews, The Valley: Crime and Punishment in a New Zealand City (Bridget Williams Books, 2026) follows

Watch the book trailer here 

Asher

Ed Amon has a Master of Indigenous Studies and is a PhD Candidate

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Soldiers and Bushmen: The Australian Army in South Africa, 1899–1902 (Cambridge UP, 2025) by Dr. Thomas Richardson examines the commitment to what was expected to be a short war. It presents a thematic, analytical history of the birth of the Australian Army in South Africa, while exploring the Army's evolution from colonial units into a consolidated federal force. Soldiers and Bushmen investigates the establishment of the 'bushmen experiment' – the belief that the unique qualities of rural Australians would solve tactical problems on the veldt. This, in turn, influenced ideals around leadership, loyalty and traditional combat that fed the mythology of the Australians as natural soldiers. The book also examines the conduct of the war itself: how the Army adapted to the challenges of a battlefield transformed by technology, and the moral questions posed by the transition to fighting a counterinsurgency campaign.

This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.

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Reclaiming Colonial Architecture (Routledge, 2024) explores the built inheritance of colonialism and considers how architects, heritage practitioners, students, communities, and activists might narrate, care for, transform, or challenge them today. Awarded the SAHGB’s Colvin Medal in 2025, the book draws on a variety of authors to combine historical context with thematically organised case studies across urban and architectural scales.

This interview was conducted by Matthew Wells, Senior Lecturer in Architectural History at the University of Manchester. His research explores nineteenth-century European architecture, focusing on artistic techniques, technology, and political economy. Wells is the author of Modelling the Metropolis: The Architectural Model in Victorian London (2023).

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The claim that real change is enabled by grassroots, community-based movements might seem a distant ideal, but Dr Geraldine Fela shows such assertions are far from hypothetical. Critical Care: Nurses on the Frontline of Australia's AIDS Crisis (UNSW Press, 2024) shows that grassroots movements were what made Australia’s response to the AIDS epidemic better than elsewhere.

HIV and AIDS devastated communities across Australia in the 1980s and 1990s. In the midst of this profound health crisis, nurses provided crucial care to those living with and dying from the virus. They negotiated homophobia and complex family dynamics as well as defending the rights of their patients. Bringing together stories from across the country, historian Geraldine Fela documents the extraordinary care, compassion and solidarity shown by HIV and AIDS nurses. Critical Care unearths the important and unexamined history of nurses and nursing unions as caregivers and political agents who helped shape Australia's response to HIV and AIDS.

In addition to this NBN interview Geraldine Fela has a podcast episode on the ABC Rewind series, 'Blood Prejudice and Nursing'

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In this episode of The Cultural Competence Collective, we speak with academic theologian and Uniting Church ordained minister Rev Dr Seforosa Caroll about the role cultural competence plays in inter-faith dialogue. Through her experience growing up in multi-cultural and multi-religious communities, Seforosa carries principles of cultural competence–empathy, openness and a willingness listen–into her advocacy and ministry. Join us as we explore how cultural competence plays a key role in bridging inter-faith communication, and dive into Seforosa’s work in gender equality, climate justice, and advocacy for Indigenous knowledge.

Show notes

This episode is hosted by Dr. Matthew Tyne, an Academic Facilitator at the National Centre Centre for Cultural Competence. He comes to cultural competence following 20 years of working in international community development, especially in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, and sexual health promotion with diverse communities in Australia.

Produced by: Adubi Plange, Dr Amy McHugh, Sarah Mashman

Podcast Artwork: Zein Arif

Resources

You can access more of Rev Dr Seforosa Carroll’s work through her Research Output academic profile.

Below are some of Seforosa’s works related to this episode of the Cultural Competence Collective:

Mental Health Support Services:

For University of Sydney staff: CONVERGE

Converge offers multiple dedicated helplines for specialist services:

Wellmob – social, emotional and cultural wellbeing resources for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

24-hour crisis hotlines

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In this episode, we are delighted to be joined by educator and researcher Associate Professor Remy Low to explore what cultural competence and culturally responsive teaching looks like in the classroom. He is committed to furthering culturally responsive education across schools, higher education, arts and cultural institutions, as well as community organisations. As a previous high school teacher, now published academic and lecturer, Remy chats to us about what “good teaching” is, and that cultural competence in the classroom is grounded in self-awareness, care, and responsiveness.

This episode is hosted by Dr. Pooja Mittal Biswas. Pooja Mittal Biswas is an Academic Facilitator at the National Centre for Cultural Competence and an award-winning educator and author. She is the author of ten books of fiction, poetry and non-fiction. Her ninth book, Hunger and Predation (Cordite Books, 2023) was shortlisted for the 2024 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, and her tenth book, The Maker of Garlands, was published by Vagabond Press in 2024.

Produced by: Adubi Plange, Dr Amy McHugh, Sarah Mashman

Podcast Artwork: Zein Arif

Resources

You can learn more about Associate Professor Remy Lowe through his University of Sydney Academic Research Profile.

Below are some of Remy’s works discussed in this episode of the Cultural Competence Collective:

Mental Health Support Services:

For University of Sydney staff: CONVERGE

Converge offers multiple dedicated helplines for specialist services:

Wellmob – social, emotional and cultural wellbeing resources for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

24-hour crisis hotlines

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/australian-and-new-zealand-studies

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.