Historiography of Australia

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The historiography of Australia refers to the publications produced by historians of Australia, and the sources, critical methods, topics and interpretations they have used and examined. Many 19th century histories were written by prominent settlers or commissioned by colonial governments intent on influencing British policy in the colony or promoting British investment and immigration. Professional academic history began in the 1890s, dominated by "imperial" interpretations in which Australia was seen as an example of a flourishing British society in a new land.

20th century historiography up to the 1960s was dominated by competing imperial and nationalist interpretations. Nationalist historians emphasised an independent Australian identity forged in war, and a democratic ethos dating back to the goldfields of the 1850s. From the 1960s, these schools were challenged by historians using a variety of approaches including Marxist analysis of the Australian labour movement, geopolitical analysis of factors such as Australia's physical size and distance from Europe and America, and the role of luck and chance in shaping Australian society. From the 1970s, histories of marginalised groups such as Indigenous Australians, women, migrants and those with minority sexualities became more prominent.

At the turn of the 21st century, a series of public controversies dubbed "the history wars" sparked heated political and media debate over whether a "black armband" historical orthodoxy was overemphasising the importance of racism, violence, inequality and environmental degradation in Australia's history. Meanwhile, historical practice was becoming more diversified and less centred in universities, with the flourishing of oral histories, local histories, family histories, interdisciplinary studies and transnational approaches which analyse Australian history in a global and regional context.