History Week kicks off this weekend, and the theme this year is ‘Pop!’ – which will take a look into Australian ‘popular culture’. Richard Waterhouse is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Sydney and he spoke to Nic about the establishment of ‘high’ culture – i.e. our own theatre scene – in Australia with the Australian Elizabethan Trust in 1954. Its aim was “not only to establish opera, ballet and drama companies but to also encourage Australian performers and actors, and to encourage and produce Australian works.”

Richard is one of the speakers at History Week, and you can purchase tickets to his talk Mozart and the Doll on the History Council NSW website.