PHA CONFERENCE REGISTRATION
Please note: To keep costs down, the conference registration system operates through the PHA (Vic & Tas) membership management system. By clicking on the links below, you will be taken to an external website and receive confirmation emails with PHA (Vic & Tas) branding.
Although many events are free, registration is ESSENTIAL for us to manage numbers. We highly recommend Adding Events to your Calendar on the registration page to ensure you can navigate the jam-packed schedule!
CONFERENCE ACTIVITIES
Welcome Drinks
Sunset at the Darwin Ski Club
Join us for a drink, a chance to meet and mingle with PHA friends and colleagues and watch the sunset over the ocean before a packed weekend of conference presentations. Food is available to purchase from the restaurant or nearby food truck. Drinks at bar prices.
PHA offer one complimentary drink per member.
DATE: Friday, 24 October at 6 pm
LOCATION: Darwin Ski Club (opposite the MAGNT), 20 Conacher Street, Fannie Bay.
PHA CONFERENCE
DATES: Saturday and Sunday, 25-26 October, 9 am to 5 pm
VENUE: Library & Archives NT, 54 Cavenagh Street, Darwin
Morning and afternoon tea are provided courtesy of PHA NT. Lunch is available on request.
COST: Optional lunch $15 both days
CONFERENCE DINNER
Join us for dinner and a chance to catch up with colleagues and friends. We will also hear from PHA NSW & ACT member Dr Jacqui Newling who will regale us with a presentation on food history.
DATE: Saturday, 25 October
TIME: From 7 pm
COST: $70
LOCATION: Pink Chopstix, 6001, 7 Anchorage Court, Darwin (20 minute walk from the Conference Venue)
Keynote Presentation: If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen
Or so the saying goes. Step into the historical kitchen to learn how our forebears definitely liked their food hot or in other ways spicy. Drawing on cookbooks and recipes used by 19th and early 20th century Australians, menus, and advertisements in newspapers, this talk, along with ‘sniff’ samples of spices and blends representing the tastes of the times, challenges the popular notion that until post-WW2 immigration, food in Australia was plain, bland, and dull. Why is it that contemporary audiences favour – and flavour – impressions of the past as ‘beige’ and boring?
About Jacqui Newling
Jacqui is a public historian and museum curator. Specialising in Australian settler-colonial history and food heritage, Jacqui uses food to engage with diverse audiences and encourage people to reflect on their own, and others’, social identity in the past and the present. Her recent publications include articles on food and settler-colonialism in Australia and First Fleet colonists’ responses to wild food sources as a form of survival.
PRE-CONFERENCE ACTIVITIES
Tour of Historic Downtown Darwin
Join PHA members David Carment and Sam Wells on a lively walking tour to learn about Darwin’s past. The tour will include buildings and places associated with Darwin’s Indigenous and non-Indigenous history, with a focus on the origins and evolution of an isolated and multiracial community that became Australia’s only tropical capital.
DATE: Thursday 23 October 8.30am – 10am
COST: FREE (Registration is essential)
Meet: In front of the Darwin City Hotel, 59 Smith Street, Darwin
BYO hat and water bottle
Tour of Northern Territory Library
Join local PHA members to learn more about the new Library & Archives NT, the Northern Territory’s premier public research library and archival organisation. Discover more about the North Australian collections and learn more about the history of the Top End.
DATE: 23 October 2025 at 2 pm
VENUE: Library & Archives NT Entrance, 54 Cavenagh Street, Darwin
COST: Free
Defence of Darwin Experience
Opened in 2012, as part of the 70th commemoration of the bombing of Darwin, the Defence of Darwin Experience has quickly grown to be one of the most powerful attractions in the Top End. It tells the story of an extraordinary, but little-known chapter in Australian history, the bombing of Darwin by the Japanese on the 19 February 1942. Learn about life in the Northern Territory during World War II, of the contribution made in northern Australia to the war effort, and experience first-hand accounts of the bombing; a traumatic event that changed Darwin forever. Record your family story or response to the exhibition using the StoryShare booth, a dedicated digital story-telling space.
PHA members will be given a special introduction to the spaces by Dr Norman Cramp, Director of the Darwin Military Museum.
The Defence of Darwin Experience is operated by the Royal Australian Artillery Association on behalf of MAGNT.
DATE: Thursday, 23 October at 2 pm
LOCATION: Darwin Military Museum, 434 Alec Fong Lim Drive, East Point, Darwin
COST: $20 (entry fee payable at the museum)
Mindil Beach Sunset Markets
Mindil Beach Sunset Market is the heart of Darwin's cultural melting pot, epitomizing our city’s multicultural nature. Running along the foreshore of Mindil Beach, it’s famous for stunning sunsets over the Timor Sea. Founded in 1987 the market has grown to include over 200 stalls of food, arts, crafts and services. As well as being a beautiful spot, Mindil Beach has an important history of being a significant burial ground for Aboriginal people from different areas including Tiwi, Bathurst and Melville Island. Learn more about this history from local PHA member Sam Wells, then enjoy all the market has to offer while watching the sunset.
DATE: Thursday, 23 October at 5.30 pm
MEET: Mindil Beach near the eastern end public toilets on Maria Liveris Drive
TOUR OF THE CHUNG WAH SOCIETY
Join us on a personalised tour of the NT Chinese Museum with Neville Jones.
The Museum presents a story of grit and determination and the contribution of the Chinese people to the development of the Northern Territory. A particular focus is the impact of World War II: the bombing of Darwin, the fate of China Town and the contribution by the Darwin Chinese people in their service to Australia.
PHA members are then invited to lunch at a nearby Chinese restaurant (pay your own).
DATE: Friday, 24 October at 10 am
COST: $4 (pay on arrival)
Meet at the entrance to the museum.
CURATOR-LED TOUR OF THE MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY OF NT
Located on Larrakia Country, the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory's principal site, MAGNT Darwin, is home to internationally renowned artistic, cultural and scientific collections and research programs. Join us for a PHA exclusive, curator-led tour of the museum and current exhibitions including the new Cyclone Tracy exhibition. The 2025 NATSIAA (National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards) will also be on at this time.
DATE: Friday, 24 October, 2 pm
COST: FREE
MEET: Entrance to the Darwin City Hotel (59 Smith Street, Darwin) to catch a bus to MAGNT
PHA AGM
Friday 24 October 5pm-6pm
Darwin Ski Club, 20 Conacher Street, Fannie Bay
Professional Historians Australia Annual General Meeting will be held on Friday 24 October, with election of our office bearers and a short discussion of national achievements over the past year. All welcome.