User Profile

Nick
Brodie

Nick Brodie is a professional history nerd, based in Hobart. He is the author of several popular history books, including The Vandemonian War, Under Fire, and 1787: The Lost Chapters of Australia's Beginnings, which all have substantial Tasmanian content. Appearing regularly on ABC television and radio as a historical and current affairs commentator, Nick is one of Australia's most recognisable millennial historians.

History

The UTAS shuffle

by Nick Brodie

03 Mar 2022

There is a fierce debate about moving UTAS - again.

History

Cards of Christmases past

by Nick Brodie

19 Dec 2021

Hobart’s first “Christmas Card Exhibition” in late 1889 was probably the greatest concentration of local art colonial Tasmania had ever seen.

History

Letters from the front

by Nick Brodie

07 Oct 2021

Until wartime censorship slowed the supply to craft the public narratives, Australians could read first-hand accounts of war in their local newspapers. Tasmania was no exception to this phenomenon. In fact, Hobart’s historic newspapers are...

History

Forced entry: The battle for Aboriginal land

by Nick Brodie

28 Jun 2021

It has been a big year for battle anniversaries – Agincourt, Waterloo, Gallipoli, Recherche Bay. There is no prize for guessing which one has not been the subject of serial television commemorations and newspaper specials. A skirmish on Tasmania’s south-eastern coast on December 13, 1815, has largely been overlooked. It is unknown to most military enthusiasts. No formal armies were involved in the battle of Recherche Bay, but it marks the moment when frontier conflict in Van Diemen’s Land shifted decisively from operations at the borders of European settlement to conflict deeper within the Aboriginal landscape.