Ian D. Clark (born 1958) is an academic historian and

Toponymist Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...

whose primary work has focused on

Victorian Aboriginal Aboriginal Victorians, the Aboriginal Australians of Victoria, Australia, occupied the land for tens of thousands of years prior to European settlement. Aboriginal people have lived a semi-nomadic existence of fishing, hunting and gathering, a ...

history, aboriginal toponymy and the frontier conflict between

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

and immigrant settlers during the European settlement of Victoria, Australia.

Education and career

Studied Bachelor of Theology at the

Melbourne College of Divinity The University of Divinity is an Australian collegiate university of specialisation in divinity. It is constituted by eleven theological colleges from eight denominations. The University of Divinity is the direct successor of the second oldest ...

, then a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) and Diploma of Education at

Monash University Monash University () is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Named for prominent World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. The university has a ...

. He completed his PhD in western Victorian Aboriginal historical geography at Monash University in 1992. His academic posts have included working as a tutor / lecturer in geography, lecturer in tourism at

, and as a research fellow in history from 1993–1995 at the

Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), established as the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (AIAS) in 1964, is an independent Australian Government statutory authority. It is a collecting, ...

. Since 2000 he has worked in the School of Business at the

University of Ballarat The University of Ballarat, Australia was a dual-sector university with multiple campuses in Victoria, Australia, including its main Ballarat campus, Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide that were authorized by the university to provide diploma, unde ...

first as a senior lecturer in Tourism and now occupies the position of Professor in Tourism.University of Ballarat School of Business
Prof Ian Clark
'' Staff Profile. Accessed 21 July 2012 He has worked extensively in the Victorian tourism industry with a focus on developing indigenous tourism material and facilities. For a time he was the manager of the Brambuk Aboriginal Cultural Centre in

Halls Gap Halls Gap is a town in Victoria, Australia. It is located on Grampians Road, adjacent to the Grampians National Park, in the Shire of Northern Grampians local government area. The town is set in the Fyans Valley at the foot of the Wonderland an ...

Gariwerd The Grampians National Park commonly referred to as The Grampians, is a national park located in the Grampians region of Victoria, Australia. The Jardwadjali name for the mountain range itself is Gariwerd. The national park is situated betwe ...

. He has also worked as senior researcher in the Koori Tourism Unit of the former Victorian Tourism Commission from 1989–1991. In 2005 he was chair of the Victorian State Committee of the Australian National Placenames Survey.

Historical research

He has written extensively on Victorian Aboriginal history including editing the journals of

George Augustus Robinson George Augustus Robinson (22 March 1791 – 18 October 1866) was a British-born colonial official and self-trained preacher in colonial Australia. In 1824, Robinson travelled to Hobart, Van Diemen’s Land, where he attempted to negotiate ...

. He worked with The ''

Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages Aboriginal Victorians, the Aboriginal Australians of Victoria, Australia, occupied the land for tens of thousands of years prior to European settlement. Aboriginal people have lived a semi-nomadic existence of fishing, hunting and gathering, a ...

'' and in 2002 published the ''Dictionary of Aboriginal Placenames of Victoria'' and several related regional placename publications. He was one of the organisers of the second ''Trends in

Toponymy Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...

'' conference in Ballarat in 2007, and is researching a book on Aboriginal toponymy for the ANU E-Press series. Other important published research includes work on massacre sites in Western Victoria in the 1995 publication ''Scars in the landscape : a register of massacre sites in Western Victoria 1803–1859''. The interaction between the

Wurundjeri The Wurundjeri people are an Australian Aboriginal people of the Woiwurrung language group, in the Kulin nation. They are the Traditional Owners of the Birrarung (Yarra River) Valley, covering much of the present location of Narrm (Melbourne ...

people and the early settlement of

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

was told in the 2004 book – ''A bend in the Yarra : a history of the

Merri Creek The Merri Creek is a waterway in southern parts of Victoria, Australia, which flows through the northern suburbs of Northcote. It begins near Wallan north of Melbourne and flows south for 70 km until it joins the Yarra River at Dights Fa ...

Protectorate Station and Merri Creek Aboriginal School 1841–1851'', which Clark co-authored with Toby Heydon. Clark has also written on the Aboriginal presence on the Ballarat goldfields in the 1850s noting that while there is no evidence for any direct involvement of Aboriginal people in the events of the

Eureka Rebellion The Eureka Rebellion was a series of events involving gold miners who revolted against the British administration of the colony of Victoria, Australia during the Victorian gold rush. It culminated in the Battle of the Eureka Stockade, which ...

in 1854, aboriginal people may be relevant to the Eureka story through the event taking place on

Wathaurong The Wathaurong nation, also called the Wathaurung, Wadawurrung and Wadda Wurrung, are an Aboriginal Australian people living in the area near Melbourne, Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula in the state of Victoria. They are part of the Kulin all ...

aboriginal land. The early policing of the Goldfield was done by the

Native Police Corps Australian native police units, consisting of Aboriginal troopers under the command (usually) of at least one white officer, existed in various forms in all Australian mainland colonies during the nineteenth and, in some cases, into the twentie ...

, and oral history that Aboriginal people looked after some of the children of the Eureka miners after the military storming of the Eureka Stockade and subsequent massacre of miners.

Major works

* ''Scars in the landscape : a register of massacre sites in Western Victoria 1803–1859'' (1995), AIATSIS, * ''A bend in the Yarra : a history of the

Protectorate Station and Merri Creek Aboriginal School 1841–1851'' / Ian D. Clark and Toby Heydon.

Aboriginal Studies Press The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), established as the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (AIAS) in 1964, is an independent Australian Government statutory authority. It is a collecting, ...

, 2004. * ''The Port Phillip journals of George Augustus Robinson : 8 March – 7 April 1842 and 18 March – 29 April 1843'' / edited and with an introduction by Ian D. Clark. Robinson, George Augustus, 1791–1866. Published Melbourne: Department of Geography, Monash University, 1988. * ''Sharing history : a sense for all Australians of a shared ownership of their history'',

Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation Reconciliation in Australia is a process which officially began in 1991, focused on the improvement of race relations between the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia and the rest of the population. The Council for Aboriginal ...

. Published: Canberra :

Australian Government Publishing Service The Australian Government Publishing Service (AGPS) was an Australian Government publishing service that operated from 1970 to 1997 and was the sole centralised Australian Government publishing and printing service. It also had retail outlets for ...

, c1994.
Online version
* ''Dictionary of Aboriginal placenames of Victoria'' / Ian D. Clark, Toby Heydon. Published: Melbourne :

, 2002. * ''The journals of

, chief protector, Port Phillip Aboriginal Protectorate'' / Ian D. Clark, editor 2nd edition Published: Melbourne, Vic. : Heritage Matters, 2000. * ''The Yalukit-willam : the first people of the City of Hobsons Bay'', Published:

Hobsons Bay City Council The City of Hobsons Bay is a local government area in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It comprises the south-western suburbs between 6 and 20 km from the Melbourne city centre. It was founded on 22 June 1994 during the amalgamation of l ...

, 2001. * ''Aboriginal languages and clans : an historical atlas of western and central Victoria, 1800–1900'', Published: Melbourne, Vic. : Dept. of Geography and Environmental Science, Monash University, c1990. * ''Place names and land tenure : windows into Aboriginal landscapes : essays in Victorian Aboriginal history'' / Ian D. Clark. Published: Ballarat, Vic.,

Ballarat Heritage Services Ballarat Heritage Services, also known as BHS Publishing, is an Australian publisher in Ballarat, Victoria. It was founded in 1998 by Clare Gervasoni, Dorothy Wickham and Wayne Phillipson, to promote Victorian local and family history in historical ...

, c2003. Note: this is a list of major published writings, not a full list of research or publications.For a full list of academic research by Ian D. Clark see Centre for Regional Innovation and Competitiveness,
Research Output of Dr Ian Clark
'', Accessed 1 November 2011

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, Ian D. 1958 births Australian historians Living people History of Indigenous Australians Historians of Australia Toponymists