Newsroom

Uncover the secrets of Ancient Greek drama and life with A D Trendall’s studies of red figure decorated vases (or what he sometimes called “little horrors”!).

Australia is a country of avid readers and writers, establishing our own publications, imported texts and developing our own literary industry from the 19th century to today.

The history of the human species has taken many twists and turns over millennia, with new discoveries challenging our understanding of migration and evolution. The journey has even included a “hobbit” discovery that shook the science world and triggered intense controversy.

Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation – but how did Islam first arrive across the islands, and how has this informed modern Indonesia?

Many Australians who speak limited or no English find themselves at a disadvantage in the legal system due to formal legal language and cultural factors. Linguistic research and training is helping to tackle these issues from the police station to the courtroom, ensuring the full participation and comprehension of everyone – no matter their first language.

Did you know, in the 1800s Melbourne Football clubs used secret coaching manuals – handwritten, continually modified and passed down through the generations – to guide their strategies? How exactly were these secret manuals scribed, shared, preserved, and now, hundreds of years later, studied?

What do Banjo Paterson’s original manuscript of Waltzing Matilda, a recording of boxer Lionel Rose and an architect’s model of the Sydney Opera House have in common? They can all be found via Trove – a world-leading, revolutionary search engine created by the National Library of Australia, giving users access to over six billion digitised items.

What went into defining the field of modern Indonesian literature, after centuries under colonial rule? Learn how Indonesian and Australian scholars worked together to research, teach, and establish academic foundations that now cement Indonesia as its own cultural and literary hub.

Jebel Khalid was an ancient Hellenistic walled city, complete with Manhattan-style gridded streets, a walled acropolis, governor’s palace, temple and gymnasium. But what was life like for the people who lived there and what can it teach us about urban development today?

Lake Mungo is a symbol of Indigenous Australia, representing the timeless and ongoing relationship the nation’s First Peoples have with this island continent. Learn about how the remains of Mungo Man and Mungo Woman have been returned to their descendants, and what processes are now in place to preserve and honour this landscape.

The nature of mind and consciousness is still hotly debated today and is all the more fascinating in light of the possibilities opened up by Artificial Intelligence. But what is consciousness, and where does it come from?