Publications
Linking Social Justice with Climate Justice at the Coal Mines Historic Site in Tasmania (Australia)
A novel approach to managing UNESCO World Heritage Sites with deep colonial legacies, such as Australia's Coal Mines Historic Site, demonstrates that integrating social justice and climate justice is essential for effective conservation. The study, part of the ICCROM-IUCN World Heritage Place Lab initiative, reveals that addressing these interconnected issues fosters stronger collaboration between site managers and scholars, ultimately enhancing the implementation of the World Heritage Convention. By analyzing the Coal Mines Historic Site in Tasmania, researchers highlight the need for a holistic framework that balances historical narratives with contemporary environmental challenges to ensure sustainable heritage management.
An archaeology of the crime and punishment of young convicts: a view from colonial Australia
Distinct material evidence and youthful inmate responses can be identified at Point Puer, a colonial Australian institution for young convicts, suggesting that the archaeology of juvenile prison sites differs from adult equivalents. The study analyzed crime and punishment practices through spatial analysis, artifact distribution, and documentary records, revealing control-focused tensions shaped by interactions between adults and youth. This work contributes to the nascent field of age-related institutional archaeology.
Carceral Time at Port Arthur and the Tasman Peninsula: An Archaeological View of the Mechanisms of Convict Time Management in a Nineteenth Century Penal Landscape
Archaeological and historical evidence reveals that Port Arthur, a 19th-century penal settlement on Tasmania's Tasman Peninsula, employed an intricate system of audio-visual signaling to synchronize labor and enforce time compliance across its vast industrial landscape. Bells coordinated activities within settlements, while time balls and semaphores facilitated communication between distant or topographically challenging sites. GIS analysis demonstrated that this network not only synchronized labor but also extended surveillance and control over the entire penal zone, spanning 660 km². The study highlights the sophistication of convict time management in a mid-19th-century carceral environment.
Convict Tourism
Port Arthur Historic Site, Tasmania's oldest and best-preserved convict site, exemplifies the enduring fascination with dark tourism—a phenomenon that persists despite political and community efforts to distance itself from its unsavoury past. This chapter reveals how tourism at Port Arthur began during its operational phase as a penal colony and continues today, drawing visitors despite its remote location and significant travel costs. The study explores this ongoing attraction, highlighting the romanticized yet painful narrative of incarceration that underpins dark tourism's appeal.
Convict Tourism
Port Arthur Historic Site in Tasmania stands out as one of Australia’s earliest and most significant dark tourism destinations, drawing visitors despite its remote location. This study reveals that the site’s enduring appeal lies in its alignment with a romanticized and imagined convict past, which continues to captivate tourists even after political and community efforts to move away from this 'unsavoury' history. The research explores how Port Arthur has maintained its status as a dark tourism hub since it was operational during the convict era, highlighting the global fascination with incarceration and suffering. While the study does not explicitly state its methods, it likely involves historical analysis, tourist behavior studies, or cultural discourse examination to uncover these insights.
Dark Tourism and Rural Crime
Dark tourism, which involves travel to sites of death, tragedy, or violence, is growing in popularity and becoming a key economic strategy for rural communities. This study reveals that Australian Convict Sites, including locations tied to colonial punishment and modern crime, are increasingly leveraged as dark tourist attractions to sustain regional economies. The research analyzes case studies across Australia, from historical convict tourism to carceral sites and deadly towns, demonstrating how these 'darker' narratives are reshaping rural tourism. By examining both colonial and contemporary crime-related sites, the study highlights the cultural narratives that underpin this emerging trend, offering insights into its broader implications for heritage tourism.
Ghosts and the machine: testing the use of Artificial Intelligence to deliver historical life course biographies from big data
A study testing the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to generate historical life course biographies from big data reveals both promise and limitations. While AI, specifically Generative Large Language Models, effectively converts tabulated records into fluent and factually correct narrative text—such as those describing convicts and free individuals on Norfolk Island during Australia's colonial period (1788–1814)—it also exhibits inherent biases, uncritical perspectives, and a tendency to summarize data rather than delve deeply. The best outputs require human intervention to fully capture the nuanced aspects of history and heritage research. This experiment underscores AI's potential in historical narrative generation while highlighting the need for careful oversight to mitigate its limitations.
An Historical Archaeology of Labor in Convict Australia: A Framework for Engagement
A groundbreaking framework, the Landscapes of Production and Punishment, redefines the study of Australia's convict system (1788–1868) by shifting focus from prisons to broader labor settings. This approach analyzes the operational logic behind the system, viewing convicts as both individuals and a labor force, while examining their role in producing raw materials, roads, buildings, and other items. By integrating archaeology, history, and historical criminology, the study broadens understanding of punishment, reform, colonialism, and cultural transformation during Australia's early European settlement.
Staking Claims: Convict History and Settler Colonialism in New Caledonia and Australia
Advocates for preserving New Caledonia's bagne (penal colony) sites have increasingly drawn parallels with Australia's convict heritage approaches, revealing distinct historical and political contexts. This study highlights how New Caledonia's efforts to conserve these sites are intertwined with France's post-war recolonization and growing tensions between Kanak and Caldoche communities. It also explores the role of the concept 'un destin commun' (a shared destiny), which emerged from 1988 and 1998 reconciliatory agreements, in shaping the narrative of the penal colony's history. The research compares these approaches with Australia's over a similar period, underscoring the centrality of Australia in New Caledonia's current bid for UNESCO World Heritage status for bagne sites.
The Lure of the Lash: Spectacular Violence and White Ethnonationalism at an Australian Convict Site
This study examines the transformation of Port Arthur Penal Settlement, a site of brutal convict labor in Tasmania, into a tourist destination that spectacularizes its violent history. Unlike U.S. plantations that suppress their pasts, Australian penal sites embrace brutality as spectacle, reflecting a unique form of white ethnonationalism where tourists identify with convicts rather than their oppressors. The research explores how this duality—revelry in violence and meticulous historical unearthing—coexists within the site's reinvention, highlighting the complexities of heritage narratives in Australia.
Radical Changes: Decolonizing, not just Diversifying, Digital Crime Archives
A radical rethinking of digital crime archives is needed to decolonize, not just diversify, historical narratives. The study highlights that current digital resources, such as those on Victorian crime and punishment, often replicate colonial biases, marginalizing Indigenous and non-White populations. While projects like the Digital Panopticon have revolutionized access to convict records, they perpetuate racialized gaps in data due to inconsistent record-keeping practices. To decolonize these archives, researchers must integrate Indigenous perspectives, challenge the epistemological foundations of colonial data collections, and disrupt linear narratives that prioritize White experiences. This requires structural changes, including crowdsourcing with Indigenous communities and leveraging digital tools like non-Cartesian mapping, rather than superficial diversifications.
The convict huts of Parramatta 1788–1841: an archaeological view of the development of an early Australian urban landscape
Archaeological analysis of Parramatta, Australia's second British settlement (1789–1841), reveals how the landscape and architecture transitioned from supporting a society based on unfree labor to accommodating emancipated convicts. The study combines archaeological evidence with historical records to uncover patterns of change at individual 'convict hut' sites and within the broader urban environment, highlighting material expressions of social transformation during the shift from convict to free settlement.
Transmedia Narratives for Cultural Heritage
Transmedia Narratives for Cultural Heritage introduces a 'remixed transmedia' approach and a digital-media focused ‘ludonarrative toolkit’ to strategically create and critically analyze non-fiction digital narratives, such as virtual museums, serious games, and interactive documentaries. The book presents a seven-phase theoretical framework and a big data analysis methodology for developing inclusive cultural heritage narratives, exemplified through case studies on UNESCO World Heritage Australian Convict Sites and the Irish National Famine Way. This work provides practical tools and theoretical foundations for scholars and practitioners in transmedia studies, interactive narratives, cultural heritage, media studies, comparative literature, and journalism.
UNESCO World Heritage Australian Convict Sites
A transmedia narrative approach effectively connects 11 UNESCO World Heritage Australian Convict Sites, bridging historical and geographical borders. This method, tested on experts and the public, demonstrates significant potential for educational engagement and tourism by leveraging persuasive digital storytelling. The study highlights how narrativizing cultural heritage can enhance public reception and provide valuable insights for future projects.
A bottom-up method for remixing narratives for virtual heritage experiences
A bottom-up approach for creating engaging virtual heritage experiences has been demonstrated, offering a method to remix narratives that resonate with diverse audiences. This study analyzed user-generated content, tourism materials, and historical data from 11 UNESCO World Heritage Australian Convict Sites using multimodal discourse analysis. The resulting interactive web documentary (iDoc) prototype revealed narrative themes aligned with prospective cultural heritage tourists' interests, providing a creative alternative to top-down narratives that often lack public engagement. This methodology ensures virtual experiences reflect broader societal perspectives while preserving historical integrity.
Cultural Complexity and Situated Mediation: Chinese Visitors at Port Arthur Historic Site
A study on Chinese visitors to Port Arthur Historic Site, Tasmania, reveals that the mediation of tourist experiences should be situated, considering factors such as the nature of the site, social and environmental circumstances, tourists' backgrounds, and interpersonal dynamics. This research employs a cultural complexity framework, understanding culture as a resource for navigating diverse situations. Conducted through fieldwork at this British colonial convict heritage site, it highlights how Chinese visitors dynamically shape their experiences using cultural resources, contributing to the understanding of mediation in tourism.
Multidisciplinary engagements with Port Arthur’s landscapes of in/justice
Port Arthur, part of the UNESCO-listed Australian Convict Sites, embodies complex 'landscapes of in/justice' that reflect Australia's colonial history. A multidisciplinary study reveals how these sites, marked by punishment and rehabilitation, continue to evoke moral dilemmas and ethical debates. The research employs a combination of historical analysis, spatial mapping, and qualitative interviews to explore the tension between heritage preservation and the site's legacy of suffering. By examining Port Arthur’s physical remnants—such as buildings, landscapes, and memorials—the study highlights how these elements shape public memory and perceptions of justice. This approach offers a nuanced understanding of how convict sites challenge traditional narratives of heritage, emphasizing the need for critical engagement with historical injustices.
The Bad and the Beautiful: An artist’s encounter with the image of Port Arthur, Tasmania
Port Arthur Historic Site, a UNESCO World Heritage Property in Tasmania, Australia, is renowned for its historical significance in the British-Australian convict transportation system and its status as a major tourist destination. This study reveals that despite the abundance of images associated with Port Arthur, certain locations, themes, and views consistently resonate through time. Through digital photomontage/collage, the research demonstrates how creative practice can serve as a catalyst for reimagining heritage landscapes, offering new ways to engage with and interpret these significant sites. This approach highlights the potential of artistic intervention in activating and transforming the representation of heritage landscapes.
Ghosts of the Anthropocene: spectral accretions at the Port Arthur historic site
Port Arthur Historic Site in Tasmania, Australia, is renowned for its colonial landscape and its reputation as one of the most haunted places in the country. However, beyond its supernatural associations, the site also harbors 'ghosts' in a broader sense—nonhuman elements that persistently interact with human history. This study reimagines Port Arthur by focusing on the enduring presence of 'arboreal-others,' such as trees and other nonhuman entities, to deepen our understanding of its past and envision its future within the Anthropocene. By shifting attention from deviant criminals to these spectral accretions, the research offers a novel perspective on heritage landscapes, highlighting their dynamic interplay with both human and nonhuman elements.
Landscapes of production and punishment: LiDAR and the process of feature identification and analysis at a Tasmanian convict station
LiDAR technology significantly enhances the identification and analysis of archaeological features, offering unprecedented insights into historical landscapes. This study demonstrates its efficacy in repopulating convict labor landscapes with people and processes, particularly within Australian bush settings. By integrating LiDAR from the outset, researchers uncovered detailed spatial patterns at the Cascades probation station (1842–1855), revealing how convicts interacted with their environment during the 19th century. The findings underscore LiDAR's potential to transform historical archaeology in Australia, providing a more nuanced understanding of past labor and punishment systems.
Landscapes of Punishment and Resistance: A Female Convict Settlement in Tasmania, Australia
A female convict settlement in Tasmania, Australia, exemplified the spatial dynamics of penal domination and inmate resistance. The study reveals that inmates strategically circumvented institutional boundaries to maintain connections with relatives outside the prison perimeter, while authorities selectively granted privileges based on hierarchical relationships. The research focuses on the Ross Female Factory, where locales were spatially and temporally organized to reinforce power structures among both staff and inmates. By analyzing a intercepted letter and institutional reactions, it demonstrates how convicts intentionally challenged disciplinary boundaries, offering insights into the complex interplay of punishment and resistance in 19th-century penal landscapes.
Port Arthur and the spectre of ‘unnatural acts’ in Australia
Port Arthur and the Coal Mines Historical Site in Australia bear the lingering legacy of 'anti-sodomitical hysteria,' a historical phenomenon tied to the anti-transportation movement that shaped Australia's penal landscape. This study reveals how the spectre of homophobia persists, even as same-sex relationships gain social acceptance. By analyzing references to 'unnatural acts' in historical texts and public discourse, the research demonstrates the enduring impact of 19th-century moral panics on contemporary Australian consciousness. The approach combines archival analysis with critical historical reading, offering a nuanced perspective on how heritage sites grapple with complex, often uncomfortable histories.
The Framing of the Port Arthur Historic Site
Port Arthur Historic Site's significance is shaped by fluctuating associations with its violent criminal past, transitioning from a dissociated penal establishment to a romanticized tourist destination and finally achieving UNESCO World Heritage status. The study reveals how selective attachment to the site's criminality has developed through historical conditions, probing affective dimensions that motivate contemporary perceptions of history. Research employed a qualitative approach, analyzing the site's evolving narrative from its closure in 1877 to its inclusion in the 'Australian Convict Heritage Properties' register in 2010, including the impact of the 1996 massacre.
Legacies of Sectarianism and the Convict Past in Australia
Australia's unique embrace of its convict past, contrasting with the shame felt in other Western democracies, stems from a sectarian undercurrent that shaped its secular political culture. This study reveals how sympathy for convicts, often overlooked in national narratives, reflects broader tensions between the Catholic clergy and the Anglican Evangelical establishment during the 18th and 19th centuries. By analyzing historical records and cultural attitudes, it highlights the role of sectarianism in redefining moral order and public perception, offering new insights into Australia's societal evolution.
Australian Convict Sites and the Heritage of Adaptation: The Case of Newcastle's Coal River Heritage Precinct
A significant insight from this study is that the historical significance of Australia's convict heritage can be found not only in surviving material remains but also in what has been destroyed, highlighting a process of adaptation and transformation over time. The research focuses on Newcastle’s Coal River Heritage Precinct, which was excluded from the Australian Government’s successful nomination of eleven ‘convict sites’ for World Heritage listing due to severe erosion of its material remains. By analyzing this case study, the authors argue that more progressive approaches are needed to fully capture the legacies of Australia's convict past, as traditional heritage criteria may overlook such adaptive processes. The study employs a comparative and reflective approach, drawing lessons from the excluded site to suggest broader implications for how convict history is preserved and interpreted.
A Preliminary Report on Archaeological Investigations at Two Western Australian Regional Convict Depots
Archaeological excavations at two Western Australian regional convict depots, York and Toodyay, revealed significant insights into the structural diversity and construction techniques of 19th-century convict-era buildings. The study uncovered four structures in York, including a previously unknown privy, and seven in Toodyay, such as barracks, a hospital, and the Superintendent’s quarters. These findings highlight the variability in construction styles, attributed to limited supervision and fluctuating skill levels among the convict workforce. Despite the challenges in confidently attributing deposits to the convict era—with less than 30% of contexts and only about 10% of deposits definitively linked—the research provides a rare glimpse into the material culture and lifeways of convict depots, offering new perspectives on the regional characteristics of Australia’s convict system.
Australian Prison Tourism: A Question of Narrative Integrity
Prison tourism in Australia, rooted in the nation's history as a penal colony, presents unique challenges to narrative integrity at former prison sites. The study reveals that prevailing social attitudes and stakeholder influences skew historical narratives, undermining the sites' authenticity and social significance. This analysis highlights the need for balanced storytelling to preserve the historical and cultural integrity of these UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
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