Blainey To Give Foundation Day Address

22 Oct 2009

Parramatta City Council is proud to present distinguished historian Professor Geoffrey Blainey at the inaugural Annual Foundation Day Address.

Appearing at Riverside Theatres on Sunday 1 November, the controversial historian will deliver a lecture entitled Parramatta: the River Story, which will examine the central role of Parramatta in the history and development of the nation and discuss its ongoing importance as a symbol for Australian identity.

Foundation Day celebrates the day on 2 November 1788 when Governor Arthur Phillip travelled up the Parramatta River and ordered a settlement be made at the place where tidal water became fresh water.

Initially named Rosehill, the area became Parramatta in 1791, and was declared a City in 1938. It is now a $14 billion economy and the capital of western Sydney - the fastest growing region in Australia.

The eminent and often provocative historian has been one of the key thinkers engaged in the so-called ‘history wars’. He devised the terms ‘Three Cheers view’ and the ‘Black Armband view’ of Australian history. In a long and distinguished career, he has been an influential advocate of dominant conservatism and was awarded the Centenary Medal in 2001.

Professor Blainey has continued as a prolific historian and he makes his living from the sales of his many books, which include the study of settlement The Tyranny of Distance, The Causes of War, A Short History of the Twentieth Century and Triumph of the Nomads.  

He was made a Companion of the Order of Australia in the year 2000. In 2005, a Chair in History was named in his honour at Melbourne University and in 2007 he was made a Doctor of Laws.  He is also listed as one of the Australian Living Treasures.

Be sure to attend this free public lecture to hear one of the nation’s great thinkers present the ‘Blue and Gold armband’ view of history.

What: Annual Foundation Day Address

Where: Riverside Theatre

When: Sunday 1 November, 2009 at 6pm

Cost: Free - Bookings 8839 3399