This project is about history, Australian history — the narratives, the facts and the fictions.
This project, though, isn’t just about our rich and dramatic past it also asks the question what is history? If you wish to know the facts about William Bligh, and of course they are contested, or you wish to know someone else’s view of the history, then you can read the books or even search the original documents. If you want to create the history for yourself then you must visit our broadband site. Here we tackle some of the false assumptions about Australian history. First that it is boring, next that it begins in 1788. By focusing on the Iife of Bligh we have chosen one of the most colourful characters of the time and someone whose life and achievements have been the subject of debate, celebration and detraction almost from the moment he lived them.
This is a project about image and history and the creation of both. It allows for many perspectives to be constructed around the one historical event — but most particularly it allows for both the contemporaneous constructs and the present-day, retrospective constructs. Bligh can be seen through his own eyes via his narratives published at the time, or through the eyes of his contemporaries; or he can be seen in the context of twentieth century space exploration or the politics of Australia in the 1970s. William Bligh is a multi-faceted character, a pivotal figure of Australian history.
