Abstract

This article reflects the authors’ experience of undertaking an oral history project in the regional Victorian town of Rushworth. The authors of the article contend that to conduct an investigation of the natural and cultural heritage of the town and surrounding forests is also to engage in an archaeology of historical landscapes. The authors, after articulating the theoretical and methodological issues of oral history, name and trace the various historical layers of the landscape of Rushworth and the forest that surrounds the town. They argue that the use of oral history in conjunction with cultural landscape analysis enables a deeper understanding of the cultural complexity of the history of Rushworth and the surrounding region. Broader issues concerning regional identity and the role of historians in providing a greater understanding of the community in the present day are also evaluated.

Highlights

  • While the central Victorian town of Rushworth is situated in a remote location it has a dynamic past

  • Today many historical layers can be observed in the remnant cultural landscape of the former mining town and throughout the box and ironbark forest that surrounds it on all sides

  • By considering historical landscape in conjunction with local oral histories we argue that the history of the town and the forest can be understood as a cultural landscape.[1]

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Summary

Introduction

While the central Victorian town of Rushworth is situated in a remote location it has a dynamic past.

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