The First Eight Project

The First Eight Project

Artwork: Alison Alder

The First Eight Project launched in early 2018 as a joint undertaking between the Australian Parliamentary Library, the National Museum of Australia, the National Archives of Australia, the Victorian Parliamentary Library and the ANU Australian Studies Institute. The project incorporates a series of events, lectures, exhibitions, and a monograph series on the first eight Prime Ministers of Australia.

“This collaboration aims at enlivening interest in this formative period of the nation’s history, focusing on the private, public and political lives of its political leaders, and something of the essence of the world they inhabited and which shaped them.” Dr Dianne Heriot, Parliamentary Librarian.

Read the interview with historian and AuSI Foundation Fellow, Dr David Headon, about the inspiration behind the project.

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Past Events

03
Dec
2024

First Eight Lecture: A Maker and a Breaker — the many faces of Billy Hughes

Dr David Headon

About the LectureWilliam Morris ‘Billy’ Hughes, the ‘Little Digger’, is impossible to sum up satisfactorily. The country’s most controversial prime…

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First Eight Prime Ministers Series with Dr David Headon - Joseph Cook
09
Oct
2024

First Eight Prime Ministers Series with Dr David Headon - Joseph Cook

Dr David Headon, Dr Agnieszka Sobocinska 

The ANU Australian Studies Institute and the Chairman of the Britain-Australia Society invite you to the latest lecture in our ‘First Eight Prime…

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The First Eight Project: Joseph Cook – the eternal outsider
07
Mar
2024

The First Eight Project: Joseph Cook – the eternal outsider

Dr David Headon

About the Lecture Sir Joseph Cook, Australia’s 6th prime minister, has been described as an ‘Australian Lincoln’ and a chameleon without political…

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