HMAS Goorangai
The first ship of the Royal Australian Navy lost in the Second World War.
Second World War 1939 - 1945
Dr Thomas J. Rogers
Dr Thomas J. Rogers is a historian in the Military History Section of the Australian War Memorial.
He has previously worked as a historian at the Royal Australian Navy’s Sea Power Centre, the Australian National University, and the University of Melbourne. Tom is an Adjunct Fellow in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at UNSW Canberra.
Much of Tom’s research focuses on colonial Australian history, the South African (Boer) War, and the First World War. He was a regular contributor to Wartime magazine, and continues that work in WM.
Tom has worked on exhibitions relating to the Australian Frontier Wars, and the First and Second World Wars. His book The Civilisation of Port Phillip (MUP, 2018) examines the relationships between settler rhetoric and frontier violence in the early years of British settlement in Victoria.
Main areas of interest and research:
- Australian Frontier Wars
- Australian colonial military history
- South African (Boer) War
- First World War
- History of the Royal Australian Navy
Publication highlights
Book
The Civilisation of Port Phillip: Settler Ideology, Violence, and Rhetorical Possession, Melbourne University Press, 2018
Articles and book chapters
“Displaying Frontier Violence at the Australian War Memorial”, in Cameo Dalley and Ashley Barnwell (eds), Memory in Place: Locating Colonial Histories and Commemoration, ANU Press, 2023, http://doi.org/10.22459/MP.2023.
“The Little Boy and the Hun: Australian propaganda posters reveal an imperial view of the First World War”, Wartime 98, 2022
“Bushman or Boer: Australian identity in a ‘White Man’s War’, 1899–1902” [with Tandee Wang], British Journal for Military History 7, issue 1, March 2021, https://doi.org/10.25602/GOLD.bjmh.v7i1.1468.
“Anzac Trauma and Frontier Violence? Re-examining the Coniston Massacre”, in Keir Reeves and Carolyn Holbrook (eds), The Great War: Aftermath and Commemoration, NewSouth, 2019
“Dismantling a Myth of the South African War: Bushmen, Aboriginal trackers, and Public Debate, 1899–1902” [with Peter Bakker], Journal of Australian Colonial History 21, 2019
“From the Frontier to the Veldt: Indigenous Australian Service, 1788–1901”, in Lachlan Grant and Michael Bell (eds), For Country, For Nation: An Illustrated History of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Military Service, Australian War Memorial, 2018
Bombing Darwin 1942
A successful Japanese raid caught the Allied forces unprepared.
Second World War 1939 - 1945
A Painted Proclamation
A colonial artwork in the Memorial’s collection has its roots in brutal frontier warfare.
Colonial 1788-1901
Letters from Elands River Post
The South African War was candidly described by colonial Australian soldiers.
South African (Boer) War 1899 - 1902