NATIONAL COMMITTEES

Prize winners explore the rich variety of environmental history

5 June 2009

The National Museum of Australia Student Prize for Australian Environmental History was shared by Jodi Frawley from the University of Sydney and Benedict Taylor from the University of New South Wales after attracting a very strong and varied field in 2009. Two entries, from Kylie Carman-Brown and Lawrence Niewójt, (both from the Australian National University) received an honourable mention.

The essay prize is a joint initiative of the Australian Academy of Science and the National Museum of Australia and is open to students undertaking research at any tertiary educational institution. The awards were presented at a function at the Shine Dome on 2 June by Craddock Morton, Director of the National Museum of Australia, and Sue Meek, Chief Executive of the Australian Academy of Science.

In her entry, Trans/nationalising wattle from the Sydney botanic gardens, Jodi Frawley explores the criss-crossing of the national and the transnational paths of the wattle. The essay opens up the idea that what is national can also be transnational, and what is transnational is also global without ever losing the sense of wattle being an iconic Australian tree.

Benedict Taylor’s essay was It is curious how the convict loves a pet: Animals in Australian prisons and penal discourse. Prisoners have a long history of keeping pets and Taylor shows how these informal relationships were probably the basis for official animal care programs, developed from the 1970s. Animals provided a refuge from the brutality of prison life and an outlet for their feelings. They also helped prisoners to understand the nature of imprisonment and how it shapes lives and emotions.

Lawrence Niewójt, in his entry, Gadubanud society in the Otway Range, Victoria: An environmental history, gathers together the diverse lines of inquiry pursued by archaeologists, Earth scientists, ecologists, historians and geographers to gauge the scale and magnitude of past Aboriginal interventions in these forested landscapes. His interdisciplinary approach to this area of research was highly commended by the judges.

Kylie Carman-Brown’s essay, Muck, mud and morasses: Draining wetlands in 19th century Gippsland, discusses the role of wetlands in the hydrological landscape, the nature of threats to their integrity and the positive and negative aspects of the human–wetland interface. It then outlines colonial drainage practices, which were the principal response to the perceived negative aspects of wetlands, and the changing attitudes to these over the course of history.

The judging panel, chaired by Associate Professor Rachel Ankeny, chair of the Academy's National Committee for History and Philosophy of Science, was impressed by the range and number of entries and the quality of the essays. They have encouraged many of the entrants, including the winners, to seek publication in various peer-reviewed journals.

The National Museum of Australia Student Prize for Australian Environmental History is awarded in alternate years with the National Museum of Australia Student Prize for History of Australian Science. Entries for the 2010 NMA Student Prize for History of Australian Science will open in September.
For information and conditions of entry visit www.science.org.au/natcoms/hps-award-has.htm.