A multi-perspective environmental history of the Great Western Woodlands – and the Daintree Rainforest? Yep, its happening – and work has been underway for some months now. Gondwana Link is delighted to be supporting the delightful Alexandra Vlachos, visiting researcher from Switzerland’s Bern University, currently working with Professor Andrea Gaynor from University of WA. Alexandra is “focusing on alternative knowledge production and exchange, historical development of land management practices, storytelling, and narrative networks. The aim is to include human and non-human actors, indigenous, local, environmental, scientific and semi-scientific knowledge and data to draw a somehow “bigger picture”, but I have only just started, so let’s see where the journey takes me.” In 2019 Alexandra will be based with Australian National University working on comparisons between the Woodlands and Rainforest stories. Whoo Hoo!

For those in Perth, at 11am on Wednesday 17th October Alexandra is giving a talk on one important element of the Woodlands story “Helena-Aurora or Bungalbin Hill – an environmental history of naming, knowing and belonging”. It’s at UWA in the Philippa Maddern Seminar Room (Arts 1.33).