The impact of migrants on Australian public law: An historical and cultural study. Many leading cases in constitutional and administrative law since 1901 have involved migrants and non-citizens. This project explores their role in the development of public law in Australia. Selected cases will be interpreted from historical, cultural, political and legal doctrinal perspectives, to understand how migrants have shaped the public discourse on judicial review, power of the Executive and human righ ....The impact of migrants on Australian public law: An historical and cultural study. Many leading cases in constitutional and administrative law since 1901 have involved migrants and non-citizens. This project explores their role in the development of public law in Australia. Selected cases will be interpreted from historical, cultural, political and legal doctrinal perspectives, to understand how migrants have shaped the public discourse on judicial review, power of the Executive and human rights. In mapping the impact of migrants on Australian law and society (and, ultimately, national identity), it will contribute to current debates about public law, and assist understanding of citizenship, immigration, sovereignty, and the proper scope of judicial review.
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Touring the past: tourism and history in Australia 1850-2010. This project contributes to understanding our region and the world by investigating how Australia's past has attracted tourists historically. It analyses not only the ways Australians have popularly understood their own past, but how that past has been interpreted to the world. Given tourism's traditional focus has been nature rather than culture in Australia, it has often put pressures on a fragile environment. Cultural tourism is de ....Touring the past: tourism and history in Australia 1850-2010. This project contributes to understanding our region and the world by investigating how Australia's past has attracted tourists historically. It analyses not only the ways Australians have popularly understood their own past, but how that past has been interpreted to the world. Given tourism's traditional focus has been nature rather than culture in Australia, it has often put pressures on a fragile environment. Cultural tourism is developing as a major industry in Australia, destined to be even more significant in the future. History tourism is of particular benefit to rural communities, often under stress from economic and environmental pressures, and contributes to healthy active leisure.Read moreRead less
The Helping Court: Examining the Early History of the Family Court of Australia. This project will benefit the many Australian families involved in divorce by analysing the process by which the Family Court of Australia, designed to reduce the acrimony and costs associated with fault-based adversarial processes, so quickly became a focus for criticism and violence. By identifying continuity and change in both the issues underlying disputes in the family law system and the strategies adopted to o ....The Helping Court: Examining the Early History of the Family Court of Australia. This project will benefit the many Australian families involved in divorce by analysing the process by which the Family Court of Australia, designed to reduce the acrimony and costs associated with fault-based adversarial processes, so quickly became a focus for criticism and violence. By identifying continuity and change in both the issues underlying disputes in the family law system and the strategies adopted to overcome them it will help to stabilise dispute resolution policies and reduce the need for review and adjustment in the future.Read moreRead less
Historical Encyclopedia of Western Australia. To co-ordinate, research, analyse, write and develop an Historical Encyclopedia of Western Australia. The Encyclopedia will be produced as an innovative multimedia CD-ROM and website as well as a printed version.
HISTORICAL EXPERTS AND INDIGENOUS LITIGANTS: the role of Historical Expert Evidence in Federal Court Cases. Since Mabo, historians are increasingly being called as expert witnesses in cases involving indigenous litigants. Historians perceive serious difficulties in the Court's treatment of qualitative, historical material, resulting in a possible denial of access to justice. The project investigates this treatment, pursuing issues such as expert evidence generally, the specific relationship betw ....HISTORICAL EXPERTS AND INDIGENOUS LITIGANTS: the role of Historical Expert Evidence in Federal Court Cases. Since Mabo, historians are increasingly being called as expert witnesses in cases involving indigenous litigants. Historians perceive serious difficulties in the Court's treatment of qualitative, historical material, resulting in a possible denial of access to justice. The project investigates this treatment, pursuing issues such as expert evidence generally, the specific relationship between Law and History, and the particularity of cases involving indigenous claims. The investigation asks whether historians as expert witnesses can retain both their historical professionalism and adapt to the requirements of the courts, or whether the courts? rules of evidence themselves require adaptation.
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Civilizing Divorce: Social Change, Law and the Transformation of Parenthood. The project will leave policy-makers, professionals, law reformers, and parents and their children themselves, better equipped to navigate their way through a major process of transformation in the way our intimate lives are structured. It will help take some of the 'heat' out of the child custody debate, to see current changes as an integral part of a broader process of change in our emotional relationships, and to br ....Civilizing Divorce: Social Change, Law and the Transformation of Parenthood. The project will leave policy-makers, professionals, law reformers, and parents and their children themselves, better equipped to navigate their way through a major process of transformation in the way our intimate lives are structured. It will help take some of the 'heat' out of the child custody debate, to see current changes as an integral part of a broader process of change in our emotional relationships, and to broaden the conceptual resources available to policy-making and law reform concerning post-separation child custody.Read moreRead less
Understanding forms of violence and their regulation in Australian history. In contemporary Australia inter-personal violence (such as domestic violence, the abuse of children, Aboriginal deaths in custody, the Cronulla riots) occupies intense media and public interest. Governmental responses to violence (through policing or the courts) themselves rest on the exercise of authorised and regulated control which itself may be considered a form of violence. In examining the historical changes in vio ....Understanding forms of violence and their regulation in Australian history. In contemporary Australia inter-personal violence (such as domestic violence, the abuse of children, Aboriginal deaths in custody, the Cronulla riots) occupies intense media and public interest. Governmental responses to violence (through policing or the courts) themselves rest on the exercise of authorised and regulated control which itself may be considered a form of violence. In examining the historical changes in violence, its social impact and media resonances, and the public policy responses to it, this research seeks to contribute to contemporary understanding of these important questions on the basis of a greater appreciation of the specifically Australian history of these phenomena.Read moreRead less
Voices From the West End: The Fremantle Living Histories Project. 'Voices From the West End' is a pioneering collaborative research project that focuses on the multifaceted history of the West End Conservation Area, Fremantle's central heritage district. The aim of the project is to assemble and interweave the multiple and varied voices of the people of the port city, past and present, so as to produce an historical mosaic reflecting its evolution from the time of settlement until the present da ....Voices From the West End: The Fremantle Living Histories Project. 'Voices From the West End' is a pioneering collaborative research project that focuses on the multifaceted history of the West End Conservation Area, Fremantle's central heritage district. The aim of the project is to assemble and interweave the multiple and varied voices of the people of the port city, past and present, so as to produce an historical mosaic reflecting its evolution from the time of settlement until the present day. This highly original project will produce histories in two formats: in publications designed to reach a wide scholarly audience; and in a digital interactive documentary form.Read moreRead less
A cultural history of Australian motor travel overseas. This project will add to our understanding of Australians' changing perceptions of the world, the way that Australian identity has been performed when overseas and the practice of motor touring.
It will be of direct benefit to the tourist industry and in contributing to our knowledge of Australia's relationship to the world and our region.
The Silent Buildings of Willow Court: testing a new and innovative model for cultural heritage assessment. This pilot project is fuelled by an urgent need to assess the resources of the historic Willow Court Precinct, Australia's longest serving mental health facility (1827-2000). The 18-hectare Precinct, with its now abandoned buildings, is located in one of Australia's most economically deprived regions, Tasmania's Derwent River Valley. In June 2002 the Precinct was acquired by the local Counc ....The Silent Buildings of Willow Court: testing a new and innovative model for cultural heritage assessment. This pilot project is fuelled by an urgent need to assess the resources of the historic Willow Court Precinct, Australia's longest serving mental health facility (1827-2000). The 18-hectare Precinct, with its now abandoned buildings, is located in one of Australia's most economically deprived regions, Tasmania's Derwent River Valley. In June 2002 the Precinct was acquired by the local Council. At the same time, a theoretical model for measuring the condition and pressures on historic sites was being developed by the state government's Cultural Heritage Advisory Group. This project will use the Willow Court Precinct to test the model.Read moreRead less