Previous John West Memorial Lectures

From 1989 to 2015 named The Examiner-John West Memorial Lecture

1989
Professor Henry Reynolds:
Tasmania’s Forgotten Treaty

1990
Professor C M H Clark, AC:
The Writing of Australian History

1991
Emeritus Director Daniel Thomas, AM:
Tasmania’s Contribution to the Advances of Art and Taste

1992
Professor Michael Roe with Dr Dan Huon and Dr Alison Alexander:
Launceston Examined: A city and its Newspaper 1842-1992

1993
Dr Marilyn Lake:
Gender and History: Lady Franklin and the Masculinity of Self-Government

1994
Dr Patricia Grimshaw:
Writing the History of Aboriginal and White Women in Colonial Tasmania

1995
Mr Justice Michael Kirby, AC, CMG:
John West, Nationhood and the Millennium

1996
Sister Veronica Brady:
“To Set the People Free”: Conviction and Conscience. John West at the end of the Twentieth Century

1997
Mr Clement Mulcahy:
Sectarianism – A Blessing or a Curse! Does Tasmania have a Cromwellian Legacy?

1998
Mr John Lyons, Editor The Sydney Morning Herald:
Media at the Crossroads

1999
Professor A G L Shaw, AO:
John West’s Tasmania

2000
The Honorable Sir Guy Green, AC, KBE, Governor of Tasmania:
Constitutionalism and the Two Cultures

2001
Professor Geoffrey Blainey:
How Six became One: the Strange Story of the Creation of Australia’s Commonwealth

2002
Associate Professor Janet McCalman, FAHA:
By way of Blessington: pathways in an ecological history of humankind

2003
Professor Stuart Macintyre:
The slavish violence of mere servants of the people: John West and the problem of responsible government

2004
Mr Paul Brunton:
The Voyages of Abel Tasman 1642-44

2005
Professor Tim Bonyhady:
Louisa’s legacy: an appreciation of Tasmania’s first environmental activist

2006
Dr Hamish Maxwell-Stewart:
“Unutterable”: Imagining the Macquarie Harbour Penal Station

2007
Dr Michael Vertigan AC:
Investment in Education – a key to Australia’s future Prosperity

2008
Professor Henry Reynolds AC:
What now for the Black-Arm band?
Aboriginal history after the apology Available Online

2009
Phillip Adams:
The End of the World? or
The Birth of a Better One? Available Online

2010
Professor Tim Flannery:
The CPRS – Is it right for Australia? Available Online

2011
Professor Cassandra Pybus:
The colourful life of Gilbert Robertson, Aboriginal hunter, True Colonist editor, agriculturalist and perpetual litigant Available Online

2012
Dr Carmen Lawrence:
Development at any price? The case of Australia’s Indigenous Heritage Available Online

2013
Professor Lucy Frost:
The children of mothers in the convict system of Van Diemen’s Land Available Online

2014
Professor Philip Payton:
From Launceston to Launceston – Perspectives on the Cornish in Australia

2015
Julian Burnside AO QC:
We can do much better Available Online

2016                                                                                                                              Michelle Grattan AO                                                                                                            The Power of Small Voices: The Struggle for the Senate’s Centre  Available Online

2017                                                                                                                                     Saul Eslake                                                                                                                         Education, Productivity and Economic Performance  Available Online

2018                                                                                                                      Professor Mark McKenna                                                                                        Beyond the Crown: History and Australia’s Republican Future                                          University of Tasmania: Listen on Livestream

2019                                                                                                                               Her Excellency Professor the Honourable Kate Warner AC Governor of Tasmania Transportation re-visited: lessons for modern penal policy? Available Online

2020   
Professor Tim McCormack
The Notion of Humanity as a Constraint on the Conduct of War  University of Tasmania: Island of Ideas SoundCloud channel

2021 Dr Eric Ratcliff                                                                                                             John West’s Launceston, how it came and where it went              Click here for pdf University of Tasmania: Island of Ideas SoundCloud channel.

2022 Dr Alison Alexander, John West and the battle to end convict transportation

Each of the lectures for 1989 – 2011 has been published in the Society’s annual Papers and Proceedings. Copies of some earlier issues are still available in printed format. The lectures from 2008 to 2013 and 2016 – 2022 are available online.