For NSW History Week 2025, the History Now series focuses on an island at the heart of the Sydney story – Cockatoo Island / Wareamah.
The presentations will focus on recent research being conducted into the island’s history and will include a detailed discussion of the use of new technologies to record the rich history of the island.
Presentations will be delivered by Kirsten McKenzie, Bradley Manera, Nerida Campbell, Joseph Lehner and Elliot Cummins.
This presentation is part of the History Council of New South Wales’s 2025 History Now series 2025.
History Now is presented by the History Council of NSW, the Chau Chak Wing Museum and the University of Sydney's Vere Gordon Childe Centre.
This presentation is part of the History Council of New South Wales’s 2025 History Now series
2025 History Now is presented by the History Council of NSW, the Chau Chak Wing Museum and the University of Sydney's Vere Gordon Childe Centre.
Image: LiDAR recording of ockatoo Island / Wareamah.
Kirsten McKenzie is Chair of Australian History and Director of the Vere Gordon Childe Centre. She publishes on Australian and British imperial history in the early nineteenth century. She has particular interests in convict transportation, colonial scandal and imposture. Her most recent books are Inquiring into Empire: Colonial Commissions and British Imperial Reform and Mobility and Coercion in an Age of Wars and Revolutions.
Brad Manera was on the team that put together the UNESCO World Heritage listing for Cockatoo Island / Wareamah in 2007. He is senior historian and curator at the Anzac Memorial, Sydney and currently serves on the board of the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust.
Nerida Campbell is the Head of Curatorial, Research and Production at the Harbour Trust. With over 20 years of curatorial experience, she has recently turned her attention to the complex and compelling history of Cockatoo Island / Wareamah. She has produced new tours, films, displays and experiences on the island which aim to make research relatable to visitors and showcase the diverse story of this island.
Joseph Lehner is the Tom Austen Brown Lecturer in World Prehistory and the Deputy Director of the Vere Gordon Childe Centre. As an archaeologist, he specialises in materials science, remote sensing, and digital approaches to the human past. While he conducts regular field work in southeastern Arabia (UAE and Oman) and Türkiye, he also contributes to research projects in Australia including the new multidisciplinary work on Cockatoo Island / Wareamah.
Elliot Cummins is an experienced drone operator and Chief Remote Pilot at Sphere Drones. With a background in aviation, a keen interest in photography and nearly 10 years in the drone industry, Elliot has worked extensively with specialised solutions such as the YellowScan LiDAR and Flyability Elios 3 to capture data on a wide variety of use cases including underground mining, WWII tunnels, and of course Cockatoo Island / Wareamah. Elliot’s primary focus is now the deployment of HubX drone-in-a-box based solution developed by Sphere Drones.
