Finding Convicts and Convict Sites: A Job For Professionals, Community Or Both?

I am very honoured to have been invited to present the Lesley Muir address to this year's annual meeting of the Royal Australian Historical Society, especially as I am an archaeologist rather than an historian.
This year's theme of 'Illuminating the Past' posed questions about what different historical records reveal about the past, how we share history with new audiences in new ways, and how we protect historical resources. It also raised the thorny question about how we arrest declining historical society memberships. Universities also are dealing with changing expectations and demographics. Unlike most universities, my students at the University of New England tend to be middle-aged, tech-savvy, often drawn back to study by career change or early retirement and often with deep interests in family and local history but not necessarily with connections to traditional history or heritage interest groups. There is the question for both the universities and historical societies of how to translate, guide or co-opt this latent 'market'.