Meet The Team
Chief Investigators • Partner
Investigators • Research Scholars • Administration
Chief Investigators
Tracy Ireland • Ross Gibson • Tim Sherratt • Ross Harley • Annie Clarke • Peter Hobbins • Mitchell Whitelaw • Jane Ferguson
A/Prof Tracy Ireland
Associate Professor Tracy Ireland is a researcher and lecturer in the Faculty of Arts and Design at the
University of Canberra. She is an archaeologist and heritage specialist with over twenty five years’
experience across government, private practice and the academic sectors. Her research focuses on how the
past impacts the present and how shared memory is constructed through heritage. Heritage of the Air builds
directly upon her research strengths in heritage management, social and community values, and evolving
forms of heritage practice. As well as heading up the project and coordinating inputs from all
researchers, she will also lead Case Study 1: Air Memories; conduct research into community based
heritage practices, and collaborate in developing exhibitions to celebrate the 2020 centenary of civil
aviation in Australia.
Prof Ross Gibson
Professor Ross Gibson is Centenary Professor of Creative and Cultural Research at the University of
Canberra. In this role he works collaboratively to produce books, films and artworks. His main interests
are contemporary arts, communication and the history of environmental consciousness in colonial cultures,
particularly in Australia and the Pacific. His work spans several media and disciplines. In the
Heritage of the Air project, he will lead Case Study 3: An Ocean Apart? and curate and
design exhibition components, including the development of video-essays and visual-digital story-telling;
identify key aviation related collections and analyse emerging themes. He will also contribute to Case
Study 1: Air Memories integrating existing digitised collections with targeted mining of novel
sources, such as training and promotional films.
A/Prof Tim Sherratt
Associate Professor Tim Sherratt is an historian in the Faculty of Arts and Design at the University of
Canberra who researches the possibilities and politics of digital cultural collections. He is interested
in using digital tools to create new cultural experiences and new forms of publication, exploring how
digitisation projects change our relationship with the past and digital heritage. He has worked across the
cultural heritage sector and have been developing online resources relating to libraries, archives,
museums and history since 1993. He will lead Case Study 2: Take-Off to Touchdown and oversee all
the digital components of the project, and investigate how digital tools and techniques can be applied to
the project’s research themes.
Prof Ross Harley
Professor Ross Harley is Dean of the Faculty of Art and Design and Chair of Arts and Culture at the
University of New South Wales in Sydney. He is an award-winning artist, writer and educator whose career
crosses the bounds of traditional and creative arts research. His role in the project will focus on
digital innovation and the creative interpretation of visual culture. He will contribute to developing the
framework for working with digital assets and synthesise, analyse and draw together materials for the
multiple contexts of Case Study 3: An Ocean Apart?
A/Prof Annie Clarke
Associate Professor Annie Clarke is an archaeologist at the University of Sydney and convenor of the
Heritage Studies Program in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Her research interests include the
archaeology of Arnhem Land, the archaeology of cross-cultural engagement and colonialism, rock art and
mark-making practices, ethnographic collections and objects, community archaeology, narrative and
archaeology and heritage. She will analyse aviation material culture held in regional, national and
international collections, including Qantas and the SFO Museum at San Francisco Airport, as well as
contribute to Case Study 1: Air Memories, investigating Indigenous aviation–related art and
cultural practice.
Dr Peter Hobbins
Dr Peter Hobbins holds an ARC (Australian Research Council) DECRA (Distinguished Early Career Researcher
Award) fellowship in the Department of History, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of
Sydney. As an historian of science, technology and medicine, he is intrigued by the ways that knowledge is
generated and applied, especially through interactions with non-humans. He has explored this topic via
publications on medical research, human-animal relations, quarantine, military medicine and aviation
safety. His role in the project will focus on community based collections in order to research and
transform artefacts and archives into narrative texts, visualisations, and display elements for Case Study
1: Air Memories and Case Study 2: Take-Off to Touchdown.
Dr Mitchell Whitelaw
Associate Professor Mitchell Whitelaw is a researcher and lecturer in the School of Art and Design in the
College of Arts and Social Sciences at the Australian National University in Canberra. His research spans
practice and theory in the fields of digital design and culture; he works with data and computation as
core materials in a creative research practice, and collaborates on applied, practice-led research with
public outcomes. His theoretical work draws on and contextualises this practice, as well as investigating
emerging concepts and forms in digital art and design. He will co-produce the project’s digital outcomes,
with specific emphasis on data handling, linking and transformation. He will also contribute to Case Study
1: Air Memories, on geographic investigations, laying out investment in landing grounds, air
routes and traffic patterns.
Dr Jane Ferguson
Dr Jane Ferguson is an anthropologist and lecturer in the School of Culture, History and Language in the
College of Asia and Pacific at the Australian National University in Canberra. Her research interests
include social and cultural anthropology, Asian cultural studies, air transportation and freight services,
and historical studies. She will add an ethnographic perspective to the project, incorporating field
research and interviews with employees of Southeast Asian and North American carriers that operate flights
to Australia. She will also make use of archival materials in Bangkok, as well as records held by the SFO
and the Pan Am archive at the University of Miami, integrating findings into Case Study 1: Air
Memories and Case Study 3: An Ocean Apart?
Partner Investigators
Prudence Black • Paul Ashton • Brett Holman • Claire Marrison • Martha Sear • Jennifer Wilson • Roger Meyer • Phil Vabre • Sally Brockwell
Dr Prudence Black
Dr Prudence Black is a Research Associate in the Department of Gender and Cultural Studies, Faculty of
Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Sydney and a Lecturer in the School of Humanities at the
University of Adelaide. She conducts research mainly into the areas of aviation cultures, modernism,
fashion, dress and popular culture. For her part in the project, she will collect oral histories, focusing
on passenger experiences on routes such as the Kangaroo Route (Sydney to London), Bird of Paradise (Sydney
to PNG), and the Pan America Clipper Service to Australia; document vernacular design, technology and
images (photographs, posters, films); research Indigenous involvement in regional aviation in Australia,
and integrate her findings into Case Study 1: Air Memories and Case Study 3: An Ocean
Apart?
Prof Paul Ashton
Professor Paul Ashton is an adjunct at the University of Technology Sydney –where he co-established the
Australian Centre for Public History – at Macquarie University and at the University of Canberra.
Co-founder and editor of the journal Public History Review, he has authored, co-authored and
edited over thirty-seven books. These include a history of town planning in Sydney – The Accidental
City– Once Upon a Time: Australian Writers on Using the Past and a history of Centennial Park. He
is a member of the NSW Heritage Council’s Heritage Committee and has on a number of occasions been a judge
for the NSW Premier’s History Awards. He was also a founder of the University of Technology Sydney’s
community engagement program Shopfront and its Director for fifteen years.He will contribute to Case Study
1: Air Memories, by coordinating the oral history program, running oral history training
workshops, and align the various components of the project to the mandatory Australian History Curriculum,
in order to design and develop the digital education package for primary and secondary school students.
Dr Brett Holman
Dr Brett Holman is a researcher and lecturer in History in the School of Humanities, Arts and Social
Sciences at the University of New England in Armidale. His research interests lie in ‘airmindedness’ and
the aeroplane in British and Australian culture; the theory, anticipation and experience of aerial
bombardment in Britain, c.1900 to 1945, particularly in the civilian and public sphere; aviation spectacle
and aerial theatre in the modern period; and mystery aircraft scares in the early twentieth century. For
this project, he will apply his theoretical frameworks for ‘airmindedness’ and related concepts such as
aerial theatre, conducting historical and archival research for visualisations and interpretations of
digitised collections for Case Study 1: Air Memories and Case Study 2: Take-Off to
Touchdown.
Dr Claire Marrison
Dr Claire Marrison is the Standards and Systems Manager for Airservices Australia, one of the Partner
Organisations of this project. In this role, she is responsible for the Operational and Work Health and
Safety System, Quality Management System and the Environment Management System. The latter is the link to
this project in that it places obligations on organisations to assure that heritage values are recognised
and managed appropriately. She has initiated research on the heritage of Australian civil aviation and
facilitates research on a wide range of related areas and factors crucial to continuous innovation and the
environmentally and socially responsible management of Australian aviation safety. Her role in this
project is to guide stakeholder and industry engagement and liaison, and work with the the researchers and
Partner Organisations to ensure that research outcomes contribute positively to the development of
operational and heritage policy for Airservices Australia in the future.
Dr Martha Sear
Dr Martha Sear is an historian and Senior Curator at the National Museum of Australia. Dr Sear will
facilitate project access to NMA collections.
Miss Jennifer Wilson
Miss Jennifer Wilson is the Senior Curator of Transport, Energy and Science at the Queensland Museum, one
of the Partner Organisations of this project. She is based at The Workshops Rail Museum in Ipswich. She
has worked across a variety of transport histories in her previous roles as a curator at the National
Museum of Australia from 2005 to 2017 and as curator of the Australian Stockman’s Hall of Fame and the
Qantas Founders Museum in Longreach. Her research focuses on the connections between people, places and
things, seeking to understand and record the stories of objects across time and space. For this project,
she will collaborate on collections research, digital data sharing and exhibition development, integrating
findings into Case Study 1: Air Memories and Case Study 3: An Ocean Apart?
Mr Roger Meyer
Since 1999, Mr Roger Meyer has been President of the Civil Aviation Historical Society (CAHS), which is
based in Essendon at the Airways Museum, one of the Partner Organisations of this project. He has long
experience with the Department of Transport from where he retired as a Middle Manager (Technical
Specialist) after 39½ years’ service. He was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the 2006
Queen’s Birthday Honours “for service to the community through the preservation and recording of
Australian civil aviation history”. Mr Meyer will facilitate project access to CAHS archives and the
collections of the Airways Museum.
Mr Phil Vabre
Mr Phil Vabre is the Vice President of the Civil Aviation Historical Society & Airways Museum at
Essendon airport, one of the Partner Organisations of this project. By profession he is an Air Traffic
Controller, with a background in aviation human factors and safety management. He is also a private pilot
and owner/custodian of a venerable Cessna that is older than he is. Phil is an amateur historian and is
working on a book about Australia’s civil Empire flying boats and their bases. He will facilitate project
access to the CAHS archives and the collections of the Airways Museum.
Dr Sally Brockwell
Dr Sally Brockwell is an ARC Research Associate attached to the Heritage of the Air Project in the Faculty
of Arts and Design at the University of Canberra. She is an archaeologist by training with research
interests in the archaeology and cultural heritage of northern Australia and Island South East Asia. She
will assist Associate Professor Ireland to coordinate project research activities and, together with
Associate Professor Clarke, will investigate cultural material held in regional, national and
international aviation collections.
Research Scholars
Anna Gebels • Ashley Harrison • Chris Holden • Jana Samargis-Woods • Fiona Shanahan • Jessica Western
Ms Anna Gebels
Anna Gebels is a PhD candidate at the University of Sydney. Her research is focused on the collected
heritage of the Empire Air Training Scheme in Australia in an attempt to ascertain what we have, and what
we need in order to tell an inclusive account of the Scheme.
By day Anna is a museum curator and educator who has worked in quarantine, military aviation and medical
museums. By night Anna enjoys singing for and with military veterans, transporting them to yesteryear with
the sweet harmonies of the WWII era with her group Davey T and the Aces.
Ms Ashley Harrison
Ashley completed a Master of Liberal Arts (Visual Culture Research) (Research), after majoring in
Undergraduate Anthropology and Psychology, at the Australian National University. For her sub-thesis,
Ashley explored the historical and contemporary use of archival images of Aboriginal ancestors taken in
the ‘William Henry Corkhill and the Tilba Tilba Collection’ (held at the National Library of Australia).
As a Yuin woman with mixed heritage, Ashley is particularly interested in considering cross-cultural
intersections and utilising Indigenous research methods. Ashley’s PhD project will focus on using archival
collections, to find representations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultural
responses to aviation.
Mr Chris Holden
Chris Holden is a PhD student in the Faculty of Arts and Design at the University of Canberra. His
research interests include the role which Information Architecture plays in shaping the past within
digital spaces, the Information Seeking Behaviours of historians and collection development of historical
material. For the project he will explore the role of Information Architecture in developing sustainable
online cultural resource collections, contributing to Case Study 2: Take-Off to Touchdown.
Ms Jana Samargis-Woods
Jana Samargis-Woods returned to Archaeology and Museum studies after working many years in the corporate
sector. She completed a BA/BCom majoring in Archaeology and Economics at the University of Melbourne. Most
recently she completed an MBA (2012) at Melbourne Business School. She also completed a Graduate Diploma
in one of the earliest Museum Studies courses in 1993 at Deakin University. She has had three seasons of
practical excavation experience working on an Early Bronze Age site at Marki in Cyprus with Latrobe
University as a graduate student. Jana is currently an MA research candidate with the University of
Sydney. She is thrilled to be returning to research and to be part of the Heritage of the Air project
where she will be investigating aviation museum collections in Melbourne.
Ms Fiona Shanahan
Fiona Shanahan BA (Hons) is an aviation archaeologist based in Australia’s Top End. She was awarded a
First Class Honours in 2014 for her research into aviation heritage management in Australia and the
Marshall Islands. Since 2014 Fiona has continued researching Top End World War II aviation heritage, which
has resulted in papers regarding the living history at aviation sites and one of the first definitions for
aviation archaeology. As part of the Heritage of the Air team, Fiona will investigate the impact of civil
aviation on Top End Communities.
Ms Jessica Western
Ms Jessica Western is a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Arts and Design at the University of Canberra. Her
research interests include questions of politicisation/depoliticisation and engagement in cultural
heritage management, the distinctive relationship between air travel and intangible cultural elements, and
the potential offered by digital interpretation techniques. She will work with the Queensland Museum’s
aviation collections to establish a context for these through ethnographic and oral history research, as
well as examining how digital heritage processes might broaden their cultural impact and contribute to an
evolving multi-vocal heritage management practice.
Administration
Ms Emily Fry
Ms Emily Fry is a digital heritage student in the Faculty of Arts and Design at the University of
Canberra, set to graduate at the end of 2018. She has previously worked alongside staff at the University
and the Museum of Australian Democracy to design the transcription website for The Real Face of White
Australia. She will be responsible for the design and maintenance of the project’s website.