Vision performance in relationship to spectacle lens design. Refractive errors such as short-sightedness, long-sightedness or presbyopia (age related decline in near vision) are the leading causes of visual impairment in the world. Of these, presbyopia affects almost 100% of the population above 45 years of age. This represents over 40% of all Australians. Although spectacles provide a safe and easy means of correcting refractive errors, they affect quality of life due to distorted vision, disco ....Vision performance in relationship to spectacle lens design. Refractive errors such as short-sightedness, long-sightedness or presbyopia (age related decline in near vision) are the leading causes of visual impairment in the world. Of these, presbyopia affects almost 100% of the population above 45 years of age. This represents over 40% of all Australians. Although spectacles provide a safe and easy means of correcting refractive errors, they affect quality of life due to distorted vision, discomfort such as head and neck ache and cosmetic effects. The goals of the project are to better understand the visual performance of young and old people who wear glasses and to develop improved spectacle lens designs to provide clear and comfortable vision over a range of distances.Read moreRead less
Indigenous foodways in colonial Cape York Peninsula. This project aims to trace historical Indigenous foodways in colonial Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, through a program of collaborative community-based archaeological and anthropological research. Food was a key medium for cultural exchanges between Indigenous peoples and settler-colonists. The analysis of foodways is known to provide unparalleled insights on daily life, as well as the development of both cultural values and social relations ....Indigenous foodways in colonial Cape York Peninsula. This project aims to trace historical Indigenous foodways in colonial Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, through a program of collaborative community-based archaeological and anthropological research. Food was a key medium for cultural exchanges between Indigenous peoples and settler-colonists. The analysis of foodways is known to provide unparalleled insights on daily life, as well as the development of both cultural values and social relationships. This has received limited attention in archaeological investigations in Australia. Results will provide greater insight into the history behind our current society.Read moreRead less
Mobilising Dutch East India Company collections for new global stories . Australia has a rich legacy of archives, art and artefacts, including 4 shipwrecks in WA, from its history of encounters with the Dutch East India Company (VOC). Through comparative research in Australian and overseas museums and archives we aim to situate Australian collections in a global context, creating new stories about Australia as part of the VOC global network. An interdisciplinary team will train 3 ECRs and 7 HDRs ....Mobilising Dutch East India Company collections for new global stories . Australia has a rich legacy of archives, art and artefacts, including 4 shipwrecks in WA, from its history of encounters with the Dutch East India Company (VOC). Through comparative research in Australian and overseas museums and archives we aim to situate Australian collections in a global context, creating new stories about Australia as part of the VOC global network. An interdisciplinary team will train 3 ECRs and 7 HDRs and forge partnerships with the Netherlands, Britain, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Indonesia, Malaysia, and South Africa, strengthening national capacity. Our analysis will enrich the value of collections, provide narratives for museums and sites, and revitalise content for international and domestic tourism markets.Read moreRead less
Museum of New and Old Art (MONA) and the social and cultural coordinates of urban regeneration through arts tourism. This project will analyse the extraordinary success of MONA (Museum of New and Old Art) as an art gallery and use this information to identify, stimulate and sustain innovative collaborations between MONA, the cities of Hobart and Glenorchy, and the state of Tasmania, aimed at maximising visitor numbers to the state from art related tourism.
Environmental change in northern Cenozoic Australia: a multidisciplinary approach. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that by 2020 to 2050, Australia will suffer significant biodiversity loss and water shortages. Our research will document and date the evolution of Australia's biota through three cycles of climate change over the last 25 million years to quantify and thereby better anticipate the nature and dimension of threats facing our natural and cultural communities ....Environmental change in northern Cenozoic Australia: a multidisciplinary approach. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that by 2020 to 2050, Australia will suffer significant biodiversity loss and water shortages. Our research will document and date the evolution of Australia's biota through three cycles of climate change over the last 25 million years to quantify and thereby better anticipate the nature and dimension of threats facing our natural and cultural communities. We will develop innovative techniques to date prehistoric biotic and climatic events and, using a range of tracers, characterize ancient environments and groundwater. This project will assist rural and regional Australia through education and job creation in geotourism and natural resource interpretation and provide a mechanism to combat generational skill shortage.Read moreRead less
Before and after the Last Ice Age: GunaiKurnai archaeology along the Snowy. This project aims to transform our understanding of the deep-time Aboriginal occupation of Victoria's Snowy River landscape, by excavating a network of sites dating back to >52,000 years. This project expects to generate new knowledge in archaeology and palaeoclimatology through partnership research in Gunaikurnai Country. Expected outcomes of this project include unprecedented details of Aboriginal occupation, ritual in ....Before and after the Last Ice Age: GunaiKurnai archaeology along the Snowy. This project aims to transform our understanding of the deep-time Aboriginal occupation of Victoria's Snowy River landscape, by excavating a network of sites dating back to >52,000 years. This project expects to generate new knowledge in archaeology and palaeoclimatology through partnership research in Gunaikurnai Country. Expected outcomes of this project include unprecedented details of Aboriginal occupation, ritual installations, wooden artefacts, ancient human DNA, use of deep caves and open landscapes, and economic strategies dating back to the Last Ice Age and beyond. This should provide significant benefits in community research, greater social understandings of Aboriginal connections with Country, and a more inclusive Australia.Read moreRead less
Aboriginal rock art and cultural heritage management in Cape York Peninsula. The Laura Sandstone Basin of Cape York Peninsula hosts one of the richest bodies of rock art in Australia and the world. It documents the life-ways of generations of Aboriginal Australians from their original settlement, through major environmental changes, to European invasion. This vast area, much of which is now jointly managed as National Parks by Traditional Owners, remains virtually unexplored archaeologically. Th ....Aboriginal rock art and cultural heritage management in Cape York Peninsula. The Laura Sandstone Basin of Cape York Peninsula hosts one of the richest bodies of rock art in Australia and the world. It documents the life-ways of generations of Aboriginal Australians from their original settlement, through major environmental changes, to European invasion. This vast area, much of which is now jointly managed as National Parks by Traditional Owners, remains virtually unexplored archaeologically. This project aims to record this unique rock art so that its testimony remains for future generations. This will provide a framework for its sustainable management and findings will have profound implications for our understandings of the cultural behaviour and dispersal of the earliest modern humans to colonise Australia.Read moreRead less
Heritage of the air: how aviation transformed Australia. This project aims to generate new understandings of how aviation has transformed Australian society over the last hundred years, and how the technology of global mobility has shaped people, cultures and communities. Whilst aviation has transformed Australian society over the last hundred years, its heritage is under-appreciated and at risk. The project will build a partnership between the aviation industry, community groups, museums and a ....Heritage of the air: how aviation transformed Australia. This project aims to generate new understandings of how aviation has transformed Australian society over the last hundred years, and how the technology of global mobility has shaped people, cultures and communities. Whilst aviation has transformed Australian society over the last hundred years, its heritage is under-appreciated and at risk. The project will build a partnership between the aviation industry, community groups, museums and a multidisciplinary academic team to develop fresh insights from under-utilised sources of aviation heritage, communicate their unique stories to the public through innovative exhibitions and publications, and help conserve it for future generations. As a result, the project will make an important contribution to culture and society by enabling community access to neglected and at-risk sources of aviation heritage, and engage the public’s fascination with aviation through new interpretations of its extraordinary social and cultural impact.Read moreRead less
Reuniting cargoes: Underwater Cultural Heritage of the Maritime Silk Route. Beginning in the mid 1400s the Maritime Silk Route witnessed the largest known expansion of global trade. But the legacy of artefacts retrieved from this time has not been appropriately understood because the objects were mostly salvaged and dispersed without recording the archaeological details of their find-spots. Our multilateral consortium aims to discover the cultural value of the largest Southeast Asian ceramic col ....Reuniting cargoes: Underwater Cultural Heritage of the Maritime Silk Route. Beginning in the mid 1400s the Maritime Silk Route witnessed the largest known expansion of global trade. But the legacy of artefacts retrieved from this time has not been appropriately understood because the objects were mostly salvaged and dispersed without recording the archaeological details of their find-spots. Our multilateral consortium aims to discover the cultural value of the largest Southeast Asian ceramic collections in Indonesia and Australia with archaeological science. By employing and enhancing international conventions, the project will generate new knowledge about this decisive epoch in world history and build capacity to preserve the underwater cultural heritage of our region for future generations.Read moreRead less
Investigating the archaeological values of Marra cultural heritage sites. This project aims to investigate the archaeological landscape of Limmen National Park, the traditional Country of the Marra people, and to inform the creation of a cultural heritage management plan. It builds on a long-standing relationship with the Marra and the urgency to preserve their cultural knowledge associated with the Park. The project will use a two-way thinking methodology, combining contemporary Aboriginal know ....Investigating the archaeological values of Marra cultural heritage sites. This project aims to investigate the archaeological landscape of Limmen National Park, the traditional Country of the Marra people, and to inform the creation of a cultural heritage management plan. It builds on a long-standing relationship with the Marra and the urgency to preserve their cultural knowledge associated with the Park. The project will use a two-way thinking methodology, combining contemporary Aboriginal knowledge with archaeological and anthropological data to understand the meaning of the archaeological record for Aboriginal people today. Key outcomes include data for continent-wide archaeological narratives, a holistic blueprint to help manage the Park’s cultural heritage, and an archive for Traditional Owner research.Read moreRead less