Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Australian history

comments
As a new WP, we need to start by evaluating what articles have been written already, and discovering what glaring holes are in place. I am going to start a structural tree of events, and linking too the articles that cover those events. Once we understand where the Australian history is lacking we can maybe start a concerted effort to fill them.SauliH 06:16, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

I started to outline Australia history at WikiProject Australian history/Timeline, as a basis for breaking down into seperate categories ie Law, Politics, Religion, etc. If anyone would like to pitch in please do so. SauliH 09:41, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

Sister Project
I am about to put WikiProject Australian maritime history on  WikiProject Council/Proposals - as I feel that the odd range of  histories of (a) ships, (b) ports, (c) shipping companies, (d) coastal shipping (e) maritime museums (f) maritime history as an academic discipline in australia (g) miscellaneous shipping issues - could well be covered under the umbrella of such a project - and not be a problem within this  project. I do hope anyone reading this might feel inspired to either offer suggestions or support - here - at the proposal or at my talk page. Thanks 11:30, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
 * I think it might be just as well handled under the banner of this project, perhaps through a taskforce or subpage.--cj | talk 07:36, 18 November 2006 (UTC)


 * Sister/Child ? The important issue is that the disparate and poorly linked/co-ordinated subjects (if you see the proposed list of articles to be covered) are pulled together into the umbrella of australian maritime history. I personally would be very hesitant about complete subordination to the australian history project per se until some of the policies/principles are clearly sorted out for the project! SatuSuro 15:43, 19 November 2006 (UTC)

Due to the broad nature of history and the subjects covered, I am not sure that subordinating the maritime history subject to the Australian History WP will limit the scope, or anything else. As a subject area, Maritime History will have it's own quirks, and it should develop it's own set of unique policies where required.SauliH 21:34, 19 November 2006 (UTC)


 * With seven proposals in support, I think it is probably a goer - see WikiProject Council/Proposals and User:Moondyne/Australian maritime history.  For me it is not so much a matter of policies but scope and filling in the gaps.  I would like to see river transport within the scope too if we could be so generous - coastal trade and river trade are by no means identical but have significant overlaps.--Golden Wattle  talk 22:38, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

Australian Military history taskforce
The Australian Military history task force of Military Histoy Project should be a sister project of the new project. Hossen27 10:32, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia Day Awards
Hello, all. It was initially my hope to try to have this done as part of Esperanza's proposal for an appreciation week to end on Wikipedia Day, January 15. However, several people have once again proposed the entirety of Esperanza for deletion, so that might not work. It was the intention of the Appreciation Week proposal to set aside a given time when the various individuals who have made significant, valuable contributions to the encyclopedia would be recognized and honored. I believe that, with some effort, this could still be done. My proposal is to, with luck, try to organize the various WikiProjects and other entities of wikipedia to take part in a larger celebrartion of its contributors to take place in January, probably beginning January 15, 2007. I have created yet another new subpage for myself (a weakness of mine, I'm afraid) at User talk:Badbilltucker/Appreciation Week where I would greatly appreciate any indications from the members of this project as to whether and how they might be willing and/or able to assist in recognizing the contributions of our editors. Thank you for your attention. Badbilltucker 22:41, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

Request for comment
I would like to place the following - edited only very slightly to reflect suburb names - in the suburbs of the City of Blacktown:
 * Prior to settlement and colonisation of Australia, Riverstone and the surrounding area was inhabited by the Darug tribe. Most of these people died due to introduced diseases following the arrival of the First Fleet, and the remainder were largely relocated to government farms and a series of settlements. This resettlement eventually led to a settlement at the intersection of Richmond Road and Rooty Hill Road which came to be known as Black's Town.

Would anyone like to comment / suggest / improve before I put it on the 20-odd current stub articles? Note: I will be confirming as much as I am able that each of the suburbs is in the region which was used by the Darug people. If there is any doubt for a given suburb I won't put that paragraph in. Garrie 04:13, 4 January 2007 (UTC) PS. Brief history of the name of the City of Blacktown: Source for all this is indicated on the City of Blacktown council website.Garrie 04:18, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
 * aboriginal settlement created
 * this was known as "Black's Town"
 * the road to it became "Black's Town Road"
 * a railway station was built near "Black's Town Road" - this became, Blacktown Railway Station
 * The town that grew up next to the railway station, became "Blacktown"


 * I find boilerplate copied text annoying - better to put just the first sentence, or something specific to the suburb, and put the general stuff in the Darug people article. Somebody did something similar to a lot of towns near Adelaide (about the Kaurna people). It becomes monotonous to read, and adds little to each page. Sorry to sound negative - maybe someone else will have a positive remark for balance. --Scott Davis Talk 07:27, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
 * I don't have a problem with feedback directed at the content!
 * It has been strongly suggested that suburb articles should reflect pre-european history though... and the Durag people pretty much covered all of these suburb areas, which cover very similar terrain in a definate geographic area (small compared say to the area covered by the Wiradjuri).
 * Obvious areas for improvement include trying to identify if there was any patern of use of different parts of the territory (which I am sure there would have been just identifying what it was would be the challenge).
 * I guess the later part of the text is much more appropriate for specific suburbs: Plumpton where the Black's Town was located (not that there's anything there to mark it's previous history). Dharruk, which directly takes it's name from the Darug people. The suburb Blacktown.
 * As stated above - I want to get it down right before I drop it all over the place and annoy people with copied boilerplate text!Garrie 00:24, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
 * As we are discussing suburb articles, you may want to bring the suggestion up at WP:AUSTPLACE. From a historical perspective, my opinion is that this content belongs in with the history of that indigenous group, and that the Darug people article should contain the meat. In the instance of the Blacktown article, the etymology of the name would be an important addition to the article, and what you have written relates quite well the name's origin. Whether you need to add that particular piece to all the suburb articles in the vicinity is a whole different matter, and it would be my opinion to leave it out (that's speaking with my AUSTPLACE hat on). The history you draw attention to belongs at a higher level, as it is really regional history. SauliH 01:09, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Yeah but if I go there ppl would say "you're talking about history not the place" ;)
 * I think etymology of the name is already discussed somewhere between the suburb, the city, and the local government article - they are all called Blacktown so I get a bit lost...
 * To be honest I didn't really know about that page. I have seen significant criticism of suburb history sections commencing with European settlement though and would like to avoid such criticism. The article I am seeking to approach, for western Blacktown suburbs, is Summer Hill, and I think that parts of it's history section spill over into the history of the surrounding area (but I don't know those areas well enough to be 100% on that one). Garrie 03:05, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Regarding Scott Davis' comment: While I have sources to show that the suburbs were part of the range of the Darug people - I don't particularly have anything to show how extensive the range of the Darug people was. I know enough to say they used to live in these places - but not enough to say weather they lived anywhere else. Many indigenous groups covered large areas. I don't want to put anything on the Darug people article which is a systematic error by ommission. (if I do it by mistake that's different!)Garrie 04:05, 5 January 2007 (UTC)


 * History of the Dharug people belongs on their article. History of the suburb actually does only start with white settlement, unlike some foreign cities that can trace the history of the actual town back through several different civilisations (Inca/Mexican/California or Celtic/Roman/Anglo-saxon/Norman). The goal I would aim for is to put specific information in the most specific article, and summarise and link from others that are appropriate. The Summer Hill article has no relevant links in it - the closest is to Indigenous peoples (redirected from Aboriginal people). Some of the info there is specific to land within that suburb's present boundaries, and the rest is vague and uncited, verging on WP:WEASEL and WP:OR. --Scott Davis Talk 07:47, 5 January 2007 (UTC)


 * The history section on the Summer Hill article really belongs on the Dharug page in my opinion. If actual physical localities need to be mentioned the article can reference another location like - the Dharug people had xyz in the area now known as Summer Hill, yada yada. The article itself does not need to then go into detail regarding the prehistory of the suburb which only existed during white settlement. Now if the two histories overlap - say the Dharug settlement at Blacktown which may have been there for many years of the eaaaaaarly european days, then I think it is fair to include that in a history section on that page. SauliH 07:57, 5 January 2007 (UTC)


 * OK. To sum up what has been offered, on each suburb I should put something in the lines of:

"Prior to settlement and colonisation of Australia, (suburb) and the surrounding area was inhabited by the Darug tribe."
 * That will direct the reader to that article for further information which can be provided by a contributor with access to suitable sources (ie - I don't really have them). And I haven't totally disregarded the indiginous history of an area which remains well known for it's continued aboriginal population. User:GarrieIrons|Ga]]rrie 12:07, 5 January 2007 (UTC)


 * That's the idea, yes. Plus you have a bit more for Blacktown itself, and you have some info in your first proposal that you might want to add to Darug people even though you think you don't have much info - it's more than what was there to start with. --Scott Davis Talk 14:07, 5 January 2007 (UTC)


 * Perfect. SauliH 05:15, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

Palm Island ACOTF
Hi Wikipedians, as you may already know Palm Island has just become the Australian Collaboration of the Fortnight, I invite you to get involved in one of the most relevant articles to Australia's history and the development of race relations over the past 100 years.

I am hoping that members of wikiproject Australian history will help out as you have access to (or practice with) Australian historical documents and websites and will therefore be able to contribute a lot to this project which also involves Law, Geography, Politics and current Indigenous affairs in Australia, this is an article which can really combine the talents of people in all the different Australian wikiprojects.

To get things started I have started a to do list, please feel free to edit or add to it. The article is currently of a fairly low standard so it will be interesting to watch it develop over the next two weeks. I look forward to seeing you on Palm! WikiTownsvillian09:18, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

WikiProject History Merger
I was wondering if this project should be turned into a task force under WikiProject History. This would attract a lot more members and give acces to a lot of infrastructure.-- Phoenix 15 (Talk) 17:36, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

collaboration of the history projects
Hi, I'm newly appointed coordinator of the WikiProject History. I was coordinator of the WikiProject Military History before. My scope is to improve the cooperation among the different history projects andf use the synergy of a common infrastructure to improve article quality. One idea would be to merge small project into a larger wikiproject history with a common infrastructure and the small projects continuing independently as task forces of this project. What are your suggestions? Greetings Wandalstouring 15:10, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

Coordinators' working group
Hi! I'd like to draw your attention to the new WikiProject coordinators' working group, an effort to bring both official and unofficial WikiProject coordinators together so that the projects can more easily develop consensus and collaborate. This group has been created after discussion regarding possible changes to the A-Class review system, and that may be one of the first things discussed by interested coordinators.

All designated project coordinators are invited to join this working group. If your project hasn't formally designated any editors as coordinators, but you are someone who regularly deals with coordination tasks in the project, please feel free to join as well. &mdash; Delievered by §hepBot  ( Disable )  on behalf of the WikiProject coordinators' working group at 04:50, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

WP:NOT#PLOT
Apologies for the notice, but this is being posted to every WikiProject to avoid accusations of systemic bias. Hiding T 13:29, 27 April 2009 (UTC)

Richmond River Massacres and Richmond River massacre
Would someone care to take a look at Richmond River Massacres and Richmond River massacre and work out whether one needs to be redirected over somewhere else? I think the new user intended to move the page from one place to another but might not be aware how to. Or possibly there needs to be an expansion of them to further emphasize what he wanted (something about there being multiple massacres in the same name and hence needing a plural heading?). Cheers.Calaka (talk) 11:09, 9 September 2009 (UTC)
 * Yeah, it seems to have been a copy and paste move. I've just edited Richmond River massacre so its a redirect to the new article as the move doesn't appear controversial. Nick-D (talk) 08:58, 11 September 2009 (UTC)
 * Article histories merged and the article moved to Richmond River massacres because "massacres" isn't a proper noun. Somno (talk) 05:02, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

FAR for History of the Australian Capital Territory
nominated History of the Australian Capital Territory for a featured article review here. Please join the discussion on whether this article meets featured article criteria. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. If substantial concerns are not addressed during the review period, the article will be moved to the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Remove" the article's featured status. The instructions for the review process are here.) –Grondemar 04:41, 13 January 2010 (UTC)

Forrest River Massacre
Would interested editors please visit the Forrest River Massacre article. There are two books on this particular historical event. One that argues that the massacre was probable (although the article portrays it as certain) and a second that argues that it was a myth. Certain editors are attempting to cut out virtually all information from the second book while flooding the article with highly questionable claims from the first. It is pretty obvious that they only want one perspective reflected in the article and want all evidence that there are problems with that point of view erased.

From the reliable sources noticeboard see

My question is: Is it really appropriate for an Australian History Project article to be this heavily biased?Webley442 (talk) 04:42, 28 August 2010 (UTC)


 * That post at the reliable sources noticeboard is definitely a case of WP:TLDR and you're not helping your case with it. The basic principle Wikipedia operates on is that all views which can be reliably sourced should be included (in rough proportion to the weight of sources per WP:UNDUE), so if two different reliable sources say different things, we should include both views. I note that there's a long-running discussion of this at [[Talk:Forrest River massacre. Nick-D (talk) 07:43, 28 August 2010 (UTC)

NB there's an Rfc on above issue at the article talk page, probably best to centralise discussion there. Misarxist (talk)

Mr Vincent
This article really needs some cleaning up. It refers to Henry Vincent, and I would move the article myself, but there is already a different article for another Henry Vincent, so with my lack of knowledge on the subject, I didn't know what to call the new article. I hope somebody here might be able to do some cleanup on it. Inks.LWC (talk) 06:19, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

Wikimedians to the Games
If there are any Australians lurking around, Wikimedians to the Games is a collaboration drive to improve Australian Paralympic articles, with the most active contributors having an opportunity to go attend the Paralympic Games and to cover the Games behind the scenes with a press pass. The top two contributors will get their airfare and accommodation paid for. :) The drive official starts on 10 January 2012. --LauraHale (talk) 09:45, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

Portal:History
Is up for FPOC. This is one of the highest (if not the highest) visibility portal on Wikipedia, I recommend commenting on it! Cheers, Res Mar 23:13, 10 January 2012 (UTC)

YEAR in Australia
I am looking for guidance/feedback on templates for the YEAR in Australia articles. I was updating a couple of articles from the 1790s and looked at the New Zealand articles from the same era. I through the template they used was neat, so I adapted it for Australia:

  gives

Having used it for 1788–1804 I now see that years since 1955 in Australia articles have used a yearbox template, while 1788 in Australia uniquely uses to list each of the years 1788 to 2012.

I guess there are three issues:
 * 1) Do we want to use a Year in Australia template?  Many other countries do.  If not, I will revert my changes.
 * 2) What syntax?  All those that I checked used.
 * 3) What format and content.  There are some pretty fancy ones out there, with flags changing as a function of date, etc.  See Template:Year in NZ for something very simple, Template:Year in South Africa and Template:Year_in_Norway for something fancier, with all the functionality of the yearbox template and more in one neat package.  See Category:Time, date and calendar templates for more examples.

The actual content of the template is secondary, as this can be modified later. Some of the examples generate links for decades and centuries automatically, so all the functionality of the existing yearbox can be included.

Billingd (talk) 04:26, 14 February 2012 (UTC)


 * I like it. --LauraHale (talk) 04:44, 14 February 2012 (UTC)
 * If the example of 1791 above is what can happen and its an improvement on things - good: also good to have a template, and if bells and whistles are possible (as explained in the latter examples0 we should have them - thanks for the effort!! SatuSuro 09:13, 14 February 2012 (UTC)
 * The example above is exactly what you see at the moment Billingd (talk) 10:51, 14 February 2012 (UTC)

... and this some work in progress &mdash; a fancier version adapted from Year in Germany   Billingd (talk) 10:57, 15 February 2012 (UTC)

Flood article titles
I noticed on the list of flood disasters that the floods are named with a capital F. Is that an error, as in un-needed capitalisation. Shouldn't it just be small f as in 2010–2011 Queensland floods? - Shiftchange (talk) 12:16, 6 May 2012 (UTC)

State Library of NSW
There is a lot of Wikipedia work going on at the State Library of New South Wales at the moment, and the library's own article has been greatly expanded in an effort to have it reach a standard that reflects the quality and significance of the institution itself. Could people have a look and either suggest improvements or make them? Whiteghost.ink (talk) 23:30, 9 May 2013 (UTC)

WikiProject History needs people
Hi everyone. I am the new coordinator for WikiProject History. we need people there!! right now the project seems to be semi-inactive. I am going to various WikiProjects whose topics overlap with ours, to request volunteers.


 * If you have any experience at all with standard WikiProject processes such as quality assessment, article help, asking questions, feel free to come by and get involved.


 * and if you have NO Experience, but just want to come by and get involved, feel free to do so!!!


 * For anyone who wants to get involved, please come by and add your name at our talk page, at our talk page section: WikiProject History needs you!!!!


 * Alternately, if you have any interest at all, feel free to reply right here, on this talk page. please ping me when you do so, by typing in your reply.

we welcome your input. thanks!! --Sm8900 (talk) 20:45, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

Category:Australian history articles needing expert attention has been nominated for discussion
Category:Australian history articles needing expert attention has been nominated for possible deletion, merging, or renaming. A discussion is taking place to decide whether this proposal complies with the categorization guidelines. If you would like to participate in the discussion, you are invited to add your comments at the category's entry on the categories for discussion page. Thank you. Peaceray (talk) 06:00, 16 May 2021 (UTC)

Perceived bias against articles about minor Australian explorers
The following entry has been in the Exploration sub-project for some time: In 2019 I changed the proposed article name to William Parr (1813 convict) and linked it to the article for John Howe (Australian settler). Since then I have been trying without success to have the article which I have written accepted. The article is at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:William_Parr_(1813_convict)
 * 1817 Parr expedition of 1817

I would value any constructive comments on the Draft article, and any assistance towards getting it published.

Regards, Downsize43 (talk) 01:39, 24 May 2021 (UTC)
 * The article title and lede are somewhat weak in terms of making a clear "claim to fame". He's not that interesting for being a convict so I'd be more inclined to call it William Parr (explorer) and make the lede about what he explored, not what other people explored. Kerry (talk) 14:18, 29 May 2021 (UTC)

Lloyd's Register Foundation, Heritage & Education Centre uploads 5000 documents to Wikimedia Commons
Hi WikiProject Australian History,

The Lloyd’s Register Foundation, Heritage & Education Centre have just uploaded 5005 documents from our Ship Plan and Survey Report Collection to Wikimedia Commons that may be of interest to you as many of the documents directly relate to Australian history. The ingestion is comprised of 16 boxes and accounts for 1082 ships across 184 unique places of build from across the globe.

The documents include original handwritten correspondence from Lloyd's Register surveyors, ship plans and even a small selection of photographs. Examples include an annual report for Fiery Cross, a wreck report for Highwave, and cabin plan for the City of Simla.

In addition to the Ship Plan and Survey Report Collection, we are also beginning to ingest every edition of the Lloyd’s Register of Shipping until 1909 as well as a percentage of the First and Famous Collection, the world’s most iconic ships from within our collection. We will be sure to keep you updated on the progress of this next step.

Browse the full collection here.

We would really welcome some support for the resources and encourage you to share our documents on Wikipedia.

Thank you for all your help.LRFHEC (talk) 11:14, 16 September 2021 (UTC)

User script to detect unreliable sources
I have (with the help of others) made a small user script to detect and highlight various links to unreliable sources and predatory journals. Some of you may already be familiar with it, given it is currently the 39th most imported script on Wikipedia. The idea is that it takes something like and turns it into something like
 * John Smith "Article of things" Deprecated.com. Accessed 2020-02-14.
 * John Smith "Article of things" Deprecated.com. Accessed 2020-02-14.

It will work on a variety of links, including those from cite web, cite journal and doi.

The script is mostly based on WP:RSPSOURCES, WP:NPPSG and WP:CITEWATCH and a good dose of common sense. I'm always expanding coverage and tweaking the script's logic, so general feedback and suggestions to expand coverage to other unreliable sources are always welcomed.

Do note that this is not a script to be mindlessly used, and several caveats apply. Details and instructions are available at User:Headbomb/unreliable. Questions, comments and requests can be made at User talk:Headbomb/unreliable.

- &#32; Headbomb {t · c · p · b}

This is a one time notice and can't be unsubscribed from. Delivered by: MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:00, 29 April 2022 (UTC)

Possible copyright violations
A number of articles relevant for this project (including Eureka Flag) currently use the image, which is a cropped version of. There is currently a deletion request for the latter, due to a possible copyright violation. The copyright status of both images is unclear at this time, and it appears likely that both will be deleted soon. If you have any information regarding the issue, please comment on the deletion request page. Renerpho (talk) 15:48, 23 September 2022 (UTC)


 * It saddens me to report that the images had to be removed from the articles, and were deleted in February 2023. If anyone here knows where to find similar or equivalent images that are out of copyright, please get in touch. Renerpho (talk) 05:16, 2 June 2023 (UTC)

Request for feedback (possible article creation)
I am looking at a possible article creation, about Edward Thonen, one of the miners killed at the Eureka Stockade. Content and sources for the topic can be found at www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Thönen-17 (which is where I have been working on it for the past couple of weeks; research is still ongoing). I am not Australian, and Wikipedia's requirements differ a bit from those of that website. Your feedback would be appreciated. Renerpho (talk) 15:55, 23 September 2022 (UTC)


 * The article has now been created at Edward Thonen. There is a nomination for it to appear in WP:DYK. Renerpho (talk) 01:35, 4 November 2022 (UTC)
 * Hi @Renerpho have given your article a trim, removing the broken links and improving the flow of language. Nice work you've done - Teddy Thonen is a real character. MatthewDalhousie (talk) 02:00, 14 May 2024 (UTC)
 * Thanks! Looks good. Renerpho (talk) 02:18, 14 May 2024 (UTC)