Heritage Futures

HFRC Logo

The Heritage Futures Research Centre was founded in 2001 to consolidate the University's range of expertise and research relating to the natural and cultural history and heritage of regional Australia, and to facilitate the sharing of values, information and expertise among scholars, professionals and the broader community.

HFRC includes active researchers from a range of disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, as well as Higher Degree Research students and Associate Members from community organisations, local government and the general public.

The Centre promotes research and consultancies that strengthen Australia's social and economic fabric, as well as enhancing rural and regional sustainability and the development of regional communities. Using a broad, collaborative and practical approach to history and heritage, much of our research impacts on issues of tourism, environmental sustainability and development, and enhances community identity and awareness of the past.

Our interests include:

  • the creation, use and implications of local and regional history and heritage, including their implications in the national and international contexts
  • the history and role of community organisations
  • indigenous, settler and immigrant heritage
  • historic objects, sites and precincts
  • commercial, industrial, agricultural, environmental, domestic, educational, political, literary and performing and visual arts heritage

Current HFRC Projects include:

Sugarbag and shellfish: Indigenous Foodways in Colonial Cape York Peninsula (2019-2023). Mick Morrison/Darlene McNaughton and colleagues

The project traces the role of Indigenous food, labour and knowledge in cultural exchanges between Aboriginal people and settler-colonists in northern and central Cape York Peninsula. It is based on long term collaborations between Aboriginal Custodians of Countries between Weipa and Lockhart River, and academic researchers at the University of New England, Flinders University, and Macquarie University.  The project is supported and facilitated by the Western Cape Communities Trust, the Napranum Aboriginal Shire Council, the Chuulangun Aboriginal Corporation and the Queensland Museum.

A “mill for grinding rogues honest”: Convict Labour at an Australian Industrial Prison, UNE Postdoctoral Fellowship (2020-22), Dr Richard Tuffin.

Explores the processes and products of convict labour through an historical archaeological investigation of the workshops of the Port Arthur penal station. Conducted in collaboration with the Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority, a key industry partner with the Department of Archaeology, Classics and History

Recovering Darlington Probation Station’s Hidden Convict Landscapes, Australian Heritage Grant (2022-24), led by Martin Gibbs and Richard Tuffin

Examining the labour hinterlands of the Darlington convict station through historical archaeological methodology. This research is conducted in collaboration with Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service

ReAssign: Northern Midlands Interpretation Project, UNE Consultancy, led by Dr Richard Tuffin (2022)

Increasing the visibility of convict places within the Northern Midlands Council catchment, in collaboration with with Roar Film Tasmania.

Hidden in plain sight: Mithaka cultural mapping (Nat Geo and ARC), Dr Nathan Wright, Department of Archaeology Classics and History

This project explores and documents the stunning diversity of sites across Mithaka country in a cultural landscape framework. Everything from rock art and stone arrangements to Aboriginal gunyah's (huts) to knapping floors, massacre sites (Thundapurty lagoon) and peace sites (Debney's Rock).

Australia’s Silk Road (ARC Discovery for Mithaka and Wangkangurru countries), Dr Nathan Wright

This project explores food production systems in the light of Bruce Pascoe claims and consequent critiques by Sutton and Walshe. Involves the botanical survey of Mithaka country, genomic, archaeological and palynological analysis of data from SW QLD's channel country.

Convict Memorial Hub project (2022-4), funded by the Tasmanian State Government. Professor Hamish Maxwell-Stewart, Richard Tuffin

In cooperation with the Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority (PAHSMA) and the National Trust Tasmania, this project will establish a Convict Memorial Hub at the Penitentiary Chapel in Hobart. Expected to be complete in 2023, this memorial will be a virtual presentation that provides a very personal immersive experience for people wanting to trace their family convict history.

Putting Death in its Place (2011-24), Australian Research Council Linkage Grant (Monash University), with Professor Hamish Maxwell-Stewart, Richard Tuffin

In collaboration with Libraries Tasmania, this project will link individuals and their families to the locations where they were born, lived and died, using over 890,000 Tasmania population records from 1838 to 1930.

Time Layered Culture Maps (2022-2023), Australian Research Data Commons, Professors Martin Gibbs and Hamish Maxwell-Stewart

This project, in conjunction with the University of Newcastle, is developing a set of digital tools for mapping Australian history and culture < https://tlcmap.org/ >

The origin of cumulative culture in human evolution. ARC, Future Fellowship.  Professor Mark Moore

This project explores the emergence of cumulative culture through an analysis of the early technological heritage of our species.

Museum of Stone Tools.  ARC, Future Fellowship.  Professor Mark Moore

This project is building a public, open-access website to showcase the world-wide heritage of stone tools and toolmaking technology. Professor Mark Moore

Discover UNE: Office of Environment and Heritage, Dr Bronwyn Hopwood.

This project is developing self-guided audio-tours of the UNE campus, containing hours of engaging information, interviews, photos, and artefacts exploring the history and heritage of UNE.

Professional Engagement

HFRC has active and ongoing relationships with numerous community, business, industry, government, and professional organisations, including:

Heritage Futures Database

An ongoing development and use of an innovative relational online research database.

HFRC maintains a major online relational database which collates and promotes the data obtained from our numerous historical and archaeological projects, including the Family Ties Project, Immigrants in New England, and View of Maitland. (The data from other acquitted projects, including The McLean's Corner Conservation Project, the Saumarez Store Archaeological Survey, and the Armidale K-Mart Archaeological Project, will be online in 2010).

Centenary History of the Australian Red Cross , commissioned by the Australian Red Cross


Journal of Australian Colonial History

The Journal of Australian Colonial History (JACH) is produced and published by the Humanities at the University of New England (Armidale, NSW). The Journal produces one volume annually, each consisting  between 7–10 scholarly articles, plus book reviews and research notes, on a wide variety of subjects including convict history, bushranging, Aboriginal-settler relations, nineteenth century legal and medical developments, colonial nationalism and republicanism, colonial literature, imperial history, biography, and various aspects of Australia's early social, economic and political history.

Editor: Dr David Andrew Roberts

ISSN 1441-0370

Find out more