»Surprisingly, DNA analyses reveal that Victorian koalas’ genetics are also quickly rebounding, probably because the population grew so fast, according to a study published in ›Science‹. The findings provide hope to those working to save animals from the brink of extinction.«

»The case of the Hinematioro pou, which is now being returned from the University of Tübingen to the Māori community Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti on the east coast of New Zealand’s north island, illustrates a restitution process grounded in cultural values.« #Repatriation

»Aunty Lynette Riley's parents were only able to go to year three – in a system that then focused on manual work. That's driven her to make change over decades – in how we embed #Indigenous #education, culture and language, and better train teachers.« (audio)

»The project, a collaboration between La Trobe University and The University of Western Australia’s Centre for Quantum Information, Simulation and Algorithms [...] received the $1.1 million grant under the Federal Government’s National Critical Technologies Challenge Program.«

»It is a very important project that will combine Western science with traditional Indigenous Knowledge to understand human responses to the Last Glacial Maximum and post-glacial sea level rise at Red Lily Lagoon, Arnhem Land«

»I hope visitors to the exhibition recognise there needs to be a stronger focus on traditional practices and revival of crafting«

»The Wharf Street Basin in Cannington is WA’s first-ever smart park. It was originally a fenced-off stormwater drain, but through the Smart Cities and Suburbs Scheme, it has been transformed into an interactive, inclusive and green community space«

»Creative Antarctica: Australian Artists and Writers in the Far South launched at RMIT Gallery and Design Hub Gallery on February 20, bringing together historical and contemporary creatives who have shaped how the frozen continent is imagined, documented and understood.«

»Australia’s second-oldest literary journal is to be reborn under the ownership of the University of Technology (QUT) after its cancellation late last year by its publisher, Melbourne University Publishing (MUP).«

»If #Australia wants #universities to continue delivering breakthroughs, educating skilled graduates and strengthening communities, they must be supported by stable, forward-looking policy and adequate funding.«

»Citizen scientists have discovered what they believe is one of the largest coral colonies ever documented on the Great Barrier Reef. The coral spans approximately 111 metres in maximum length and covers an estimated area of 3,973 sq m – about half the size of a soccer field.«

»The report outlines Monash’s institutional responses to racism-related incidents that have been reported to Monash’s Safer Community Unit during the 2025 reporting period«

»The environment minister, Murray Watt, has given the green light for the bulldozing of nearly 3,000 hectares of tropical savanna in the Northern Territory without an assessment under Australia’s nature laws.«

Reminder: ECR Workshop ›Entangled Perspectives: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Australian Studies‹ – 12 & 13 March – Register until Wed, 3 pm (CET) buff.ly/hMXDx0w #Conference

»Racism has no place on our university campuses. No one should feel unsafe, diminished or excluded because of their culture, faith or background. Universities accept our responsibility to confront racism wherever it occurs.«

»As early as 1922, commentators wrote about the bird under headlines like ›Another Asiatic Menace‹, ›Asiatic Settler‹ and ›Immigrant Bird‹.«

»Climate resilience, health security and cultural preservation in the Pacific will form the cornerstone of a new partnership between the University of Melbourne and National University of Samoa (NUS).«

»Despite growing interest in sustainable eating, the plant-based meat sector faces cultural, social and psychological hurdles that run deeper than taste and price. But attitudes are shifting, as Professor Andrew McGregor explains.«

»A new program aims to help defence veterans prepare for university life by building academic skills, confidence and foundational knowledge while recognising their prior service« at the University of Western Australia, the University of Canberra, the Australian Catholic University

»More Australian students are attending university than ever before, according to preliminary data released by the Department of Education, with a handful of disciplines moving to drastically expand their cohorts.«

»The Albanese government has approved the expansion of a Queensland coalmine that will clear habitat for threatened koalas and greater gliders and add further fuel to the climate crisis, conservationists say«

»Extreme heat is the most common cause of weather-related hospitalisations and deaths in Australia, and the baking temperatures and poor housing conditions of the NT make Aboriginal people especially vulnerable.«

CALL-FOR-ISSUES: The open-access Zeitschrift für Australienstudien | Australian Studies Journal (ZfA|ASJ, ISSN 1864-3957) invites proposals for special issues focusing on specific themes or topics related to Australia. buff.ly/PJShbmh

Australien gilt »laut dem MCEL als größter Produzent [von MET-Kohle]. 123 Millionen Tonnen will das Land künftig pro Jahr fördern«

»›Equality Law Capability Project: Insights on the Legal Needs of People from Four Communities in the Western Suburbs of Melbourne‹ reveals the barriers people from the Vietnamese, Indian, Afghan and South Sudanese communities can face in getting free legal help«

›Respect at Uni: Study into antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism and the experience of First Nations people – February 2026‹ #Racism #University

»Here are ten key Australians who prodded the country to question its own thinking on race.«

CALL-FOR-ISSUES: The open-access Zeitschrift für Australienstudien | Australian Studies Journal (ZfA|ASJ, ISSN 1864-3957) invites proposals for special issues focusing on specific themes or topics related to Australia.

»Indigenous peoples worldwide have a broad, culturally based conceptualisation of health that goes beyond medical care alone and may conflict with narrower biomedical definitions, says Indigenous Australian researcher Lynda-June Coe, lead author of the review.«

»Research by Monash Uni and the ARC Centre of Excellence analysed close to three decades of weather data during the coral bleaching season and identified the prevalence of doldrum days, and the absence of the trade winds, as a key factor in the mass bleaching events«

»By combining measurements from living kangaroos with direct evidence from fossil bones, the new study, published today in the journal Scientific Reports, finds that giant kangaroos may have been capable of hopping«

»This is a low point in Australia’s long history of colonial terrorism against Indigenous people. Land theft, massacres, poisonings, forced assimilation, child removals, missing and murdered women and children, mass incarceration: genocide.«

The GASt is a politically independent, interdisciplinary organisation devoted in the public interest to furthering scholarship concerned in the broadest way with AUS and to promoting AUSn studies, both in teaching and research, in German-speaking countries. #Australia

»The 2025 Global Water Monitor Report demonstrates continued warming is altering how water moves, is stored and is exchanged between the atmosphere, land and oceans, with significant consequences for societies and ecosystems.«

»The University of Melbourne Council has appointed Emeritus Professor Glyn Davis AC as Interim Vice-Chancellor, following the tragic passing of Vice-Chancellor Professor Emma Johnston AO.«

»The University is not currently reviewing, proposing, or pursuing a change to its name. No proposal has been developed, considered, or put to government.«

»A University of Melbourne law professor who wrote an email saying the institution was dictated to by ›»#Blak« activists‹ who were leading it to ›destruction‹ will leave the university.«

Now available in Print: ASJ|ZfA 43 ›Nation, Identity, and Environment‹, with essays and numerous reviews | ISBN: 978-3-565172-57-3 |

CONFERENCE ›Entangled Perspectives: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Australian Studies‹ | Second International Emerging Research in Australian Studies Workshop | 12 & 13 March 2026 #Conference #Australia

»A recently identified tree species in Queensland has been given the name ›zombie‹ by scientists who say ambitious assistance is needed to reverse its ›living dead‹ status.«

»Here are ten key Australians who prodded the country to question its own thinking on race.«

Woollacott's ›Drawing Southerners’ Attention to the Far North‹ locates Kylie Tennant in a lineage of evolving Australian cultural conceptions of First Nations people, and thinking about race and human rights – ZfA|ASJ 44/2025

»On 26 January, 1938, as Australia marked 150 years since colonisation, Uncle William Cooper helped organise the Day of Mourning.«

CALL FOR REVIEWS | Calling all experts! Our journal needs your expertise: The open-access Zeitschrift für Australienstudien | Australian Studies Journal (ZfA|ASJ, ISSN 1864-3957) is looking for dedicated reviewers. Have a look at the recent publications #AustralianStudies

»An academic who sued the University of Melbourne, alleging he was dismissed after private comments describing a cultural review as an ›ideological re-education camp‹ that celebrates the ›noble savage‹ were leaked, has reached a settlement with the University.«

»Australia was a founding member of the wartime alliance that became the “United Nations” in 1942. [...] In 1946, Australia was elected to the first UN Security Council, and Evatt became president of the General Assembly in September 1948.«

Zubrzycka's ›Wage Theft, Misappropriation or Profiteering‹ explores how a general store in Ayr (North QLD) at the end of the 19th century manipulated government-led financial systems and South Sea Islander labourers for its economic gain, ZfA|ASJ 44/2025

Now available in Print: ASJ|ZfA 42 ›Contemporary Australia and Emerging Challenges‹, guest ed. by Dany Adone & Anna Gosebrink | ISBN: 978-3-565172-52-8 |

»Accounts vary, but the first Marree Mosque was built in 1865 or 1882 by Abdul Kadir, a camel breeder and Afghan settler. It was a simple earthen structure with a timber-framed gabled roof.«

»A cache of some 60 tools was found protruding from the soil in northwest Queensland. Known as tulas, the objects would have been hafted onto a handle and used for woodworking«