The Blackheath History Forum has announced its program of history talks for 2026. Once

again they will be held in either the Blackheath Public School hall or Gardner’s Inn,

beginning at 4pm on a Saturday or Sunday. School talks will include the famous afternoon

tea (available from 3.30pm) while the pub talks will include a drink from the bar.

As ever, this year’s program showcases some of Australia’s best known historians –

including Henry Reynolds, Ann Curthoys, Mark McKenna and Alan Atkinson – as well as

some emerging stars such as Emily Gallagher, author of Playtime: A History of Australian

Childhood, and Geraldine Fela, winner of the 2025 Prime Minister’s Australian History

Award for her book on nurses during the AIDS crisis. And there are also some well-known

locals – Sylvia Martin and Naomi Parry Duncan – speaking respectively on two artistic

women and Musquito, the Aboriginal warrior. Matt Allen will regale us with stories around

colonial Australians drinking habits, Sean Scalmer will trace the battle for reasonable

working hours while Stuart Coupe will take us into the King’s Cross underworld with Abe

Saffron: all three of these talks appropriately held in Gardner’s Inn.