BATTLEFRONTS OF RADICAL PROTEST: HISTORY AND HERITAGE IN BRISTOL AND BALLARAT

Join Ben Mountford and Simon J Potter as they explore Ballarat and Bristol’s connected radical histories, how they have been understood over time, and how thinking about the past can help us understand contemporary issues.

Ballarat may be separated from Bristol, England by thousands of miles, but both cities have strong traditions of radical protest. In the nineteenth century, these British and Australian traditions were connected by a common radical culture and set of political ideas and associations. These traditions have powerful resonances today.

Presented by the Eureka Centre as part of the Australia ICOMOS and City of Ballarat National Conference ‘Our Shared Heritage. Un-Settling Ground’ and supported by the University of Bristol’s Benjamin Meaker Bequest, Australia Catholic University, and the Victorian Goldfields World Heritage bid.

PRESENTERS

Benjamin Mountford is Associate Professor of History at Australian Catholic University (ACU) and Director of ACU’s Centre for Regional Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at Ballarat. His research focuses on Global and Imperial History, Modern British History, and Australian History.

Simon J. Potter is Professor of Modern History at the University of Bristol. He has written much about the history of the British empire and Commonwealth, bringing research in different fields together to reveal the connections between empire and the mass media during the 19^th and 20^thcenturies, and to explore themes in global history.

Image: William James Müller, ‘The Burning of the Toll Houses on Prince Street Bridge with St Mary Redcliffe’, 1831. Photograph: Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives.