The articles in this issue offer case studies of interactions between the global and the local. They illustrate how imperial, colonial and national histories have been unevenly and incompletely constituted in the embodied encounters and exchanges between individuals and through local representations and media, especially newspapers. In combination, they draw our attention to the appearance of otherwise marginalised histories and voices in the popular imaginary as well as official archives. Several offer insights into the interests of Australasia in the Asia-Pacific region, attesting to the shifting ground on which white authority and territoriality was often constituted.