Afternoon Light

Did you know that Captain Cook's Endeavour was originally a coal ship?

On this week’s Afternoon Light Georgina Downer speaks with Denis Porter to explore the crucial role the coal industry has played throughout Australian history, from the earliest days of British settlement right up until the present. A story of triumph and tragedy, in which economic growth and political controversy have often gone hand in hand.

Denis Porter was C...

Does offering financial support for Prisoners of War risk incentivising surrender?

On this week’s Afternoon Light Georgina Downer speaks with Christina Twomey, to discuss how the Australian government dealt with returned World War II POWs who had been deeply scarred by their time spent in captivity. Revealing the brutal realism of military commanders who feared that offering too much assistance might reward surrender. But more impo...

What is the story behind the woman who appears on Australia's $50 note?

On this week’s Afternoon Light Georgina Downer speaks with Hilary Silbert to uncover the remarkable life of Australia's first female parliamentarian, Edith Cowan. Who rose from the familial infamy of having a convicted murderer for a father, to become one of the most influential citizens in the history of Western Australia, and an inspiration to women across th...

30 years on from the election of the Howard Government, how does its extensive foreign policy legacy live up to scrutiny?

On this week’s Afternoon Light Georgina Downer speaks with Alexander Downer and his biographer Tony Parkinson to discuss A Step to the Right, the new book on Australia's longest serving foreign minister. The man who oversaw one of the most eventful periods in Australian foreign policy, from the successful interv...

Do those who denigrate Australia's past hurt Australia's present?

On this week’s Afternoon Light Georgina Downer speaks with Tony Abbott to discuss his new book, Australia: A History. An antidote to the 'Black armband' view of our national story, which doesn't downplay the darker aspects of our past, but highlights the overwhelming good. A good we might expect to find if we appreciate the nation that we live in today, and want to u...

Do Australians still agree on enough fundamental values to hold society together?

On this week’s Afternoon Light Georgina Downer speaks with Perter Kurti from the Centre for Independent Studies, to ponder how Australia's democratic and social cohesion can survive our increasing pluralism and historically high immigration rate. Exploring whether there remain enough common threads to bind us together as a nation.

Reverend Peter Kurti...

In this special summer series of the Afternoon Light podcast you can enjoy the presentations delivered at our November 2025 conference entitled ‘Menzies and the British Commonwealth of Nations’. This seventh & final episode features Paul Brown's paper 'Sons of Empire: Menzies, Downer and their response to Britain joining the EEC', Andrew Kemp's paper 'A very different world: Robert Menzies, Harold Macmillan, and the end of Grea...

In this special summer series of the Afternoon Light podcast you can enjoy the presentations delivered at our November 2025 conference entitled ‘Menzies and the British Commonwealth of Nationa’. This sixth episode features Michael de Percy's paper 'God, King, and Country: British Identity and the Australian Defence Force', Greg Melleuish's paper 'Being British, Being Australian', & Peter Kurti's paper 'Beyond the Founder's Inte...

In this special summer series of the Afternoon Light podcast you can enjoy the presentations delivered at our November 2025 conference entitled ‘Menzies and the British Commonwealth of Nations’. This fifth episode features Dan Brettig's paper 'Menzies, Cricket, and the Cold War', Teesta Prakash's paper 'Menzies, Commonwealth and Kashmir', Stewart Gill's paper 'Canada and Australia in the Commonwealth: Robert Menzies’s Relationship ...

In this special summer series of the Afternoon Light podcast you can enjoy the presentations delivered at our November 2025 conference entitled ‘Menzies and the British Commonwealth of Nation’. This fourth episode features Selwyn Cornish & John Hawkins's paper 'Menzies, Keynes and the Australian economists', Mark Lunney's paper 'A Judicial Commonwealth?', & Eli Rubenstein Sturgess's paper 'Equally Sacred Precincts: Why Lord...

In this special summer series of the Afternoon Light podcast you can enjoy the presentations delivered at our November 2025 conference entitled ‘Menzies and the British Commonwealth of Nation’. This third episode features David Furse-Roberts's paper 'A Twentieth Century Australian Whig: Robert Menzies and the Nineteenth Century British Liberal Tradition', Charles Richardson's paper 'Menzies, Burkean liberal or Burkean conservative?...

In this special summer series of the Afternoon Light podcast you can enjoy the presentations delivered at our November 2025 conference entitled ‘Menzies and the British Commonwealth of Nations’. This second episode features Lee Rippon's paper 'Britain, Australia, the Empire and prisoner of war diplomacy, 1939–1942', Wayne Reynolds's paper 'Navigating Imperial Overstretch east of Suez: Menzies and Australian foreign and defence poli...

In this special summer series of the Afternoon Light podcast you can enjoy the presentations delivered at our November 2025 conference entitled ‘Menzies and the British Commonwealth of Nation’. This first episode features the keynote address delivered by Martin Farr, Josh Woodward's paper 'Enlarged horizons and excited imagination: Rereading Robert Menzies’s 1935 overseas diary', & David Lee's paper 'Menzies and Imperial Unity,...

Robert Menzies served 18 years as PM, but were they all as good as each other?

On this week’s Afternoon Light Georgina Downer speaks with Andrew Kemp, who has recently ranked Australian Prime Ministers by the best and worst terms of government we have experienced. A fun and enlightening exercise that highlights how good governance can be judged not merely on the policy programs for which governments are elected, but ultimately on r...

How did the shopping centre become a ubiquitous part of Australian life & is its retail and cultural hegemony greater here than anywhere else on the planet?

On this week's Afternoon Light Georgina Downer speaks with retail historian Matthew Bailey to reveal the fascinating stories associated with the rise of the Australian Shopping Centre. An outgrowth of Menzies-era prosperity, automobility and suburban growth that we not only...

Was an Aussie more essential to the development of the Atom bomb than J. Robert Oppenheimer, & if so why don't we remember him?

On this week's Afternoon Light Georgina Downer speaks with Roland Perry to reveal the remarkable story of Mark Oliphant. A man who arguably won the Second World War twice: first by developing radar to stave off the Nazis, and then by developing the bomb that knocked out Japan. Perhaps the most amazing ...

What did it mean when Australians used to boast that we were 'more British than the British'?

On this week's Afternoon Light Georgina Downer speaks with Stuart Ward to discuss the complexities of British identity, as it once held sway across Australia and the broader British Empire. A defining yet evasive term that meant many different things to many different people, and perhaps because of this, has proven very difficult to replac...

How did a PM who only ever won one election become as iconic as Ben Chifley?

On this week's Afternoon Light Georgina Downer speaks with David Day to discuss Australia's 16th PM. The pipe smoking Bathurst train driver who suffered a trade unionist's martyrdom, before rising to become the architect of Australia's post war settlement. An endearing pragmatist respected even by his opponents, who ironically came unstuck in attempting to...

Did Gough Whitlam crash through or simply crash?

On this week's Afternoon Light Georgina Downer speaks with Troy Bramston about his new book, Gough Whitlam: The Vista of the New. The first full length biography of the iconic Labor PM since his passing in 2014, and one replete with lessons for Australia's present generation of political leaders.

Troy Bramston is a senior writer and columnist with The Australian newspaper. His critic...