Convict Landscapes Project
Convict Landscapes began officially in 2017, with the receipt of an Australian Research Council’s grant Landscapes of Production and Punishment: the Tasman Peninsula 1830-1877 (DP170103642). By that point, however, we’d already been working on the history and archaeology of convict Australia for over three decades. Over the years we have written countless reports, scholarly papers, books and theses, presented innumerable talks and papers, and carried out commercial and research archaeology projects.
Such a long period of involvement has naturally led to a long list of project directors, researchers and research volunteers. You can find a list of key personnel at the link above.
Convict Research in Australia
Our convict history and heritage is universally recognised for its importance. Just walk into any bookshop and you will see shelves stacked with non-fiction and fiction works that draw upon Australia’s convict past. The places associated with this past – former sites of incarceration, supervision and labour – are inscribed on local, national and world heritage lists. The documents generated by its administration fill archives.
The research that underpins all this is largely reliant upon access to funding. Custodians of convict places like Port Arthur Historic Site rely upon National or State funding to carry out their conservation and interpretation programmes. Much of the momentum for research comes from the academic sector, though the work of amateur researchers contributes a steady and valuable flow of knowledge. Like convict places, this academic work relies entirely upon cyclical grant funding.
As our list of grants shows , we have been successful in keeping the fires of research burning. However, like all researchers, we’ve had more failures than we have had successes. Since 2017 we have made 13 applications to the main funding sources – Australian Research Council (ARC) and the Australian Heritage Grants – for convict-focussed projects. Of these, we have succeeded with four. A 30% success rate is pretty good in academia!
It is immensely difficult to get projects focussed on Australia’s convict history off the ground. Between 2005-2025 the ARC has delivered over $15 billion in funding to non-medical research – representing 28,000 projects. Of these, 1,521 projects have been in the fields of history, archaeology, collections or heritage. A total of 21 projects were in some way focussed on the convict past – 1.4% of the total. At the time this review was completed (2025), of the 265 archaeology projects funded in Australia, only one (our Landscapes project) has ever been funded.
In 2026 this number doubled with the attainment of the archaeology-focussed Norfolk Island grant (2026-2029).
It just goes to show, it is possible to do a lot with comparatively little.
Such a long period of involvement has naturally led to a long list of project directors, researchers and research volunteers. You can find a list of key personnel using the button below.
Since 2017 we have made 13 applications to the main funding sources – Australian Research Council (ARC) and the Australian Heritage Grants – for convict-focussed projects. Of these, we have succeeded with four. A 30% success rate is pretty good in academia!
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