Australia is in the midst of an energy transition, but specific policies and decisions around the shift to more renewable forms of energy production, storage and use have become the subject of heated debate. Historians have an important role to play in this debate, shedding light on the historical factors that shape ideas and attitudes in the present. How have Australians thought about nuclear energy, and the extractive processes that underpin it, over the last seventy years? What cultural attitudes have developed around coal and coal mining in Australia, and how do they shape attitudes and policy today? And how have we transitioned between energy regimes in the past?

In this seminar, three leading scholars consider how Australia’s past shapes debates about the nation’s contested energy transition today.

Speakers:

Assoc. Prof. Nancy Cushing (University of Newcastle)

Dr Jessica Urwin (La Trobe University/Australian National University)

Dr Matthew Ryan (The Australia Institute)

This event will be chaired by Rohan Howitt of Monash University.

We thank the series sponsors, Monash University Publishing, the Monash University History Program and the Old Treasury Building.

Bookings:  https://www.historycouncilvic.org.au/australia_s_nuclear_debate_mph

We will be live tweeting the event from our Twitter/X account @History_Vic with the hashtag #MakingPublicHistories