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The World Heritage-listed Port Arthur penitentiary is one of Australia’s most visited historical sites, attracting over 400,000 visitors each year. Designed to incarcerate 480 men, between 1856 and 1877 thousands of convicts passed through it. In 2013, archaeologists began one of the largest ever excavations of an Australian convict site. Recovering Convict Lives: A Historical Archaeology of the Port Arthur Penitentiary makes their findings available to general readers for the first time. Extensively illustrated, it is a fascinating journey into the inner workings of the penal system and the day-to-day lives of Port Arthur convicts. Through the things they left behind – the sandstone bas...
This revised edition of Dr Neville A. Ritchie’s 1986 PhD dissertation explores the history and archaeology of the 19th century Chinese mining communities in the Clutha Valley, New Zealand. Lavishly illustrated with black-and-white line drawings of Chinese domestic and industrial sites, and of the artefacts excavated from them, this study offers unprecedented insight into the life and material culture of these male-only “sojourner” communities. Widely considered the most comprehensive archaeological study of overseas Chinese miners’ experience anywhere in the world, this volume contains the total summation and analysis of artefacts found in 23 Chinese sites excavated over nine years, which included two camps (with 40 individual huts and other features), a Chinese store and 20 rural sites, including miner’s huts and rock shelters. Considered by the Australian Society for Historical Archaeology to be a seminal work in the field of historical archaeology, this 2023 edition introduces Dr. Ritchie’s groundbreaking work to the next generation of archaeologists.
This groundbreaking book reports on almost three decades of excavations conducted on the Commonwealth Block – the area of central Melbourne bordered by Little Lonsdale, Lonsdale, Exhibition and Spring streets.
This book presents research into the urban archaeology of 19th-century Australia. It focuses on the detailed archaeology of 20 cesspits in The Rocks area of Sydney and the Commonwealth Block site in Melbourne. It also includes discussions of a significant site in Sydney – First Government House. The book is anchored around a detailed comparison of contents of 20 cesspits created during the 19th century, and examines patterns of similarity and dissimilarity, presenting analyses that work towards an integration of historical and archaeological data and perspectives. The book also outlines a transnational framework of comparison that assists in the larger context related to building a truly g...
""Slum" is among the most evocative and judgmental words of the modern world. It originated in the slang language of the world's then-largest city, London, early in the nineteenth century. Its use thereafter proliferated, and its original meanings unraveled as colonialism and urbanization transformed the world, and as prejudice against those disadvantaged by these transformations became entrenched. Cuckoo-like, "slum" overtook and transformed other local idioms: for example, bustee, favela, kampong, shack. "Slum" once justified heavy-handed redevelopment schemes that tore apart poor but viable neighborhoods. Now it underpins schemes of neighbourhood renewal that, seemingly benign in their in...
A vivid account of a remarkable but little-known chapter in Melbourne’s history Sex workers in nineteenth-century Melbourne were judged morally corrupt by the respectable world around them. But theirs was a thriving trade, with links to the police and political leaders of the day, and the leading brothels were usually managed by women. While today a city lane is famously named after Madame Brussels, the identities of the other ‘flash madams’, the ‘dressed girls’ who worked for them and the hundreds of women who solicited on the streets of the Little Lon district of Melbourne are not remembered. Who were they? What did their daily lives look like? What became of them? Drawing on the...
This book celebrates 75 years of Air Force cadet activity in Australia, 1941-2016. The organisation has had a tremendous impact upon the lives of tens-of-thousands of Australians over our 75 year history. Since 1982 it has enhanced the lives of young women as well as men. The book begins in WWII with the need to pre-train capable and committed "keen lads". Over 30,000 Australian boys were air cadets 1941-1945 with almost 13,000 going on to active service in the war. Air Force cadets survived into peacetime to become an aviation focussed youth development organisation, providing flying training in a military atmosphere with the aim of inspiring cadets to join the RAAF. There are currently over 8,000 Air Force cadets and adult staff around Australia. Aviation centred youth development in a RAAF service environment remains our central focus.
This book presents research into the urban archaeology of 19th-century Australia. It focuses on the detailed archaeology of 20 cesspits in The Rocks area of Sydney and the Commonwealth Block site in Melbourne. It also includes discussions of a significant site in Sydney – First Government House. The book is anchored around a detailed comparison of contents of 20 cesspits created during the 19th century, and examines patterns of similarity and dissimilarity, presenting analyses that work towards an integration of historical and archaeological data and perspectives. The book also outlines a transnational framework of comparison that assists in the larger context related to building a truly g...