News

Aviation Cultures Mark VI Conference

15-17 July 2022

On-line from University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Queensland

Aviation Cultures is an inclusive, online conference series where researchers and practitioners come together to share their knowledge and ideas of flight, and its place in history and society. Very few technologies have increased mobility over long-distances as much as aircraft have, but we are currently living in a world that is less connected by air than it has been for decades. Yet aviation has faced serious challenges before, and understanding this can help us navigate the present crisis, and prepare for the future of flight.

Aviation Art Exhibition

1-30 July 2022 Tuesday-Saturday 10am-4pm

Artist: Claire Grant

Huw Davies Gallery Photo Access Canberra 30 Manuka Circuit, Griffith ACT 2603

Phone: 02 62957810

Aviation Cultures Spotlight: The Fabric of Aviation

4 December 2021 (Online)

On Saturday 4 December 2021, at 9.45am Australian Eastern Daylight Saving Time (AEDT) the Aviation Cultures team will present the second of a series of Spotlight online events, and we’d like you to join us!

How, where and when? On Saturday, 4 December 2021, 9.45 am AEDT. The event should run for no more than 2 hours 15 minutes.

Further details and registeration available here.

Speakers:

Dr Lisa Hackett, Second World War Female Pilots and Their Uniforms.

Dr Pru Black, Never a Mere Fastener: The Rivet in Aviation and Cultural History.

Madelyn Shaw, talking on the collecting of aviation textiles and clothing.

Darwin’s Air Way

20 May 2021 (Online)

During National Archaeology Week, UNE PhD candidate Daniel Leahy will be visiting and blogging daily on a number of WWII aviation and conflict archaeology sites around Darwin in Australia’s Northern Territory. To discuss the project, the blog, and the sites, Daniel will join the UNE Archaeology Society for a live Zoom Q&A session.

Broome Aviation Archaeology

19 May 2021 (Online)

Broome Aviation Archaeology – Twenty Years On: An Appraisal of Results and Directions for Future Research. Presented by Dr Silvano Jung, Principal Archaeologist, Ellengowan Enterprises, Darwin NT.

Aviation Archaeology Seminar

17 May 2021

Three presenters will speak about the aviation archaeology sites they have been involved with throughout the Northern Territory.

Aviation Cultures

Online events between 25-28 March 2021

Aviation Cultures is an inclusive, online conference where researchers and practitioners come together to share their knowledge and ideas of flight, and its place in history and society. Very few technologies have increased mobility over long-distances as much as aircraft have, but we are currently living in a world that is less connected by air than it has been for decades. Yet aviation has faced serious challenges before, and understanding this can help us navigate the present crisis, and prepare for the future of flight.

We invite experts, whether professionals, academics or just deeply knowledgeable, to help answer the questions of how aviation has changed the world, and how the world has changed aviation.

Sunday 28 March will feature the launch of Time Flies!, a travelling exhibition that will mark 100 years of civil aviation in Australia, highlighting unusual objects and stories that explore how aviation transformed everyday life in Austalia’s diverse communities.

Time Flies!

Ongoing

Time Flies! is a traveling exhibition that will mark 100 years of civil aviation in Australia,highlighting unusual objects and stories that explore how aviation transformed everyday life in Austalia’s diverse communities.

Out of Africa: the biography of the ruins of the Southern Cross Minor

2 November 2020

Lead Chief Investigator of the ‘Heritage of the Air’ Linkage project Tracy Ireland discusses the story of the Southern Cross Minor.

Exhibition - Temora Aviation Museum

Ended March 2020

The Temora Aviation Museum is built on the site of the biggest and longest lasting RAAF Elementary Flying Training School during World War II. 10 EFTS was established in May 1941 and training ceased in May 1945. A total of 2741 pilots were trained on Tiger Moths at Temora.

Exhibition - People and Planes: A community view of Sydney Airport

Ended January 31st 2020

As the home of Sydney Airport, the Bayside community has a unique and multilayered history to tell. Come and discover local stories or add your own in our latest exhibition/memory hub.

Film Night - Airways Museum

Out of the blue? How aviation accidents shaped safer skies

17 January 2020 7pm

Centred on accidents in the vicinity of Sydney’s Mascot Aerodrome, this movie outlines developments in Australian aviation safety from the 1920s to the 1970s. It combines original research, interviews, archival footage and graphic simulations of civilian and military accidents. Be the first to see this new production before it goes online! Launched by aviation writer James Kightly, enjoy a Q&A with historian Dr Peter Hobbins and producer Steven Pam, plus historic movies from the museum’s collection.

Upcoming Talk - UNSW Sydney

11 December 2019 4-6pm

Planetary Social Thought: Spiritual Aeromobility and the Global Phosphorus Crisis.

Speaker: Professor Nigel Clark, Lancaster University

Past Conference - Heritage of the Air 2019

14-17 November 2019

A conference reflecting on 100 years of aviation culture and history, heritage and design in Australia and the region.

Past Exhibition - Airways Museum

Through to November 2019

Australia and the Empire Air Mail Scheme is a photographic display at the Airways Museum. The exhibition runs until November 2019.

Heritage of the Air 2019

14-17 November 2019

The Heritage of the Air Conference will be held from the 14th to 17th of November 2019 at University House, Canberra. The conference will be delivered in partnership with Australia ICOMOS, Airservices, Canberra Modern, Aviation Cultures and the ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on 20th Century Heritage. Conference sessions will explore aviation culture, associated heritage, history and design in Australia and the region.

Past Open Day - Airways Museum

16 November 2019

Airways Museum Open Day 10am to 5pm - Theme: The Great 1919 England-Australia Air Race

Archaeology Research Seminar

31 October 2019

Heritage of the Air: modernities/mobilities/materialities.

A seminar that details how Heritage of the Air, through interdisciplinary approaches, aims to explore the diverse assemblages, identities and communities that have both shaped – and been shaped by – Australia’s heritage of the air.

Darwin: Great Air Race Talks Program

October 2019

In the lead up to the centenary anniversary of the Great Air Race, the Northern Territory Library is proud to partner with Darwin Aviation Museum and present two talks as part of a five-part series.

Project Team Update

August 2019

Heritage of the Air Project Investigators and Research Scholars have been busy researching, writing, presenting and travelling around Australia and internationally.

Click here for further details

Heritage of the Air 2019 – Call for papers

The Heritage of the Air conference, to be held from the 14–17 November 2019, at University House in Canberra, is now inviting submissions for papers!

You are invited to submit your abstracts for papers for the conference sessions by 17 May 2019.

The main themes for the 2019 Heritage of the Air Conference are:

  • Modernism
  • Machines
  • Migration
  • Memories

Abstracts can relate to one or more of the conference themes and link to one of the conference sessions. A full list of the proposed conference sessions, including a general session, can be found here.

Please follow instructions to complete your paper abstract submission here.

Please email ashley.harrison@canberra.edu.au if you have questions about the conference and this process.

Film Night

10 May 2019

Airways Museum Film Night

Past talk

12 April 2019

From 700-900 pm, the Cape Banks Family History Society will host a talk by Dr Peter Hobbins, “Crashing into history: aircraft accidents and Sydney’s past”, at the Lionel Bowen Library in Maroubra.

Past talk

10 April

Guest Speaker: Mr John Willis OAM on Gippsland’s Air War of 1918

Past talk

5 February 2019

Dr Peter Hobbins will be presenting to Kensington Combined Probus on “The flying club: what plane crashes tell us about local life at Mascot Aerodrome”, South Sydney Junior Leagues Club, 11 am on 5 February 2019.

Aviation Cultures IV

28 November to 1 December 2018

This fourth conference in the Aviation Cultures series, being held from the 28th of November to the 1st of December 2018, reaches out across the globe. Expanding our previous national and regional focus, we welcome scholars, industry figures and community practitioners from around the world.

Airways Museum Open Day

17 November 2018

Visit the Airways Museum at Melbourne’s Essendon Airport on 17 November 2018 for an open day focused on the 80th anniversary of the Empire Air Mail Scheme. For more information see their Media Release and Poster.

Past presentation

10 October 2018

Wednesday 10 October, 12 noon at the Airways Museum Phil Vabre, Vice-President CAHS presented on Another D.H.86 down: the Lepena accident on Hunter Island.

Past presentation

8 September 2018

Nearly 100 local residents joined Dr Peter Hobbins on 8 September 2018 for his History Week presentation at the Mascot Library, “Death in the air and life on the ground at Mascot Aerodrome.”

Conference presentation

1 September 2018

Dr Peter Hobbins presented a paper, ‘The dark synthetic sky: flying and dying in the analogue atmospheres of flight simulation’, at the 4S (Society for Social Studies of Science) conference in Sydney on 1 September 2018.

Past seminar

23 August 2018

On Thursday 23 August, ANU anthropologist Dr Jane Ferguson will be speaking at the University of Sydney on ‘An Ethnography to a Hijacking’, focusing on the history of Thai Airways Flight 305 (1990) and its subsequent folklore.

Past seminar

10 August 2018

Join archaeology, museum and heritage studies postgraduate students to hear Dr Peter Hobbins ask ‘What on earth is the archaeology of airspace?’. Friday 10 August, 315–515 pm, Quadrangle S223 (History Room), The University of Sydney.

Sydney’s secret wartime research

Dr Peter Hobbins shares some secret World War II aviation research with the Dictionary of Sydney on 2SER.

Helicopter Crashes in City - Sydney 1966

Dr Peter Hobbins discusses a tragic 1966 helicopter crash in downtown Sydney for the Dictionary of Sydney spot on 2SER.

Aviation heritage panel at archaeology conference

Over 22–23 June 2018, three members of the Heritage of the Air team presented work on aviation heritage at “New Ideas for Old Wars: the Archaeology of War”