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History Lab
The series
At History Lab we’ve got some good stories to tell
But we are interested in much more than just the story. Instead of an academic or other expert telling you what to think, History Lab wants to draw you in to the investigative process. It wants you to come along with us as we try to make sense of the traces the past leaves in the present. You’ll find that this can sometimes be confusing and frustrating: records are patchy, evidence is destroyed and a lot of the time people disagree about what happened and what it means.
But more often than not, trying to make sense of the traces of the past is also pretty exciting. Things are not always what they seem. Aren’t we always in the process of finding that out? Come and join us, as together we try and make sense of the big and little questions all around us.
Podcast playlist
EPISODE 1
Darlinghurst’s AIDS Crisis: Under the mirror ball
In the late 1970s and early 80s, Sydney’s Darlinghurst was the place to be for queer fun, sex and joy – all bubbling alongside a measure of danger.
Packed bars, late-night gyms, house music, new friendships and the thrill of seeing and being seen. For many, this was the place to connect, to belong, to “grow up under the mirror ball.”
In the first episode of this three-part series, historian Leigh Boucher steps into that world of parties, cruising, chosen families and hard-won freedom — a queer neighbourhood alive with possibility.
But as the music plays and the nights stretch on, whispers of a mysterious illness begin to circulate.
To understand how that powerful, fragile world of Darlinghurst felt and moved, Leigh talks to ordinary people who lived there and built the “gaybourhood” from the ground up.
How might their stories help us to a fresh understanding of a history we think we know?
Voices
Narrator: Regina Botros
Historian: Leigh Boucher
Interviewees: Pierre Touma, Sara Lubowitz, Bruce Carter, Gary Dunne, Lizzie Griggs, Tess Ziems and Frank McCabe.
Archive: Dr Jim Curran and Dr Ron Penny (courtesy of Gaywaves, 2SER)
Archive voice actors: Sam David Harris and Michael J Ryan.
Radio news and current affairs archive from Gaywaves, 2SER.
This special History Lab Original series was created on the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation.
Produced, written and narrated by Regina Botros, in collaboration with Macquarie University historian Leigh Boucher.
Story development by Leigh Boucher and Michelle Ransom-Hughes.
Interviews by Leigh Boucher.
Research assistance from Eli Branagh.
Story and script editing by Sarah Gilbert.
History Lab is a UTS Impact Studios production, in collaboration with the Australian Centre for Public History at UTS.
Support
This podcast was made with the support of the support of the Paul Ramsay Foundation and is part of the Foundation’s Darlinghurst Public History Initiative, a collaboration with UTS’ Australian Centre for Public History and Impact Studios.
Thanks to Macquarie University for its support of this series.
A special thanks goes to the staff and management of City Gym, Darlinghurst, for their generous hospitality.
EPISODE 0
Introducing: Darlinghurst’s AIDS Crisis
Australia’s response to HIV and AIDS is often remembered as a national success story — one shaped by public health policy, activism and community action.
But how does that history change when you zoom in close?
Darlinghurst’s AIDS Crisis is a three-part History Lab Original series with historian Leigh Boucher.
Focusing on the Sydney neighbourhood at the centre of the epidemic, the series traces how the crisis was lived day by day — through friendships and care networks, and in the hospital wards, gyms, bars and streets of Darlo.
Hearing the stories of ordinary people, many of them sharing their stories for the first time, you’ll discover how their voices help us revisit this familiar history, and make it anew.
