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Marion Scrymgour talks about her mixed sense of identity, 2008

This is an edited sound recording of a Northern Territory politician, Marion Scrymgour, talking about her Tiwi and central Australian backgrounds. She says that all her life she has considered herself to be a Tiwi Islander, like her mother. However, she has also recently 'come to accept that I've got this other different ...

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Marion Scrymgour on being the first female Indigenous member of parliament, 2008

This is an edited sound recording of a Northern Territory politician, Marion Scrymgour (1960-), talking about becoming the first female Indigenous member of the NT Legislative Assembly. Scrymgour says that her 2001 election was a breakthrough for women, and particularly for Indigenous women. She says that before that election ...

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Ric Havyatt describes bomb disposal work in Darwin, 2008

This is an edited sound recording of Ric Havyatt, former Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) bomb disposal officer during the Second World War (1939-45), describing the way Japanese planes bombed Darwin in the Northern Territory in 1942-43, and how some bombs did not explode, as designed, on impact. He tells how some unexploded ...

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Jim Stewart recalls the Australian Army Training Team in Vietnam, 2008

This is an edited sound recording of Jim Stewart, a former commanding officer of the Australian Army Training Team in Vietnam (AATTV), explaining how the AATTV trained units of the South Vietnamese Army (SVA) and militia forces. Stewart describes the duties of AATTV members, recalling the difficulty of the language barrier ...

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Ian Frazer describes medical research work, 2008

This is an edited sound recording of Australian medical scientist Ian Frazer outlining some of the joys and frustrations of a career as a medical researcher. One advantage, he says, is that researchers know that many people may benefit from the work they themselves are enjoying, but he warns against a career as a research ...

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Chris Arthur recalls the Franklin River campaign, 2008

This is an edited sound recording of an interview with Chris Arthur, a Tasmanian environmentalist, who describes being arrested and imprisoned in December 1982 after participating in a blockade of a site linked to a proposed project to dam the Franklin River in south-western Tasmania. He also talks about how he has gone ...

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Judge Kevin Parker talks about 'beyond reasonable doubt', 2008

This is an edited sound recording of Kevin Parker, vice-president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), outlining the process of reaching a judgement. Parker stresses that a guilty verdict can only be based on a case being proven 'beyond reasonable doubt' through evidence brought before ...

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Alexandra Shackleton discusses Ernest Shackleton, 2005

This is an edited sound recording of the Hon Alexandra Shackleton, grand-daughter of the Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton. She recounts aspects of his leadership of a 1907-09 expedition to Antarctica, relating how, for the sake of the survival of his team, he abandoned his bid to be the first to reach the geographic ...

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Graeme Burgess remembers army training for the Vietnam War, 2006

This is an edited sound recording of a former Australian soldier, Graeme Burgess, speaking about the School of Military Engineering (SME) in Casula in western Sydney where he trained in 1967 before being sent to fight in the Vietnam War. Burgess gives details of the type of engineer training provided at the SME. He also ...

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Jurij Semkiw remembers Australia's first computer, 2006

This is an edited sound recording of 77-year-old Jurij Semkiw talking about Australia's first computer, known as CSIRAC (pronounced 'sigh-rack'), which ran its first simple program in 1949. Semkiw, who was a maintenance engineer on CSIRAC, describes the excitement of being involved in a completely new technology. He also ...

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Bob Brown recalls the launch of the Blue Streak, 2006

This is an edited sound recording of Bob Brown recalling the excitement in Woomera in South Australia at the intended first launch of a Europa Blue Streak rocket from the nearby rocket range in June 1964. He tells how hundreds of families gathered to watch, only to be let down when the launch was cancelled with just seconds ...

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Ian Frazer discusses the cervical cancer vaccine, 2008

This is an edited sound recording of the Australian medical scientist Ian Frazer discussing how he and his colleague Jian Zhou developed the first vaccine to prevent and treat cervical cancer. He describes their breakthrough laboratory discovery in 1990, and how they realised a vaccine was possible. He also tells of the ...

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Ron Merkel explains why he retired as a judge, 2008

This is an edited sound recording of former Federal Court of Australia judge Ron Merkel outlining the reasons why he retired as a judge to resume work as a barrister. Merkel says that Australia had just gone through a period during which human rights had become a 'big issue' and he wanted to focus on human rights in the ...

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Ron Merkel discusses the phrase 'washed away by the tide of history', 2008

This is an edited sound recording of former Federal Court of Australia judge Ron Merkel discussing a High Court of Australia judge's statement that a person's right to native title may have been 'washed away by the tide of history'. Merkel describes the expression, used by one of the judges in the Mabo native title case, ...

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Shane Gould talks on a sports champion's qualities, 2008

This is an edited sound recording of the former champion Australian swimmer Shane Gould talking about what is required to be a champion sportsperson. Gould suggests a high degree of all-round activity is needed at a young age to produce good physical development prior to specialisation in a particular sport. She says that ...

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Klaus Scheuermann describes 'welcome home' parades, 2008

This is an edited sound recording of Klaus Scheuermann describing the 'welcome home' parade in Brisbane on 12 November 1970 for Australian soldiers who had just returned from South Vietnam. Scheuermann says that the 'fairly rousing welcome' made him and other members of the 8th Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment ...

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Alf Turner remembers his grandfather, William Cooper, 2008

This is an edited sound recording of Alf Turner, grandson of Indigenous activist William Cooper. Turner describes moving to Melbourne to live with his grandparents in about 1936 in the house then used for meetings of the Australian Aborigines' League (AAL). He recalls Cooper's frustration at the lack of results from the ...

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Bonita Mabo recalls Eddie Mabo’s land rights battle, 2008

This is an edited sound recording of Bonita Mabo, widow of Indigenous land rights activist Eddie Mabo. She recalls how her husband declared he would fight for recognition as the owner of his traditional land on Mer Island, also known as Murray Island, in the Torres Strait after learning it was officially regarded as crown ...

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Bonita Mabo speaks about being a South Sea Islander, 2008

This is an edited sound recording of Bonita Mabo, widow of Indigenous land rights activist Eddie Mabo. She discusses being of South Sea Islander descent and talks about how South Sea Islanders were officially recognised as a distinct ethnic group. She states a belief that Islanders such as her ancestors who were brought ...

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Marion Scrymgour discusses representing Indigenous men, 2008

This is an edited sound recording of a Northern Territory politician, Marion Scrymgour, talking in July 2008 about representing the views of Indigenous men after she became the first Indigenous woman to be elected to the NT Legislative Assembly in 2001. Scrymgour says that she seeks to empower Indigenous men to take responsibility ...