Making Public Histories: Cold War Spies in Australia

While the idea of Cold War-era spies often evokes cliched images of James Bond or John La Carré, the reality of spies and surveillance in Cold War Australia was far stranger and far more interesting than any spy novel. Historians working with restricted or highly redacted material have increasingly shed light on these real life spy stories, from installing bugs in apartment ceilings to rendezvous in cemeteries and draining a beer at the pub opposite the Soviet embassy. In this seminar, two of Australia’s foremost intelligence historians will discuss espionage and counter-espionage in Australia during the Cold War, share some of the fascinating stories they’ve encountered in their research, and reflect on the unique challenges of creating history based on intelligence records.

Dr Ebony Nilsson is a lecturer in History at the Australian Catholic University. She is a social historian whose work specialises in migrant communities’ experiences of politics and surveillance during the Cold War. Her first book, Displaced Comrades: Politics and Surveillance in the Lives of Soviet Refugees in the West (Bloomsbury, 2023) explores the transnational lives and experiences of Soviet ‘Displaced Persons’ who were resettled in Australia from Europe and China during the early Cold War and drew the attention of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation with their political engagement. Elsewhere, she has published on the Sydney Russian community, migrants who returned to the Soviet Union, and the surveillance of migrants in relation to the Petrov Affair.

Dr Rhys Crawley Dr Rhys Crawley is a senior lecturer in history at UNSW Canberra, and the author of the Official History of Australian Operations in Afghanistan, 2005-2010. His research focuses on military and intelligence history, with a particular emphasis on Australian military history, the war in Afghanistan, special operations, First World War operational history, military logistics, espionage, and domestic security intelligence. His books include Climax at Gallipoli: The Failure of the August Offensive (2014), The Secret Cold War: The Official History of ASIO, 1975-1989 (2016), Intelligence and the Function of Government (2018), Gallipoli: New Perspectives on the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force 1915-16 (2018), and The Long Search for Peace: Observer Missions and Beyond, 1947-2006 (2019).

The seminar is part of an ongoing series, Making Public Histories, that is offered jointly by the Monash University History Program, the History Council of Victoria and the Old Treasury Building. Each seminar aims to explore issues and approaches in making public histories. The seminars are open, free of charge, to anyone interested in the creation and impact of history in contemporary society.

We thank the series sponsors, Monash University Publishing, the Monash University History Program and the Old Treasury Building.