Humanities at UNE

MEET AWARD-WINNING AUSTRALIAN CRIME FICTION AUTHOR SHELLEY BURR!

🎤 Tune in for a conversation with award-winning author Shelley Burr alongside Lili Pâquet (Senior Lecturer in Writing) and Natalia Tobin (Lecturer in English).

In this FREE webinar, they will discuss the road to becoming a published author, the writing process and how Shelley manages her career commitments with study (she's a UNE Agriculture student).

🔗 Register for the Zoom webinar at the l8nk in comments.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar. ALL WELCOME!!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Shelley Burr grew up on Newcastle's beaches and her grandparents' property in Glenrowan, and on the road between the two. When not writing, Shelley is working to establish a small permaculture farm and is studying sustainable agriculture at the University of New England.

Her debut novel, WAKE, was a Top Five bestseller, won the prestigious UK Crime Writers' Association's Debut Dagger Award in 2019, and the Australian Book Industry's Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year and the Australian Crime Writers Association's Ned Kelly Award for Best Debut Crime Fiction in 2023. WAKE was also shortlisted for the Indie Book Awards Debut Fiction Award.

Her second novel, RIPPER, went straight to Number One on the Australian Fiction Bestseller list and was shortlisted for both the Sydney Crime Writers Festival's Danger Award for Fiction and the Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Fiction in 2024.

VANISH is Shelley's third book in the Lane Holland series and can be enjoyed as a standalone novel.

UNE's History and Archaeology team and the Port Macquarie & Districts Family History Society investigate one of Australia's earliest convict-era burial grounds…

It’s a hugely historically significant heritage listed site – but most of Port Macquarie’s early convict burial ground, the Allman Hill First Burial Ground, is lost beneath the surface.

Established in 1822 during the earliest years of the Port Macquarie convict settlement, the site is said to contain at least 28 burials, although local historians such as Clive Smith, Honorary Archivist at the Port Macquarie Historical Society, suspect it may hold many more.

“Many of the people buried here left only the faintest trace in the historical record’, Mr Smith says. ‘These were convicts and soldiers, wives and children who were part of a remarkable and very difficult history. Their stories remain largely hidden after two centuries.

“We'll take every opportunity to learn more about this site.”

Helping to surface the stories, UNE’s Professor Martin Gibbs and Professor David Roberts from the UNE History and Archaeology Team recently held a workshop at the site, training local participants in how archaeological surveys are designed and how specialist equipment is operated in the field.

The workshop included hands-on experience with ground penetrating radar and resistance survey equipment, which allow archaeologists to investigate sensitive heritage sites without the disturbance of excavation.

“The community was seeking new historical evidence that simply isn't available in written archives, without disturbing the integrity of that site,” Professor Gibbs said.

Work to analyse the data from the event is ongoing.

“We didn’t hit the jackpot of a distinct line of graves, as yet,” says Professor Gibbs. “But early results show some evidence of activity such as cuts at the right depth, especially along the western side of the cemetery block. Those anomalies may represent archaeological features and will help guide the next stage of our investigation.”

Professor Andrew Roberts said the community interest and involvement exceeded their expectations.

“The enthusiasm of the community was incredible,” he said. "We had so many people turning up, including people just walking past who jumped in to get involved.”



Port Macquarie Museum Port Macquarie Hastings Council

A $1.5 million research project will produce Australia’s first comprehensive history of cancer, with University of New England, AU research to provide critical insights into the role of alcohol.

The five-year project awarded funding by the Australian Research Council in May 2026, and led by the University of Melbourne, will trace the changes over the last century in the understanding of cancer and its causes, funding support, policy priorities, education campaigns, and societal beliefs, expectations and lived experience of the disease.

The researchers say that with the benefit of hindsight, seeing what has been done to understand cancer and improve outcomes can help inform what can be done in future, with the advances in technology, medical practice, and changes in society.

Dr Matthew Allen will be a contributing researcher from UNE, with a special interest and expertise into the history of alcohol in Australia. He says the backstory and influence of alcohol in Australia is an important part of the overall story of cancer in Australia.

“Cancer was once seen as a scourge that was a solvable problem – that once we understood more about it, we’d be able to fix it. There was real optimism after World War I that the cure would be found. But 100 years later, we see that has not been the case,” Dr Allen says.

“Cancers remain a complex medical problem, now experienced by 50 per cent of the population in their lifetime, with many causes and contributing factors. The way those factors are understood, prioritised and addressed change with societal views, values and the political power and will at each moment in time.”

Overall, the historical study of cancer should help inform and empower people and societies.

“The research should highlight that we actually have choices about the way cancer is funded and managed as a society and as individuals,” Dr Allen says.

The Australian Cancer Journey in Historical Perspective, 1925-2025 is led by Professor Andrew May (The University of Melbourne) with 19 investigators from 18 organisations, including 6 universities and state and federal cancer councils as partner organisations.

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Historical image in main picture: illustrative image of a 'drunkard's liver' from an early twentieth-century text that drew connections between alcohol and cancers of the liver. Source: 'Drunkard's Liver' in: Sir Victor Horsley and Mary D. Sturge, Alcohol and the Human Body …, (Macmillan & Co.: London, 1908), Plate XIII.

Join the UNE Vocal Ensemble, String Quartet or Brass Quartet as rehearsals begin for the Winter Concert!

All rehearsals are one hour each week:

🎶 Vocal Ensemble: Tuesdays 6pm

🎻 String Quartet: Thursdays 6pm

🎺 Brass Quartet: Fridays 6pm

Woodwind players also encouraged to register your interest!

❄️ Winter concert: Wednesday 5 August, 6pm, Austin Page College.

Participation is free of charge for UNE students. Membership closes 22 July.

Register at the link in comments 👇

Contact: [email protected]