Australian Heritage Research Articles

Conzinc Riotinto of Australia — Foreign Ownership and Control

Conzinc Riotinto of Australia Limited (CRA) was the largest mining group in Australia after BHP. It had a major influence upon the post‐Second World War mining sector and Australian economy. It was responsible for some of the country's largest resource developments, establishing an integrated aluminium industry, playing the principal role in the development of Australia's iron ore export industry, and developing a major copper deposit on the Island of Bougainville. CRA was established in 1962 as the Australian arm of the British mining group, Rio Tinto Zinc Corporation Limited (RTZ), formed through the merger of The Rio Tinto Company Limited with The Consolidated Zinc Limited. Consolidated Zinc was also London‐listed, although with a deep Australian heritage based on its involvement in lead and zinc mining at Broken Hill. CRA's status as a foreign‐owned and controlled company had a major influence upon its corporate priorities for the two decades following its formation. The company's foreign majority ownership restricted its business opportunities, particularly during the 1970s. However, as early as the mid‐1960s, anti‐CRA sentiment was evident from politicians, public servants, Australian mining competitors and, to some extent, the public. CRA's standing as “un‐Australian” was viewed by company management as an impediment to attracting and retaining quality employees. These factors led CRA to engage with successive Commonwealth Governments to attempt to secure arrangements more accommodating to its business interests. This involved considerations as diverse as the takeover of the London parent company — to facilitate greater Australian shareholding in the Australian entity — through to the restructuring of CRA's interests in a new majority‐owned Australian company. Ultimately, CRA was instrumental in changing foreign investment legislation, providing a pathway for it as a foreign‐owned company to move to an Australianised or majority Australian‐owned status. With this, CRA had an ability to participate in resource investments on terms similar to those for Australian companies. CRA gained naturalising status in 1979 and, in 1986, that of a naturalised or Australianised company. Differences in perspectives relating to strategic direction and financial management between the parent company in London and CRA in Melbourne, brought to the fore issues of control. The situation became so serious that it resulted in the departure of the chairman and chief executive on the eve of CRA achieving Australian majority‐owned status. The events had a later influence on the formation of a dual‐listed company structure in 1996. Through this structure, RTZ regained majority share ownership of the assets previously held in the Australian company. CRA lost its naturalised status and its identity as Australia's then second largest Australian mining company.

The transmission of Spanish as a heritage language in Australia

The transmission of Spanish as a heritage language in Australia

Found a fossil: improving awareness, engagement, and communication strategies for heritage discoveries

Fossils and Indigenous artefacts are often found by members of the general public. To gauge Australian awareness of heritage laws and willingness to report finds, the Found a Fossil project conducted a survey to understand barriers to reporting heritage material. Results showed enthusiasm to report but confusion over appropriate authorities to contact, lack of transparency by government, and poorly communicated legislation created barriers to heritage reporting. This project represents the first attempt to quantify reporting behaviours of Indigenous artefacts and fossils in Australia and recommends improvements for reporting, protection and communication of Australian heritage items and their historical narratives.

Peter Carey Novels Represents Myth, Culture, and Religion of Its Kind

Abstract Mythology allows taking a journey into an exciting and mysterious world. In every culture and every country during every period of time, people have told stories that explain and define the great acts of nations and peoples. Some of these stories educates, some mystify the culture. The human society is marked by the interpenetration of man with surrounding world and these results in the birth of magic, myth and religion, with their peculiar rituals and ceremonies. The images of myth have to be unnoticed omnipresent demonic guardians, under whose care signs help the man to interpret his life and struggles. Peter Carey has made a case for myth and myth making is found in his writerly career. It occurs in various semantic manifestations in his novels. This paper provides an overview of the use of myth in his novels. It examines True History of Kelly Gang (2000), and My Life as a Fake (2003) to illustrate how mythmaking operates in the fictional reality of his novels. Peter Carey's Novels: Exploring Myth, Culture, and Religion. This research paper delves into the rich tapestry of Peter Carey's novels, examining how his literary works serve as a nuanced exploration of myth, culture, and religion. Carey, an influential Australian novelist, has consistently employed his storytelling prowess to navigate the complexities of these themes, offering readers a unique perspective on the interplay between fiction and cultural narratives. Through a comprehensive analysis of selected novels, this paper aims to illuminate the ways in which Carey's writings contribute to the understanding and reinterpretation of myth, culture, and religion in the context of his Australian heritage.

Characterisation of the tensile performance of bonding agents for the restoration of heritage dimension stone from southeast Australia

Through this research, we measure the direct tensile strength of three important southeast Australian heritage dimension stones and compare the results with published values. The three stones are Sydney Sandstone, Victorian Bluestone and South Australian Black Granite. This information is crucial for stone masons when they are selecting and cutting stone for construction projects, as they need to ensure that the stone they use and the repair will be strong enough to withstand the loads and stresses it will be subjected to in its final location. Results show that direct methods of testing provide tensile strengths that are 30–63% of the indirect methods. When the direct tension to compressive strength ratio is considered, results of 2–7% are calculated for these stones. This is significantly less than the typically assumed 10% for intact rock. Three masonry bonding agents have been selected to determine their capacity to re-bond the dimension stone. Highly variable results were achieved, with re-bonded tensile strengths ranging from 6% to 104% of the intact strength. This variability is most likely related to the heterogeneity of the stones and the surface preparations. Based on these outcomes, it is recommended that stone masons carefully consider the product that is used for restoration works and that test samples be prepared to confirm capacities.

Challenging Uncomfortableness: The Adaptive Reuse of Bendigo Gaol into Ulumbarra Theater and School

ABSTRACTThis article discusses the adaptive reuse of buildings associated with uncomfortable memories that have been turned into places for the general public to enjoy. It can be argued that the transformation of Australian heritage gaols into museums makes economic, cultural, and social sense, given the increasing rate of interest in dark tourism and the willingness of contemporary Australians and international tourists to understand the continent’s carceral history. However, the adaptive reuse of some gaols into places that provide multiple forms of art, culture, and education is a recent phenomenon that is under-studied. Bendigo Gaol, which was recently adapted into Ulumbarra Theater in addition to being partially occupied by a high school, retains many elements of the uncomfortable architectural features of the gaol. This paper investigates the factors mentioned in the literature that negotiate the uncomfortable past for its new functional purpose. Discussion of these factors provides clarity for decision-makers on how to maximize the full potential of conversion, while simultaneously commemorating the history of the site. This research concludes that reusing Bendigo Gaol to an art-and-education building was a collective decision and, despite being successful, appears to have not been sensitive to its uncomfortable history.

Kitchen Tours: Re-Interpreting the History of Gendered Labour and Technologies in the Home Through Four Australian Heritage Houses

ABSTRACT Despite its material and metaphorical centrality to the home, the kitchen has been viewed as somewhat of a lacuna in architecture and design histories and heritage accounts. This is in part because of its traditionally gendered and class-dictated use, and its heightened exposure to obsolescence, with the result that there is surprisingly little recorded about kitchen and servant life, or remnant, artifactual historical evidence preserved. To address this historical absence, the paper describes a series of visits conducted to historic houses spanning the 1850s–1970s that are heritage protected and open to the public in the cities of Melbourne and Geelong, Australia. With a focus on the kitchens and associated service and servant areas, the author’s observations, interviews, and photographic documentation conducted on these visits is bolstered by archival research and broader scholarship around the historical shifts in the employment of servant and gendered domestic labour, and the technologies and infrastructure that supported them. In light of established feminist framings in historiography and curatorship, and the turn to micro-contextualised social, technical, and material studies since the 1980s, the paper argues that heritage interpretation and management can offer far more to the re-evaluation and evocation of the history of women’s work in the home. And in turn, that these experiences might sharpen our attention to the seemingly mundane, tacit attributes and values of domestic settings, technologies and infrastructures.

Mutualism on Australian heritage breed farms

For millennia, humans and domesticated animals have lived interdependently. In return for shelter, feed and care, animals have provided people with diverse material and symbolic resources within high‐stakes mutualistic relationships. However, mutualisms are always susceptible to ‘cheaters’, where one partner enjoys the benefits without providing adequate reciprocation. When considering mutualisms on an ethnographic scale, industrial agriculture's reduction of animals to unidimensional commodities can be seen to constitute such cheating. By analyzing the practices of nourishment, procreation and protection on Australian heritage breed farms, where breed diversity and convivial interspecies reciprocity are valued above profit, this essay offers a case study of a more nuanced mutualism within the domestication nexus. Since partners in a mutualistic relationship tend to face a shared fate, protecting the integrity of these relationships is critical in an era where climate change and ecosystem decline are both hastened by and detrimental to agriculture.

The Mernda VR Project: The Creation of a VR Reconstruction of an Australian Heritage Site

The Mernda VR Project is an initiative exploring the possible applications of hypothetical digital reconstructions of rural archaeological sites, with an aim to investigate the efficacy of virtual reality as a means of fostering engagement and interest in rural archaeology. Expanding on existing work into digital reconstructions of heritage, the Mernda VR Project investigates whether reconstructions of heritage sites may be suited to smaller scale rural archaeology, in addition to reconstructions of grander, more well-known, and celebrated heritage sites. While reconstructions of renowned heritage sites certainly have their place in engaging the public with heritage, rural archaeological heritage is at a greater risk of destruction resulting from development, or simply being overlooked and forgotten in the public imagination. As such, these sites are in greater need of innovative representations and outreach programs for their cultural merit to be understood and remembered. The Mernda VR Project used physically based rendering (PBR) to create a life-like digital environment reconstructing a mid-19th century cottage and flour mill in Mernda, Victoria, and imported the 360 degree rendered images into the virtual tour software 3DVista for development into an interactive educational experience. The experience is planned for display in local schools to assess the practicability and effectiveness of such displays for increased engagement, interest, and comprehension compared with more traditional educational displays. This article is intended as a technical guide for the creation of 3D modelled archaeological displays using polygonal modelling and PBR textures and structure from motion photogrammetry, and acts as a companion piece to Keep (in press) which provides further details on the historical context of the reconstructed site.

Past, present and future challenges for Australia's indigenous heritage management national policy

PurposeAustralia appears to be encountering a crisis in the protection of certain heritage places, despite its strong reputation in heritage conservation built up since the 1970s. Consequently, this paper examines changes to national cultural heritage management policy over the last few decades to understand more about this crisis.Design/methodology/approachIndigenous (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage) was selected as the key focus. This paper applies a cultural heritage management framework tested first in Hong Kong to measure Australian paradigm change over 45 years.FindingsIt found the 1990s shift away from the provision of independent technical advice on national heritage policy has had a major impact. This shift is based on a change in ethos away from the earlier Whitlam/National Estate broader vision of heritage responsibilities towards a narrower more conservative one at the national level. Also, it found that studies and policymaking should allow for Indigenous voices. More Indigenous input in heritage policy formulation at all levels of government would further decolonise Indigenous heritage governance to deal justly with Indigenous Australians and their heritage.Research limitations/implicationsResources did not allow for comparative studies of the non-Indigenous (historic) and natural heritage as part of the current study.Practical implicationsThe study also included a consultation paper and an online conference presentation that have raised questions about the efficacy of current national policy on Indigenous places, on which a national conversation is urgently needed. The recent review of the National Heritage Strategy by the Australian Commonwealth Government based some of its proposed options on those listed in the consultation paper to initiate this conversation in a limited way.Social implicationsOne finding is that attention to heritage policy and protection must be ongoing at all levels of government and inclusive of First People's human rights, particularly those concerning their heritage. In regard to Australia, most Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander respondents in this study would like to see targeted funding return for more than just iconic Indigenous places and for the creation of a more independent heritage body that allows them more self-determination in the care of their heritage.Originality/valueThe paper's value is that it investigates the Australian Heritage Commission's impact in the development of Australian cultural heritage management and associated national policy. Also, it provides insights for other postcolonial or New World settler societies dealing with the same issues or any decision-makers considering establishing a national independent body to oversee heritage protection and policymaking.

Between destruction and protection: the case of the Australian rock art sites

Can heritage be practiced and thought outside the binary of exaltation vs. denigration? To answer this question posed by the editors, this paper will analyse the destruction and protection of Indigenous heritage sites in Australia, where the destruction of significant cultural heritage sites, mainly Indigenous heritage sites, is the result of biased and outdated practice of cultural heritage that divides Indigenous heritage (prior 1788) from Australian heritage (after 1788). This rift has caused an immense damage to Indigenous heritage around the country as it shows how in Australia heritage is practiced and thought outside the dualism of celebration versus destruction. In this paper, I will show how the destruction of Indigenous rock art sites has been a constant in the 20th and 21st century and how this destruction has been framed in media as a result of vandalism. By arguing that this framing is perpetuating the dualism of celebration versus destruction, I suggest that we can move out of this binary by considering the concept of iconoclasm to go beyond this dualism.

Quality Evaluation of Digital Twins Generated Based on UAV Photogrammetry and TLS: Bridge Case Study

In the current modern era of information and technology, emerging remote advancements have been widely established for detailed virtual inspections and assessments of infrastructure assets, especially bridges. These technologies are capable of creating an accurate digital representation of the existing assets, commonly known as the digital twins. Digital twins are suitable alternatives to in-person and on-site based assessments that can provide safer, cheaper, more reliable, and less distributive bridge inspections. In the case of bridge monitoring, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) photogrammetry and Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) are among the most common advanced technologies that hold the potential to provide qualitative digital models; however, the research is still lacking a reliable methodology to evaluate the generated point clouds in terms of quality and geometric accuracy for a bridge size case study. Therefore, this paper aims to provide a comprehensive methodology along with a thorough bridge case study to evaluate two digital point clouds developed from an existing Australian heritage bridge via both UAV-based photogrammetry and TLS. In this regard, a range of proposed approaches were employed to compare point clouds in terms of points’ distribution, level of outlier noise, data completeness, surface deviation, and geometric accuracy. The comparative results of this case study not only proved the capability and applicability of the proposed methodology and approaches in evaluating these two voluminous point clouds, but they also exhibited a higher level of point density and more acceptable agreements with as-is measurements in TLS-based point clouds subjected to the implementation of a precise data capture and a 3D reconstruction model.

The Aboriginal Tent Embassy and the Limits of Values-Based Conservation

ABSTRACT Marking the Aboriginal Tent Embassy’s fiftieth anniversary in 2022, this article adopts a historical perspective to examine the challenges encountered by Australian heritage regimes when attempting to recognize this site as a heritage place. First established in Canberra in 1972 on Ngunnawal land, the Aboriginal Tent Embassy reveals the material-discursive limits of Australia’s Burra Charter-derived values-based heritage regime in recognizing and respecting Indigenous rights, sovereignty, and protest. Recent attempts have been made to include the site on the Commonwealth Heritage List (2005), the National Heritage List (2008) and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Heritage List (2015). That these nominations have not yet been successful suggests that heritage regimes of governance and management express settler-colonial ideology. Consequently, heritage becomes imbued with narratives of national identity and power and becomes a mechanism in maintaining settler-colonial dominance. This article proposes centralizing Indigenous agency as an alternative way towards formulating post-colonial heritage regimes and values-based conservation.

Dynamic heritage and static maps: A comment on the critical distinction between identifying and assessing ‘re-inscribed’ indigenous heritage places in Australian heritage practice

Developers, the courts and consent agencies are struggling to come to terms with Indigenous heritage places that embody evolving heritage values – places that some anthropologists describe by reference to a process of ‘re-inscription’. In an attempt to predict how the heritage profession will respond to these developments, this article looks back at a comparable case study that involved a ‘re-inscribed’ Indigenous landscape in NSW. It concludes that, in spite of criticisms of commercial heritage consultants made by some theoreticians embedded in academia, the tools for managing such sites have been developed by heritage practitioners over many years, but are commonly inconsistently or poorly applied, if they are applied at all.

Indigenous Australian heritage on private land: an examination of guidance provided by local government authorities of NSW

ABSTRACT Throughout Australia, large numbers of Indigenous Australian heritage sites, which exist on privately owned agricultural properties, have neither been recorded or documented and are not being actively managed. Anecdotally, some of this occurs in NSW due to uncertainties and fears held by the landholders. This paper examines the responses provided by several NSW Local Government Authorities (LGA) to a simulated enquiry by a landholder who may wish to remain anonymous but desires to obtain guidance on how to manage Indigenous Australian heritage sites on his/her property. The information (and forward links) provided on LGA websites was found to be generally poor. Direct enquiries were found to provide accurate information, but this entailed the loss of anonymity. Suggestions for improvement of the status quo are offered.

Revealing and Revelling in the Floods on Country: Memory Poles within Toonooba

Revealing and Revelling in the Floods on Country: Memory Poles within Toonooba

Heritage objects as a resource for the development of tourism within the states and territories of Australia

The article discusses the Australian heritage sites as a resource base for the introduction of new tourist destinations. The relevance of the study of Australian tourism resources related to the increase in tourist flow, the prospects for the development of various types of tourism and the growing interest Ukrainian tourists are taking in this country is substantiated. The significant tourist potential of the country, the uniqueness and specificity of its components are highlighted: natural (primarily, vegetation and wildlife, as well as relief and climate), historical and cultural objects.It is noted the historical and cultural potential deserves to be in greater demand, because a large number of objects of historical and cultural heritage retain and disseminate authentic information about the historical past of the country, its ethnic, cultural characteristics and traditions. The purpose of the work is to explore the distribution of various heritage objects within the states and territories of Australia as an important resource for the development of various types of tourism. The database of the research is the information from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the website of the Ministry of Environment and Energy. The paper analyses and assesses the number, composition, and degree of diversity of heritage sites and theirlocations on the territory of administrative units. The study was completed using methods of mapping, geographical analysis, information analysis techniques, namely the calculation of the entropy index. It was found that the regions of Australia provide outstanding diverse and unique resources, which creates preconditions for the development of new tourist destinations and the further growth of the tourism industry. The states and territories with the largest number and diverse composition of heritage sites and significant potential opportunities for the development of various types of tourism are identified. It was noted that Australia is a new active tourist destination for Ukrainian tourists that has significant prospects. Inaddition to the classic excursion routes and visits to wildlife parks, there are popular combined routes such as: excursion program with a beach holiday; combination of excursions with active tourism; professional training programs for agricultural workers combined with visiting heritage sites and beach recreation.New tourist routes are associated with the development of author’s tours with a unique program in accordance with the features of the country and the wishes of tourists and the wider use of the country’s historical and cultural heritage.

Shaping a new voice: blending Australian English and heritage languages in second-generation migrant writing

ABSTRACT With reference to three interviews with prominent second-generation migrant authors in Australia – Alice Pung, Randa Abdel-Fattah, and Benjamin Law – this article examines how English is perceived, used, and claimed in Australia. Perceptions of Australian English have always been traditionally monolingual, despite the current realities of a population of diverse cultures and the explicit use of many languages other than English. The article examines the point of intersection, where English meets heritage language(s), and how this affects and influences the way these specific authors write. Drawing on World Englishes and Canagarajah’s notion of code-meshing, this article also focuses on how the authors’ relationship with English as second-generation Australian migrants can contribute to changing future perceptions of English in Australia.

Mapping climate change and risks for Australian cultural collections

The climate change variables of temperature, relative humidity, rainfall and fire weather are used in conjunction with spatial methodologies to produce maps that overlay locations of Australian national, state and regional cultural heritage collections with climate change risks. The data analysis of these maps is evaluated in relation to the biological risks of insect pests and mould using published studies and recent observations. Mapping both the distribution of cultural heritage collections and potential environmental impacts allows for future risks to collections to be modelled, producing an evidence base for identifying future priorities for conservation. An historical study of the development of arts policy and conservation guidelines in Australia places the investigation of changing climate and risks within a broader national cultural heritage context. In understanding how Australian cultural heritage collections, and the conservation profession more broadly, might become more sustainable and resilient, the use of environmental guidelines in conjunction with predictive climate mapping resources is recommended.

From Sheep to Chic: Reframing the Australian Wool Story

ABSTRACTBetween 1946 and 1974, the Australian Wool Board (AWB) increased its wool promotion in an attempt to maintain its leading role in Australia's economic development. Promotional activities of the AWB, and the screening of commercially produced newsreels and documentaries in cinemas, used fashion to foster a new value and understanding of wool. These marketing activities, mainly independent from each other, presented a unified image of wool and fashion. This article proposes that the recasting of Australian wool's cultural heritage in images of fashion parades of wool garments contributed to the continuity of its cultural tradition while integrating fashion as a modern value within national culture and identity. The article examines 14 newsreels screened in Australian cinemas between 1946 and 1974 to establish the connection between Australian national identity and wool via the reinvention of the wool narrative.