Too often in modern business, the way to keep staff happy is lost along the road to workplace efficiency, profit and corporate image.  When you have to actively try to make your staff happy, or like to tell everyone what a great work environment, (or some other such management term for it), you provide, then you have probably missed the point and are likely tolerated by your staff at best, loathed at worst.

Having now seen a few of our industries consultancies from the inside and been told about many others, it is clear where I plan to work from now on and where I will recommend young and aspiring students to work as well.  Recent conversations with some in the industry, have only highlighted the danger of getting lulled by the big talk and working for the wrong company.

So, in the end, I am glad there is another consultancy in our area where the environment is casual but professional, work is enjoyable and the staff are happy.  The more of that type of environment that can be fostered, the more up and coming students will find work environments that will help them to excel and not to become jaded and disappointed with their career choice.

Mapping within modern Cultural Heritage Management (CHM) is often reduced to a Google Earth image with a dot or two, with the result exported into MS Paint and scrawled over.  This slap dash methodology will often leave a client, or non-CHM trained reader, wondering what they are looking at and what it all means.  This problem of ‘near enough is good enough’ is made worse by trying to put more information than is necessary on the map or using colour combinations that would make a clown’s head spin.

What many CHM practitioners do not realise is that it is important to make maps as clear and concise as possible, as well as ensuring that the labelling on the map is well placed and easily readable.  As a case in point, the maps in the report mentioned above were a clutter of competing and similar bright colours, with each route difficult to pick out of the mess.

If the practitioner who made the maps had used a better colour palette things may have been easier.  Additionally, the Google underlay never helps, so clearing that out and using the road and cadastral layers would have made things clearer still.

This leads to me second point, in that you can never have too many maps.  The best course would have been for different coloured lines on the Google map (if they were that attached to the thing), or on a cleaner base map, followed by five clean base maps, each with its own route clearly shown.

Basically, what this all boils down to is that too few CHM practitioners in this country really know what the are doing when it comes to displaying spatial data for clients who are unfamiliar with heritage.  If new graduates want to impress prospective employees, they need to ensure they can not only operate GIS software, but also understand the basics of cartography.  Even more important is that the current crop of leading practitioners also learn these basics, as many of the worst offenders are in their ranks. Yes, updating technical skills takes time and money, but it is vital for all heritage practices to stay up-to-date with technology.

The proliferation of highly effective freeware GIS applications, with easy to follow tutorials (many on YouTube) means that there really is no excuse anymore for not accurately and clearly displaying heritage data for your clients.  Wikipedia provide a good analysis of various Freeware GIS platforms here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_GIS_software.

There is absolutely nothing to be gained by flogging your staff in pursuit of the almighty $, because as the report and study show, you get more by pushing less.  However, from what we hear about the industry from contacts, many companies in our line of work are rushing to grab as much of the mining boom as possible.

This is all good and well for the owners of such businesses, who see the profit at the end of the day, but the staff who have to work such hideous hours are left burnt out and often not much better paid than they would have been in a less demanding job.  Trust us on that last one, as we pay as well as the sweat shops but don’t try and crush our staff.

Additionally, the mining industry is not noted for its positive attitute to heritage and those undertaking this highly paid work will need to examine their motives and concious if they ever want to have credibility in the industry in future.

So what is the moral? Don’t over work the staff, limit them to a 40 hour week MAXIMUM, don’t let them take work home and if they are in the field for a week straight, give them some recovery time.  Also, Directors and Managers, PLAN YOUR WORK BETTER and hire more people, it’s your fault that there is too much work that is all falling behind, not your overworkd staffs’ fault!  Give clients realistic time frames and stand up to them when they want you to rush.  Put your staffs’ needs in front of your own and you will find that you get a hell of allot more out of them than you otherwise would by flogging them.

We now have a permanent one day/week position in our office (which is located in Ocean Shores). This is for someone to provide essential administration support and to take care of all our bookkeeping.  As you can probably tell from our website, we have a relaxed and unstructured work environment – so if ‘forms to fill in forms’ and obsessive compulsive procedures are your cup of tea, then you probably won’t like working with us!

We would like someone with experience in administration support (i.e. you don’t feel that doing administration is beneath you) and preferably experience with MYOB, bank reconciliations, BAS lodgment and cash flow management.  It would also help if you have a good sense of humour!

If you are interested, please email a resume to: info@ainsworthheritage.com.au

This is worse than outright lying, as it takes underhandedness to a whole new level.  You see it in everyday life. We all encounter it and know of it by its colloquial name: Half Truth.  Very well used by politicians.

Half Truths are more dangerous, and far more insidious, than lies and are something that historians are constantly confronted with.  It is probably why most have little time for politicians.  Historians are trained to recognise these little monsters and account for them in their analysis, whilst trying to avoid creating their own half truths.  At least the reputable ones do.

And that raises any interesting ethical question for those in Cultural Heritage:  how do we avoid creating half truths, when time constraints, budgets and limited human resources force us to pick and choose from historical fact when compiling a report and undertaking significance assessments?

No client wants, or would pay for or provide the time to write a sixteen volume history for each project you undertake.  It would be nice, but it will never happen.  So, when confronted with this situation, how do we choose which historical facts and information to include, and which to leave out?

A basic approach is to allow facts to be left out only if, by including them, the story and outcomes remain the same.  In such a scenario, including them would merely be sugar coating.  However if the facts, when left out, create a completely different scenario, situation, history or basis for analysis, to leave them out is completely unethical and one-sided.

This leaves you with two options.  The first is to include all the facts that are relevant and necessary, doing the right thing and ensuring that the following analysis will be based upon the best possible information.  The other is to omit that which does not suit your preconceived notion or planned result, and then base your analysis and results on the inaccurate data.  We would like to see the former used in all aspects of our industry, but unfortunately, it does not always happen.  It is up to us all, as professionals, to ensure that we speak up when we see such action and to ensure our own work always includes the relevant information to ensure the best decision is made.

The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution – Richard Dawkins

This book opens by telling us that 40% of the American public, and a frightening and growing number of misguided people in the UK, believe in Creation “science” and that the world was made 6000 years ago.  This would be hysterically funny if it was not true.  These are the same nutters who want to make the world in their image.  Richard Dawkins, a biologist by trade, is terrified by the thought that people still deny evolution as a scientific fact.  He has endeavoured to ensure that all of evidence for evolution is set out in one clear volume, which anyone can pick up and understand.  His style is light and enjoyable and the book puts to shame anyone who thinks Dinosaurs walked with man in the recent past.  Books like this should be required reading for those in science classes. If people want to learn about the religious views of the world’s formation, they should join a theology class.  This book is an insightful and thoroughly interesting read and makes you thankful to live in a country where evolution is taught in science classes and mythology is left to the theologians.

Office Wit & Wisdom – Tracey Turner

This is an often hysterical analysis of life in the office environment, described in this book as “unmitigatedly ghastly”.  It is a clever and funny book which takes joy in completely pulling and putting down the bastion of modern society: the modern office.  From creating a CV and being interviewed for a job, right through to office politics, the meaningless nature of job titles, open plan office hell, IT departments and a handy ID guide to ‘Office Types’, if you have ever worked in an office, this is bound to make you chuckle, groan and nod in agreement.  A lighthearted book that will bring hours of amusement in the office (and may also be a good and pointed present for your boss next Christmas!).

Eats, Shoots and Leaves, The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation – Lynne Truss

Though this is another amusing book, written in a clever and witty manner by possibly the most anal person on the planet, it is also actually a very useful book if you struggle with common grammar.  Most of Gen X and some of Gen Y went through the Australian school system when the government, in all of its wisdom, decided to take grammar out of the school curriculum due to the misguided belief that kids would just pick it up as they went (yes, whilst they just pick up a second language and a trade skill along the way too!).  Unfortunately, these same kids are now near-constant proof that that belief was wrong; there is an entire generation of adults still struggling to know when to use an apostrophe, the difference between a colon and s a semi-colon and what a verb even is (this gets even more confused when ridiculous modern management terms such as “chunk it down” are introduced.  You can’t ‘chunk’ something down!  Chunk is not a verb, you can’t do “chunk”).  So, into the realm of dry, over processed and way too lengthy grammar how-to books comes this gem – a funny, easy to read and, most importantly, easy to understand and apply book about modern grammar.  If they made this a textbook at schools, I’m sure literacy rates would multiple – it has become an office bible!

Bismarck – Edward Crankshaw

This one was a little harder going, it does not flow like the two books mentioned above, but nevertheless, provides a detailed picture of the life and motivations of the man who helped shape late nineteenth century Europe.  If you’re a novice in history, this one will be a struggle, but if, like me, it is a period that you have not delved into before, this is good place to start your education about this awesome political animal.  This book, and I suppose any work describing Bismarck’s life, is as good an education in successful politics as would be a study of Caesar or Churchill.

The Liberators: Inside the Soviet Army – Victor Suvorov

and Inside the Soviet Army – Victor Suvorov

Victor Suvorov (that’s not his real name) defected from the Soviet Union in the late 1970s and began to write about his former home and occupation.  His two books on the Soviet Army, that deal with everything to the reasons for the military districts to the way a cadet is called up, are startling.  Many of us remember the image of the Soviets during the Cold War, however, what we did not truly appreciate at the time was the horrid reality for those on the other side of the Inner German Border.  Suvorov’s books are rough and ready, no literary master works, but they present a detailed picture of the hard, strange and ever depressing life of the Soviet Soldier.  The books also show the madness of the Soviet system at its height, with some chapters leaving you wondering how the hell this super state survived for as long as it did.

The Cold War: A Military History – David Miller

I am a bit of a Cold War buff; I have really got into studying it, especially the military side of it and that is why this book, I believe, is one of the best starting points for someone seeking to learn about this interesting period.  David Miller presents his book as a primer on the military situation and development of this period of world history and he does a good job.  He presents what can be very detailed and confusing topics (trust me, some are when you get into the detail) and presents them in a clear and brief fashion that allows the novice to understand the basic themes and influences of this major period or our recent past.  Additionally, this book provides you with the ability to move on into more detailed areas that interested you, whilst not being overwhelmed by the myriad points of view that exist.  If you ever want to learn about the military history of the Cold War, this is the place to start.

The Greatest Lies in History – Alexander Canduci

Following along with the swathe of other books that are sample bags of history, as the one mentioned above, and many others that are about now, this one looks not so much at the event, but more so how each was manipulated to suit the needs of a particular group of people.  Canduci starts with the Battle of Kadesh, that masterpiece of Egyptian spin that Ramses nearly got away with and then moves forwards in time.  Canduci breaks his book into Spin and Doublespeak, Passing the Buck, Official Lies and Cover Ups and Acting Under False Pretensions.  Within each of these four areas he examines examples from ancient time until today.  The worst thing about this book is that the common man has learnt nothing in five millennia.  We still believe what we are told and the vast majority are just happy to believe what they are told without any evidence and not question, a point that the next book is desperate to stop.

We have a lot of people who use this site who are not heritage consultants or history buffs, but who do have an interest; and they just don’t know where to start.  We thought that we might list a few of the books we have read lately and tell you a little about them.  Some were good, some were average and some were absolutely fantastic.  This is Part I of what will probably be a many part series!

It Doesn’t Take A Hero – General H. Norman. Schwarzkopf

I found this little gem in a second hand bookstore in Byron Bay.  General Schwarzkopf’s autobiography is a well laid out and interesting story about a man who rose to the top of his profession whilst gaining the respect of his peers.  This is in no way a dry military history or whining self justification, it is a matter of fact story that takes you from his days as a boy in the Middle East, through West Point, Vietnam, the Cold War and Operation Desert Storm. The book allows readers that are unfamiliar with the military to come to a clear understanding of why someone would join the Army and what would drive and motivate them throughout their life there.  For those who do like military history, this is a book that is critical to the understanding of the Coalition campaign in the Gulf in 1991, providing the reasoning behind the actions and plans that led to one of the most successful military campaigns in history.

Castles of Steel – Robert. K. Massie

I like reading military history, as this list will show, but occasionally you find a book that truly makes the era it described come to life.  Castles of Steel is one of those very rare books that you just keep reading until you fall asleep sitting up with a crink in your neck.  The follow on to his book Dreadnaught, which described the naval arms race prior to World War I, Castles of Steel provides an in depth picture of the personalities, powers and machines that influenced the naval actions of World War I.  But that is not the strength of the book; Massie writes in a ways that is more akin to a good fiction story, never dull and always building to a climax.  Additionally, Massie is able to boil down the always complex people, actions and ships to the most simple descriptions that still maintain the critical elements that defined them.  This means that both an expert on the time, and a novice with no idea, can both experience the full benefit of this excellent history.

The Trafalgar Companion – Mark Adkin

A lot of histories are called comprehensive.  This one sets the bar.  There is comprehensive text or comprehensive illustration, rarely both.  This tome, and it is a tome, is one of the most remarkable books I have ever had the pleasure to stumble across.  Commissioned for the 200^th Anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar, it examines in intricate detail every facet of naval technology, organisation, construction and multiple other areas in a way that makes this a reference book for many subjects.  Additionally, the life of Lord Nelson and several other battles, including the methods for fighting them, are included.  No expense was spared in the production of this book and it shows, as I have never come across such an amazing work of both history and art.  One thing this book does do is make me want to get my hands on the Waterloo Companion.

Encyclopaedia Idiotica: History’s Worst Decisions and the People Who Made Them – Stephen Weir

This is one of the best historical snippet books I have ever read.  Weir takes some of the most outrageous and appalling events in history and examines which of the seven deadly sins or three cardinal virtues motivated the proponents and led them, and many innocent people, to ruin.  This is a serious book that in no way takes itself seriously – something that adds to its impact.  Weir starts with Adam and Eve, passes through Rome and a few other places along the way, gets stuck into Winston Churchill and finishes with corporate greed.  This is a very well thought out and presented book that, despite often having a light and tongue in cheek tone, is a book that make you think very deeply on the motivations of those who have the power and circumstance to change history and the fates of many.

Most of this last group work in Heritage and Archaeology.  Long days in the sun, being cooped up in confined spaces and staring at the detritus of human existence has an odd effect on people.  There are two recognised ways of dealing with this.

Go completely nuts and have yourself committed.

Or

Go completely nuts and develop a speciality.

Every single one of us in this industry has a speciality.  Of course we stir others for theirs, calling them odd, strange and crazy and try not to giggle when they launch into a description of a strange detail, so specific that it makes your eyeballs itch.  But then you do it yourself and you get laughed out of town too.

But these specialities are what make heritage consultants interesting people, at least to the other inmates of our profession.  My esteemed, learned and completel insane colleague has a rare and untreatable disorder involving a love of nails (rusty if possible), fences (preferably derelict) and heavy machinery, the last of which really unsettles a lot of males who think pretty young women have no idea about that sort of thing.

My own specialities range to being able to identify aircraft and ships from World War I to the present at a glance; funnily enough, something that actually came in useful once or twice recently.  Because as you will see, the defining characteristic of the Mk VIII Spitfire, which incidentally was the first mass produced version to see service with the RAAF…you get the point!

You can also stop laughing now.

It is these specialities that define us, much as we don’t want them to.  You hear comments like “You know that nail girl? Ask her,” or “Go see that Cannon guy, what’s his name?” or if “you need to know something about historic bricks, then see that guy.”  These are titles that established heritage professionals will carry to the grave, even if everyone else thinks that knowing all about minute fishbones would cure insomnia.

But if you ever become known as That Brick Guy or The Ceramics Girl, you will know that you have reached the top of your profession.  People are now recognising you as the authority on the topic and the person with the expertise on certain subjects.  And that’s kind of cool.  I hope that one day I become That Guy in some obscure and strange speciality.  It might make non-heritage people a little less likely to run when they meet me.  Or not.

So embrace your Inner Weird, wear it on your sleeve and enjoy the fact that your inner weird is what makes you a good consultant and a future respected and knowledgeable specialist of our industry.

Some are in it for the money…excuse me for one minute whilst I go and get my soap box out…there, that should do nicely.  Some are in it for the money and the money alone.  There is a little problem with that; money corrupts and lots of money corrupts absolutely, to mangle the proverb.  We all need to eat and pay the bills but we should try not to lay off the staff when profit drops below 30%.  But we need to remember that we work in an industry that was founded on principle and ideals; large sweaty wads of cash tend erode principles and ideals faster than beer erodes my ability to dance well.  When profit motives begin to drive you in this industry, its time to do one of two things: Either reappraise the way you conduct your operations or join a merchant bank.  Think of it this way, is the fancy car in the driveway and the expensive city shoes, that incidentally get you absolutely no street cred with the locals when you rock up wearing them, worth the heritage site that you recommended be destroyed or the dozen Aboriginal Heritage sites that will be annihilated for an extra 1% increase in a massive mines extraction area.  S’pose it’s best not to look in the mirror at that stage, you won’t like what you see.

So if it is best not to do it not for the money and the money alone, as I wonder how the hell I’m going to afford children, is it the travel to all those exotic places?  According to the job advertisements “…if you like travel to interesting places…” be a heritage Consultant. Nothing against Queensland here, but the Sunshine Coast in neither exotic, or a pleasant place to be when hordes of unthinking tourists descend upon it.  Nor is any place that you are in and out of so quickly that all you get to see is the site you are working on and the inside of a motel room – they all look the same anyway.  Then there are the modern developments being put in place, (usually called Something Park, Something Waters or Something Heritage Estate), that have turned the once beautiful Australian coastal strip from Queensland through NSW to Victoria, into a nightmare conglomeration of kit homes and K-marts.  Many of these estates are called picturesque and beautiful.  That’s about as truthful as calling Adolf Hitler accommodating and tolerant.  Which is not to say they are all unmitigated disasters, some are done very well and look to incorporate the existing environment and Heritage into their design. But, according to Global Warming, those foolish men who build their houses on coastal sand dunes are in for one hell nasty wake up call.

But it’s not just Queensland, the same thing is in full swing here on the Far North Coast of NSW and also in Victoria and anywhere else you choose to go in Australia.  So if it’s not for the travel to exotic mine pits, scorched earth kit home developments and scenic water pipelines routes through the urban sprawl that drags us in, what are we doing this for?

Ah that’s it, it must be the ongoing success of the Heritage Industry at the highest level to lobby government to ensure that our Cultural Heritage legacy is properly protected and managed for future generations.  Hold on…I have just been informed by my knowledgeable and esteemed colleague that the heritage industry is currently fighting a bloody battle of stand and deliver against an extremely well funded development lobby that considers us akin to the Mafia.  Not that we all don’t try, it just seems that we have been less successful against the State Governments of late and the Federal Government does not want to get Federal.  That’s why dedicated people in the industry, who possess a vision for a real attempt to put Heritage back on top of the various Minister’s work piles, should be supported by all Heritage and Archaeological consultants.

So, in the end I think we do it, more I hope we do it, for that little buzz you get when you know you have done something properly, something that protects the history and legacy of this country so that in the future, others will be able to appreciate it as well.  We may not have created the history, but we are the custodians responsible for ensuring its survival and transmission, so that the real truth of our history is available to our successors.

There is nothing quite as satisfying as having turned your abilities to assisting someone in protecting and preserving their heritage, whether it is a grand old mansion or a small rock shelter in the depths of the Australian bush.  Have you gotten paid for it? Usually yes, but the best feelings come from your own advocacy and your own free time given freely.  Did you travel to an exotic place? Probably not, but you might get lucky now and then.  Did you make a change at the top? Unlikely, but you might just get a chance to be a voice in a campaign or project that does, never pass up that chance.  Did you get that buzz at the end?  Almost certainly, especially if you remembered to bring your ethics and principles along.  And that is what we need to be instilling in the next generation of consultants and archaeologists.

Matt Alexander