2020 Abstract This article recounts a journey from Australia to South Korea in February 2020, at the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, when global awareness of the virus was still emerging. Through visits to museums and everyday encounters in Seoul, it contrasts the high level of public health preparedness in South Korea with the relative normalcy experienced upon return to Australia. Observations of mask-wearing, temperature screening, and public messaging reveal how qu

Saumarez Homestead / National Trust of Australia (NSW) World War I historical article (c. early 20th-century material; later interpretation) Abstract This article examines the “badge-bag” phenomenon in Armidale, New South Wales, during World War I, where collecting fundraising badges became both a patriotic activity and a form of social competition. Women and girls attached badges and buttons, purchased to support wartime charities and organisations, to cloth handbags, transf

National Library of Australia News December 2008 Abstract This article traces the transnational life and influence of Eliezer Levi Montefiore, a nineteenth-century figure whose journey from Barbados to Australia reflects broader global movements of people, culture, and ideas. Born into a Sephardic Jewish family in Bridgetown, Montefiore’s background was shaped by the interconnected commercial and cultural networks of the British Empire. Following his migration to Australia, M