To Infinity and Beyond

A thesis, glass tubes, a bronze plaque. This is the evidence left to remember world-class atmospheric physicist Jean Laby. She was the first woman to achieve a PhD in the School of Physics in 1956. But on a campus that lacks recognition of historically significant women, this prompts the question: …

The Other Gold Rush

This is a story about an artwork illustrating a Chinese camp in Ballarat, Victoria, depicted by Percy Lindsay. This is a story about a painting that carries within it the joy, tears and fears of Chinese gold miners. This oil canvas is hidden and locked away in a black suitcase at the Ballarat galle…

The Tightrope Walker

For First Nations people, art has been a vehicle to tell personal and universal stories for over 60,000 years. Ngarrindjeri artist Trevor Nickolls’ story is complex, exploring the history of dispossession and loss, and the hope and beauty of finding a way back to knowing. Breaking free of the assum…

Real Life Jurassic Park

The thylacine, better known as the Tasmanian Tiger, remains one of Australia’s most identifiable animals despite having gone extinct almost 100 years ago. In its time, it was hunted, mishandled and neglected, yet people are still captivated by it today. They desperately hope the animal still exists…

Gone Girl

Our city streets are filled with statues of men who did things, with little permanent reminder of the women who have shaped Australian society. Julia (Bella) Guérin is one of these women. Famous in her time for her achievements as Australia’s first female university graduate and a noted teacher, wr…

Introducing Uncurated Season 2

An oil painting lost in a storeroom for decades, a dusty student card, a misplaced animal skull; these are some of the objects in the University of Melbourne's twelve museums. Each was forgotten in a different way. Join students from the Centre for Advancing Journalism on a journey of unforgetting …

The Hair-Raising Passions of Percy Grainger

It’s easy to speak of those we remember. But what about those we’ve forgotten? A hank of human hair transports us back to Brighton in 1882 when a musical ingenue by the name of Percy Grainger was born. His fame grew at an exceptional speed… But then disappeared just as quickly. This week on Uncurat…

The Women that Men Painted

Art is made to be looked at, to be objectified. But people are not. So what could this mean for those painted onto canvasses that are then flaunted around museums across the world? This week on Uncurated, Yimin Qiang and Angus Thomson venture into Melbourne University’s Arts West to look at 100 wom…

The Antidote that Killed

One of the first things that tourists visiting Australia hear is that there's a lot that could kill you. Sharks, snakes, crocodiles, jellyfish — whether you’re on land or in water, nowhere seems safe. So imagine what it was like back when British settlers were colonising this strange new land. This…

Sick of Ned Kelly

We all know Ned Kelly. In fact, we’re pretty tired of hearing about him. Australian history is filled to the brim with these sorts of stories — white-washed and not even that old. So where are the parts of Australian history that haven’t been told? Where are the stories told by those and about thos…