Following on from the highly successful 2017 conference, Our Automotive Heritage, the 3rd annual conference of Automotive Historians Australia (AHA) took place in August 2018. With its combination of academic, enthusiast and social gatherings centring around Melbourne, this event was not to be missed.
2017 was a significant year for motor vehicle manufacture in Australia with the closure of the last Holden Plant at Elizabeth. As a retrospective of the legacy of the local manufacturing industry, the third annual conference of Automotive Historians Australia considers the impact of the automobile on all aspects of urban life. While some historians point to the erosion of the public sphere by private convenience of the automobile, they have nevertheless been one of the most potent objects of everyday Australian life and a pervasive symbol of our modern experience. Therefore the theme of the 2018 Automotive Historians Australia Conference was: AUTOPIA: the car and the modern city.
Hosted by the Australian Centre for Architectural History, Urban and Cultural Heritage, and Melbourne School of Design at the University of Melbourne the exciting conference program included:
RACV Harley Tarrant Cocktail Party: RACV City Club in Melbourne, night of the 10th August
Third Ron Tauranac Lecture: Historian Graeme Davison, author of Car Wars, 11th August
Conference dinner
Conference paper sessions, enthusiast presentations, and AHA Annual General Meeting: University of Melbourne, 11th to 12th August
Here is a taste of the action in Melbourne, 2018:
Please visit our YouTube channel for more full filmed versions of each of the paper presented from all of our conferences.
To get exclusive access to the recordings of our 2019 papers an panels, you will need to join up as a member here. Download the proceedings from 2018 below: