Writing Australian history: fact or fabrication?

Whilst the current controversy over 'History Wars' and 'Australian History Fact or Fabrication' is overblown, at least it provides an opportunity to revisit some fundamental aspects of historical research and for the profession to rethink ways in which it might engage with the media in the future. Three issues are dealt with: the possibility of defending individual historians unfairly attacked in print and electronic media; the practicalities of developing professional protocols for archival research, and the impossibility of defending the scholarly detachment of historians who have willingly placed themselves at the centre of the current controversy