PAST PROJECTS

For over 25 years, I have worked with both large and small museums, historic property owners, corporate clients and local and state government organisations, researching and writing histories for publications, exhibitions, interpretive signage and websites; developing education programs, tours and public programs,  and managing historical and archaeological collections. Between 2012 and 2021, I was Curator of Hyde Park Barracks and The Mint for Sydney Living Museums (now Museums of History NSW).

I am now Editor of the quarterly professional journal Teaching History, for the History Teachers' Association of NSW, and as their Professional Support Officer, I also write and deliver professional development resources for History teachers. 

2022 Storyplace website, historical research and text-based storytelling for 200 objects in NSW regional museums for Museums and Galleries NSW. http://www.storyplace.org.au

2019 'Convict Kids' ABC Kids online documentary – historical research, script writing, costume & prop design for ABC Kids, https://iview.abc.net.au/show/convict-kids

2018 ‘What was flash language?’ - Convict ‘Flash’ slang language videos – historical research, video script writing, costumes & props. https://mhnsw.au/stories/convict-sydney/what-was-flash-language/ 

2018 Convict Sydney website – historical research & writing daily accounts of convict life in 1801, 1820, 1826, 1836, and 1844   

https://mhnsw.au/stories/convict-sydney/1801-day-life-convict/

https://mhnsw.au/stories/general/1820-day-life-convict/

https://mhnsw.au/stories/general/1826-day-life-convict/

https://mhnsw.au/stories/general/1836-day-life-convict/

https://mhnsw.au/stories/general/1844-day-life-convict/

2018 ‘A Day in the Life of a Convict’, popular online education resource, historical research & writing 

https://mhnsw.au/learning/day-life-convict/

2018 Dig a Little Deeper

https://mhnsw.au/stories/general/dig-little-deeper/

2018 50 convict objects from New South Wales

https://mhnsw.au/stories/convict-sydney/convict-sydney-objects/

2012-2018 Numerous web stories relating to the history of convicts, early colonial history, architecture, music, medical history, gold mining and immigration.

2017-18 Hyde Park Barracks Museum renewal - content curator for the new museum, analysis and selection of thousands of archaeological artefacts for display, in collaboration with Local Projects, New York https://localprojects.com/work/museums-attractions/hyde-park-barracks-museum/

2015 Women's Immigration Depot immersive dormitory experience exhibition, Hyde Park Barracks Museum 

2013 'Lags & Swells: 50 Convicts of Hyde Park Barracks', digital interactive, Hyde Park Barracks Museum

2003-05 Fairfield City Museum & Gallery, Sydney - permanent social history exhibition Fairfield: Many Stories, Many Faces,, and numerous temporary exhibitions, including 'Culture & Cultivation: Backyards of Fairfield' and At the Front & Home: Fairfield Remembers (2005).

2002 'Crossroads: Shanghai & the Jews of China', Sydney Jewish Museum, NSW

2001-02 Qantas Founders Outback Museum, Longreach, QLD and Parramatta: People & Place, Parramatta Heritage Centre, NSW - for Museum Planning Services Australia

2001 Historical research for exhibition, Eden Killer Whale Museum, Bega, NSW 

2000 Heritage site interpretive signage in Newcastle (Bather's Way Historic Walk), Griffith (NSW), Pine River (QLD), and York (Western Australia) - for 3D Exhibitions, Sydney. 

2012-19 Assemblage analysis, interpretation, storytelling and collection management (conservation, storage, cataloguing, inventory, significance assessments) - collection of over 150,000 archaeological artefacts and social history objects from Hyde Park Barracks and The Mint excavations and acquired objects 

2005 Moveable heritage collections inventory - for NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service

2003-05 Collection management, cataloguing, policy writing, disaster planning for 4000 social history objects, Fairfield City Museum & Gallery, Sydney

2002 Collection conservation management plans, cataloguing and database records for Quarantine Station and Goat Island historic parks - for Museum Planning Services Australia & National Parks & Wildlife Service

2002 Collection inventory of photographic collection for acquisition - for Museum Victoria (Melbourne Museum), VIC

1999-02 Collector's Chests archaeological artefact loans renewal, selection and installation of replacement artefacts, Museum of Sydney; Artefact analysis and temporary archaeology displays, Hyde Park Barracks Museum and The Mint Historic Houses Trust of NSW

1998-99 Permanent exhibition object inventory and general curatorial assistance, Later London History department, Museum of London 

2017-18 Hyde Park Barracks Conservation Management Plan - contributed to writing and editing of chronological site history and significance assessment - with SLM & Lucas Stapleton Johnson & Partners.

2017-18 The Mint (Rum Hospital) Conservation Management Plan - contributed to writing and editing of chronological site history and significance assessment - with SLM & GML.

2016 Australia ICOMOS desk reviewer for French language World Heritage nomination document for Taputapuatea (France).

2012-16 Site representative and NSW jurisdictional representative, World Heritage Australian Convict Sites Steering Committee 

2009 Public/private conservation partnerships assistant, UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Paris, France

2006-09 PhD research, 'Mobilising Corporate Responsibility for World Cultural Heritage Conservation', Cultural Heritage Centre for Asia & the Pacific, Deakin University 

2003-05 Committee member, Fairfield City Council Heritage Advisory Committee 

2021 ‘Building historical narratives from ancient objects’, online webinar, History Teachers’ Association of NSW

2018 ‘Passing as Free Men: Convict Clothing remnants from Hyde Park Barracks’, Australasian Society for Historical Archaeology conference, Parramatta.

2016-17 Live radio interviews - ABC 702 radio Drive Program, re Rum Hospital & convict history, with Richard Glover, ‘Self Improvement Wednesday’ and ABC radio Newcastle, re colonial architect Francis Greenway

2016 ‘Convicts at the General ‘Rum’ Hospital, Sydney, 1811-1848’, ‘Our Healthy Heritage: Health, Ailing and Dying in Colonial Sydney’ seminar series, Australian Society for the History of Medicine seminar, State Library of NSW, Sydney

2016 ‘Convicts at the General ‘Rum’ Hospital, Sydney, 1811-1848’, A Future for the Past: Rum Hospital 200th anniversary Symposium, The Mint, Sydney

2014-15 Video interviews re Hyde Park Barracks, convict history and The Mint, for Sydney episode of Belles Echapees (French television program), ABC television news,  and children’s television documentary

2022 ‘Getting a Grip on Gaps: Interpreting the past with scarce or fragmentary sources’, Teaching History 56(4)

2021 -2022  “… look at what we have done”: Building modern history narratives using physical sources’ (parts 1 and 2) Teaching History 55(3) and 56(2)

2017 ‘The “Sidney Slaughter House”: Convict experience at the General ‘Rum’ Hospital, Sydney, 1816-1848’, Health & History 19(2)

2015 ‘An archaeology of improvisation: Convict artefacts from Hyde Park Barracks’, Sydney, 1819-1848, Australasian Historical Archaeology 33

2012 Corporate Responsibility for Cultural Heritage (New York: Routledge/Taylor & Francis).

2011  'Poverty Alleviation through World Heritage Conservation', in Albert, M-T., Richon, M., Vinals, M-J., & Whitcomb, A. (eds.) The Impact of International Designation on Local Communities, World Heritage Papers Series, (Paris: UNESCO World Heritage Centre), 100-106.

2010  ‘The Business of Heritage and the Private Sector’, in Labadi, S. and Long, C. (eds), Heritage and Globalisation (New York: Routledge), 147-169. 

2008 ‘Corporate Responsibility for World Cultural Heritage: Playing the sustainable development card’, in Amoeda, R., Lira. S., Pinheiro, C., Pinheiro, P. and Pinheiro, J. (eds) 2008. World Heritage and Sustainable Development: Heritage 2008 conference. Barcelos, (Portugal: Greenlines Institute for Sustainable Development, 2008), 337-346.  

2005 ‘…vicious and rebellious’?: Life at the Male Orphan School, 1819-1850’  (Fairfield, NSW: Fairfield City Museum & Gallery)

2004 Fairfield City Museum & Gallery Village Guidebook (Fairfield, NSW: Fairfield City Museum & Gallery)  

2001  ‘Convict artefacts from the Civil Hospital privy on Norfolk Island’, Australasian Historical Archaeology 19

2009 Mobilising Corporate Responsibility for World Cultural Heritage Conservation, Doctor of Philosophy dissertation, Cultural Heritage Centre for Asia & the Pacific, Deakin University

1999 ‘Museums and Metropolitan Identity: Representing the City at the Museum of London and the Museum of Sydney’, Master of Arts in Museum Studies thesis, University of Sydney

1997 ‘Convicting Artefacts: Representation and the Convict Experience of Life, Illness, and Death on Norfolk Island’, Bachelor of Arts (Honours) thesis, University of Sydney