Despite hardships endured, the Australian Aboriginal community remain one of the oldest surviving cultures on the planet. From the mid-19th century, photographs of Aboriginal people were taken for scientific purposes and were eventually archived in museums around the world. This culturally significant research reconnects families and country by bringing these lost ancestors home.
We can’t ignore the effects of climate change on how we live or our ever growing use of resources such as electricity and water. As consumers we look to be more environmentally conscious, but what about our houses and offices – are they running efficiently? This research team are creating innovation in the building design process and better management of resources such as gas, wind and solar power, water and electricity for building owners. Using existing smart and augmented reality technology as well as the concepts of sustainable living, this research could save consumers around 30% of the lifecycle cost of the building.
This team from UWA are exploring the Dampier Archipelago (Murujuga). What they have uncovered so far is astounding, and pushes back the known occupation of this place to before the Last Ice Age. It also contains an estimated one million engraved motifs of great scientific and cultural significance, an important part of understanding the human journey in Australia’s north-west. The Dampier Archipelago (Murujuga) is a National Heritage Listed place, contains heavy industry and is the traditional home of several Aboriginal groups.
Professor David Blair’s mentor at UWA challenged him to look out for the most difficult problems around. David chose gravitational waves. 40 years later the dream was realised after Professor Blair and his team’s contribution enabled the LIGO laser detectors to discover gravitational waves.
Led by Dr Julian Bolleter, Landscape Architect and Urban Designer at the Australian Urban Design Research Centre (AUDRC), UWA, ‘Take Me to the River’ has attracted national interest. The research aims to provide the people of Perth with a historical record of the ideas around Perth Water by exhuming old schemes and changing ideas of what Perth is, was, and could become.
Led by Peter Veth, Professor of Archaeology, the UWA team (the first to be granted permission to conduct a long-term heritage research project on Barrow Island) set out to establish how Australia was settled by Aboriginal people and what life was like. Celebrated amongst their findings was some of the earliest evidence of Aboriginal occupation of Australia (dating to approximately 50,000 years ago) anunique climatic records of Northern Australia and the discovery of some of the earliest human use of maritime resources east of Wallacea.