The Australians who left: Building (and Breaking) Utopia in Paraguay

Talks on Tuesdays is a live event series bringing big ideas, real experts, and curious minds together - at your favourite local venues. Think thought-provoking lectures, audience questions, and post-talk mingling over drinks and dinner.

This isn’t a uni lecture. It’s a social, intelligent night out.Come alone or with friends, leave with something to talk about.

Event Schedule:

6.30pm Arrival & Doors Open

7pm Lecuture Starts

7.45pm Q&A

8pm Talk Concludes

8.30pm Event Closes.

*Please arrive close to 6.30pm if you'd like to order meals, as there may be a wait time.

À la carte menu and full bar available throughout the night - pay as you go.

Your Topic: In the late 19th century, a group of Australian socialists and unionists decided they’d had enough of the old world and set out to build a new one - in Paraguay. They dreamed of creating an egalitarian utopia, free from the inequalities they fought at home. But the reality was far more complicated. This talk uncovers the bold vision, the contradictions, and the lessons from a forgotten chapter of Australian history - where hope for a better world collided with the limits of ideology.

Your Speaker: Sarah Walsh received her BA from Boston College and both her MA and PhD from the University of Maryland, College Park. She was a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Race and Ethnicity in the Global South ARC Project at the University of Sydney between 2013 and 2017. The following year she served as a Research Fellow in the COLOUR OF LABOUR Project at the Universidade de Lisboa. Most recently, she was a Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow in the Roots of Contemporary Issues Program at Washington State University. Her first book, The Religion of Life: Eugenics, Race, and Catholicism in Chile, was published by University of Pittsburgh Press in December 2021. She has also published articles in the Hispanic American Historical Review, Catholic Historical Review, History of Science, and the Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies.

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