From the President

I was elected President of the Australian Historical Association (AHA) for a two-year term in July 2020 as Australia grappled with the global Covid-19 pandemic. And here we are, in October 2021, almost 18 months into this public health crisis and as I write from northern New South Wales, the lands of the Dunghutti people, I remain in 'lockdown lite', with much of eastern Australia experiencing similar or indeed harsher conditions. Our members in Victoria and especially those who live in Melbourne have officially been in lockdown for longer than anyone else on the planet.¹ Incredible. It’s hard to get past the disruption and disorientation of the pandemic. Our lives have been turned upside down, all the best-made plans dashed, research and archival trips cancelled, unable to visit loved ones, life put on hold. The personal and the professional have merged, with our working lives and home lives more intertwined than ever, with boundaries increasingly blurred. Australian governments still grapple with controlling the pandemic, and we remain at their mercy with closed international (and state) borders. It is apparent that we will be living with this virus for the foreseeable future, well past my Presidency period.