Research and Publications
The Centre for Gippsland Studies contributes to Monash University Gippsland's commitment to regional research through the successful pursuit of research grants, collaborative research, consultancies and publications. The Centre's main areas of research are local history and cultural heritage, public history, environmental history, regional restructuring and attachment to place and belonging.
Gippsland Heritage Journal
Meredith Fletcher, former Director of the Centre for Gippsland Studies, is also editor of the Gippsland Heritage Journal, Australia's leading and most innovative regional history journal. Established in 1986 and published by Gippsland publishing house, Kapana Press, Gippsland Heritage Journal aims to be a clearing house of debate and information on Gippsland history that brings together local and family historians, academic and public historians. The journal has a refereed section.
Visit the Gippsland Heritage Journal
Publications: 2002-5 - In Press
Wellington Landscapes: History and Heritage in a Gippsland Shire, Shire of Wellington, 2005
Books
Linda Kennett, Meredith Fletcher, Changing Landscapes: A History of Settlement and Land Use in Driffield, International Power Hazelwood, 2004
Meredith Fletcher, Digging People Up For Coal: a History of Yallourn, Melbourne University Press, 2002.
Refereed Articles
Dow, Coral, 'Nature's Lifelong Friends': Thryptomene, Nature Study and the Declaration of the Lakes National Park, Gippsland Heritage Journal, no 29, 2005, pp 2-11
Fletcher, Meredith, 'Completing a Circle: Morwell's Municipal Buildings',Gippsland Heritage Journal, no 29, 2005, pp 44-51
'"Modernity or Slaves of the Lamp?": Independence and Control in Two State Coal Mining Communities in Victoria, Australia', chapter in Stefan Berger et al, Towards a History of Comparative Coalfield Societies, Ashgate Press, 2005, pp 99-112
Janice Chesters, Meredith Fletcher, Rebecca Jones, 'Mental Illness: Recovery and Place', Australian eJournal for the Advancement of Mental Health, vol. 4, no. 2, 2005, pp 41-50
'Ferals and Their Muddies: Making a Home in the Bush', History Australia vol.2 no. 1, December 2004, pp 08.1 - 08.16
The Making of the Boisdale Landscape and the Making of a Boisdale House'',Victorian Historical Journal, vol.75 no. 2, September 2004, pp 225-243.
'Three Lives of the Emden Steam Whistle: Naval Seam Whistle, Yallourn Power Station Siren, Artefact of a Lost Town' in Gippsland Heritage Journal, no. 27, 2003, pp 47-55.
Rebecca Jones, Janice Chesters, Meredith Fletcher, 'Make Yourself at Home: People Living with Psychiatric Disability in Public Housing, International Journal of Psychosocial Rehabilitation, vol. 7, 2003, pp. 71-85.
'Telling the Yallourn Stories', Australian Historical Studies, no 118, 2002, pp. 239-254.
Articles
'Brown Fire: Yallourn Records at PROV', Proactive , no. 28, May 2003, pp. 20-3
"From Brown Coal Mine to Yallourn North', Placenames Australia , September 2003, pp. 6-7.
Reports
Centre for Gippsland Studies, Environmental History of Wellington Shire (2001)
Centre for Gippsland Studies, Environmental History of East Gippsland Shire (2001)
Current Research Projects
Water's Role in the European Discovery, Settlement and Development of Gippsland (Department of Sustainability and Environment)
Seachangers: who are they and what do they mean for Gippsland?
- The term seachange, popularised by the ABC television series, describes a population trend and an urban Australian dream: to escape from the metropolis to rural idyll. Fulfilling an urgent need for localised, in-depth research, this project will analyse the seachange phenomenon and its impact on a local government area in Gippsland.
Housing History of Gippsland (supported by Small ARC Grant and Monash Small Grant)
- This project extends current housing studies that are restricted to urban issues by investigating how Australians have lived in a rural area of Australia. It includes how landscapes evolve, how people inhabit their spaces, and the political, moral, racial and environmental issues associated with housing.
Health, Housing and History: (Supported by a Monash Small Grant),
- This project investigates housing for people with psychiatric disabilities, and considers the relationship between housing and place and turning public housing into home.