Dr Shane Burke

Biography

Shane Burke specialises in the archaeology and history of the recent past, concentrating particularly on the material evidence of the early British settlement of Western Australia and how the British adapted to the new physical and cultural environment. He received his PhD from the University of Western Australia and has worked at the University of Notre Dame since 2007.

Teaching areas

Shane Burke teaches core and specialised archaeology units.

AY102 Introduction to Archaeology
AY103 Reading the Past: Interpretation from Archaeology
AY301 Ships and Harbours – Maritime Archaeology
AY302 Archaeology of Indigenous Australia
AY303 The History and Archaeology of Western Australia
AY304 Archaeological Field Methods

Research expertise and supervision

Shane Burke has developed an archaeology program at the University of Notre Dame concentrating on early Western Australian British settlement. Since 2007, he and his team have been excavating and analysing Peel town, the best preserved early colonial site in Western Australia. The site was occupied in 1829/1830 by 500 colonists. He also supervises research by a core of post-graduate students examining the 1830 dated Meares family camp at Henderson and the Garden Island site of Sulphur town dated to 1829.

Shane Burke also has interests in the following topics:

Western Australian colonial period archaeology and history 1829 to 1890;
The archaeology of Western Australian settler adaptation to new environments, using sites at Peel town (Clarence), Meares' camp, Garden Island and the Swan Valley;
Lower south west Western Australia early timber milling technology and lifeways of those involved using sites from the 1880s Davies Timber Company, Augusta;
Technology in early Western Australia mining, using sites from the Northampton area dated to the 1850s;
Constructing palaeovegetation and palaeoenvironments by archaeological charcoal;
Patterns of human behavior in Australia's lower south west during the Pleistocene/Holocene (c.10,000 years BP) boundary;
Developing innovative undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in archaeology.

Book chapters

Taaffe, Erin and Shane Burke 2016, The archaeology at Blackboy Hill and its possible relationship with the Anzac legend. In Daniel Baldino and Mike Brennan (eds) 1915: Australians at War and on the Home Front. Royal United Services Institute of WA, Perth

Journal articles and proceedings

Tomlinson, Lauren G., and Shane Burke 2021 The Archaeology of Resilience: A Case study from Peel town, Western Australia, 1829-1830. The International Journal of Historical Archaeology, Vol. 26 (2): 32-42
Burke, S. 2020 ‘Convicts’ in the Swan District: The First Public Works Projects in the Colony of Western Australia, 1850–51. In Jenny Gregory and Louis Marshall (eds), The Carceral Colony: Studies in Western Australian History, Vol. 34
Sims, Carly, and Shane Burke 2018 Hooper's fence: Fanny's revenge. The Architect, Summer: 36-39
Burke, S., 2017, The use of surveyors' field notes in historical archaeology research. 'Australasian Historical Archaeology', 35 pp. 54-63
Burke, S., 2017, “Should We Have Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata...or a Hot Dinner?” Resource Stress as an Alternative to the Abandonment of Peel Town, Swan River Colony,1829–1830. 'Historical Archaeology' 51 pp. 23-45
Burke, S., 2016, A Culture for All: Servant class behaviour at the Swan River in the context of the British Empire. In Deborah Gare and Shane Burke (eds) ‘Fremantle: Empire, Faith and Conflict since 1829’, Studies in Western Australian History 31 pp. 25-40
Gare, Deborah and Shane Burke (eds) 2016, ‘Fremantle: Empire, Faith and Conflict since 1829’, Studies in Western Australian History 31
Gare, Deborah and Shane Burke 2016, Introduction. In Deborah Gare and Shane Burke (eds) ‘Fremantle: Empire, Faith and Conflict since 1829’, Studies in Western Australian History 31 pp. 1-6
Burke, S., 2015, On the Sporting Field: Tom Stannage and Australian Rules Football. In Deborah Gare and Jenny Gregory (eds) ‘Tom Stannage: History from the Other Side’, Studies in Western Australian History 29 pp. 43-49
Burke, S., P. Di Marco and S. Meath 2010, 'The land 'flow[ing] … with milk and honey': Cultural landscape changes at Peel town, Western Australia, 1829–1830. 'Australasian Historical Archaeology', 28 pp. 5-12
Burke, S., and P. Di Marco 2009, Western Australia's Lost Town, 'Living Heritage', 1 (4) p. 17
Burke, S. 2009, The history, heritage and architecture of the Swan Valley. In Gothard, J. (ed) 'Historical Encyclopaedia of Western Australia', University of Western Australia, Nedlands
Gibbs, M., Rodney Harrison, Shane Burke, Kathryn Przywolnik and Annette Sellers 2008, Engagements in the field: teaching field archaeology in the context of a community-driven research project. In McIntyre-Tamwoy, S. (ed) 'Engaging the Community'
Burke, S. 2007, The Archaeology of ‘Clarence’, A Settlers’ Camp from the 1829-30 Peel Association at Henderson. 'The Journal of the Royal Western Australian Historical Society' 13 (1): pp. 145-163
Burke, S. 2007, Fremantle's Hidden History'. Fremantle Studies: 'Journal of the Fremantle History Society' 5 pp. 23-33
Burke, S. 2007, Fences, furrows, ditches and settlement policy: rapid landscape change in the Swan River Colony. 'History Australia' 4 (1) pp. 3.1-3.15
Burke S. 2004, Innovation and adaptability: The European Archaeology of the Swan Valley. 'The Journal of the Royal Western Australian Historical Society' 12 (4): pp. 359-372
Burke S. 2004, The feasibility of using charcoal from Devil's Lair, south-west Australia, to access human responses to vegetation changes at the Late Pleistocene and Holocene boundary. 'Australian Archaeology' 59 pp. 62-63

Conference papers

2012 ‘...please request that they stop taking my timber…’: Resource stress and the failure of Peel town 1829-1830'. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Australasian Society for Historical Archaeology at Fremantle
2010 'A report on the on-going Peel town excavations, Henderson/Naval Base, Western Australia'. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Australasian Society for Historical Archaeology at Brisbane
2006 ‘Sitting here waiting for something to happen’: preliminary archaeological results of the December 1829 to June 1830 camp at Peel town, Henderson Western Australia'. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Australasian Society for Historical Archaeology at Darwin

In the media

Newly found 200-year-old documents detail life in Western Australia's first European settlement. ABC News 7 April 2021
Grounded in History. The Fremantle Herald 27 November 2020
Looting our past. Sound Telegraph 15 May 2019
WA’s oldest building under park. Albany Advertiser 19 March 2019
Albany: archaeological find of Collet Barker’s quarters could rewrite WA history books. The West Australia 19 March 2019
Search for buried history. Albany Advertiser 6 February 2019
Little Britain. 'Secrets of our Cities' SBS TV 10th October, 2017
University of Notre Dame research could rewrite WA’s early colonial history. 'Fremantle Gazette' 25th September, 2017
Settlers' life of despair left Peel a ghost town. 'The West Australian' 18th September, 2017
Archaeologist to share Augusta dig details. 'The West Australian' Friday, 28 April, 2017
720 6WF 'Suburbs' segment, supplying the history of a Perth suburb. On-going.
'Historic tree in the Swan Valley added to state heritage list'. Community News 19/10/2015
'200-year-old boundary tree heritage-listed'. Media Statements, Minister for Environment and Heritage 15/10/2015
'Excavating at Peel town'. Channel Seven Perth nightly news 20/6/2015
'Looking Back'. Channel Two Perth nightly news 26/5/2008

Professional affiliations

Australian Archaeological Association
Australasian Society for Historical Archaeology
Historical Archaeology

Awards

Nominated in 2018 for the Margaret Medcalf Award for excellence in referencing and research for his journal paper titled ‘The use of surveyors' field notes in historical archaeology research’ published in 2017 in the journal Australasian Historical Archaeology.

Nominated in 2017 for the Margaret Medcalf Award for excellence in referencing and research for his journal paper titled 'A Culture for All: Servant class behaviour at the Swan River in the context of the British Empire'.

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