Right now, somebody in the world is listening to ‘Maniac’ by Michael Sembello. The music triggers a memory: knee-high legwarmers, a dark leotard, and close ups of a young woman’s toned body as she dances – like a maniac? – in an abandoned warehouse that she calls home. It’s me, I’m listening to it.

Why has it never been brought to my attention, throughout my primary, secondary and tertiary education, that Australia has a vast queer history? Only independent research has led me to discover the extent of Australia’s homosexual colonial past. The teachers and lecturers of Australian history, whom I have been a student of, have never touched upon the country’s queer histories.