Queerstralia (ATOM Study Guide)

As part of the ABC’s World Pride coverage, comedian Zoë Coombs Marr hosts a three-part documentary Queerstralia (first presented on the ABC, and later on iView), a sprawling history of LGBTQIA+ people in Australia, from the pre-colonial First Nations experience through to the first evidence of imported European homophobia in 1727, all the way to the present day. As it turns out, like most minority groups, LGBTQIA+ individuals were not the authors of the history books.

Queerstralia tackles Australia’s queer history in three parts, asking what kinds of sexuality existed before white settlement, exploring what that white settlement meant and documenting the ways that queer people have lived on this continent since. It’s a complex journey involving colonisation and criminalisation, trans pioneers and cross-dressing bushrangers, to the Mardi Gras, Australian drag culture and the legalisation of same sex marriage.

This series pulls together a collection of untold and rarely told stories from a variety of sources. From historical accounts, interviews with activists, police and court records, newspaper clippings and archived film footage. It documents the progress of homosexuals, lesbians, transgender, intersex and allied members of the queer community. These stories coalesce into a fascinating and enlightening history of a minority; people who, despite the traditional history books ignoring them, were in fact everywhere throughout our history.

Curriculum Links:

Queerstralia applies appropriately to the following secondary studies:

• English
• Australian History
• Film and Media Studies
• Legal Studies