Mulvaney, Derek John (John) (1925 - 2016)

Summary

John Mulvaney was the first university-trained archaeologist to make Australia his field of study. He was acknowledged as a world-leader in the field of hunter-gatherer archaeology, specifically Australian prehistory. Mulvaney introduced Australian prehistory to the tertiary teaching curriculum, and changed the way archaeological fieldwork was practiced in Australia. He participated in landmark excavations including at Lake Mungo. For many years he was a Commissioner of the Australian Heritage Commission, involved in formulation of the Burra Charter, and was Australia's chief delegate at the UNESCO meeting held to determine criteria for world heritage listing. He served on the executive of a number of professional organisations, including the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. Since 2004 the Australian Archaeological Association has awarded the John Mulvaney Book Award.

Details

Chronology

1943 - 1946

Military service - Flight Officer, RAAF

1949 - 1951

Career position - Tutor, Department of History, University of Melbourne

1951

Education - Master of Arts (MA), University of Melbourne

1953

Education - Master of Arts (MA), University of Cambridge

1954 - 1958

Career position - Lecturer, Department of History, University of Melbourne

1959 - 1964

Career position - Senior Lecturer, Department of History, University of Melbourne

1961

Award - Nuffield Foundation Dominion Fellow

1963

Award - Royal Society of Victoria Medal for Excellence in Scientific Research

1964 - 1980

Career position - Member, Council, Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies

1965 - 1970

Career position - Senior Fellow, Faculty of Arts, Australian National University

1969 - 2016

Career position - Fellow, Australian Academy of the Humanities

1970

Education - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), University of Cambridge

1971 - 1985

Career position - Foundation Professor of Prehistory, Faculty of Arts, ANU

1972 - 1974

Career position - Council Member, Australian Humanities Academy

1974 - 1975

Career position - Member, Committee of Inquiry into Museums and National Collections

1976 - 1977

Career position - Commonwealth Visiting Fellow, University of Cambridge

1976 - 1982

Career position - Commissioner, Australian Heritage

1976 - 1982

Career position - Council, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders

1981 - 1983

Career position - Member, Interim Council, National Museum of Australia

1982

Award - Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) - for services to education

1982 - 1984

Career position - Chairman, Australian Institute Aboriginal Studies

1985

Career position - Visiting Professor in Australian Studies, Harvard University, Boston, U.S.A.

1985

Life event - Retired

1986 - 2016

Career position - Emeritus Professor, Australian National University

1988

Award - ANZAAS Medal, Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science

1989 - 1996

Career position - Secretary, Australian Academy of the Humanities

1991

Award - Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) - for service to prehistory and anthropology, particularly through the study of Aboriginal cultural heritage

1999

Award - Graham Clark Medal, British Academy

2001

Award - Centenary Medal - for service to the preservation of natural, cultural and indigenous heritage in Australia

2002 - 2016

Award - Life Member, Australian Archaeological Association

2004

Award - Rhys Jones Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Australian Archaeology, Australian Archaeological Association

2005

Award - Doctor of Letters (LittD), honoris causa, University of Melbourne

Related entries

Published resources

Books

• Griffiths, Billy, Deep time dreaming: uncovering ancient Australia (Carlton, Vic.: Black Inc., 2018), 376 pp. Details
• Mulvaney, D. J., Encounters in Place: Outsiders and Aboriginal Australians 1606 - 1985 (St Licia, Qldd: University of Queensland Press, 1989), 263 pp. Details
• Mulvaney, D. J., Prehistory and heritage: the writings of John Mulvaney (Canberra: Research School of Pacific Studies, the Australian National University, 1990), 326 pp. Details
• Mulvaney, D. J., Digging up a past (Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2011), 348 pp. Details
• Mulvaney, D. J.; and Calaby, J. H., So much that is new: Baldwin Spencer, 1860-1929 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1985), 492 pp. Details
• Mulvaney, Derek John, "The Axe had never Sounded": Place, People and Heritage of Recherche Bay, Tasmania (Canberra: ANU E Press, 2007), 141 pp. http://epress.anu.edu.au/axe_citation.html. Details

Book Sections

• Mulvaney, D. J., 'Thomas, William (1793-1867)' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 2: 1788 - 1850 I-Z, Douglas Pike, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1967), pp. 518-519. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A020474b.htm. Details
• Mulvaney, D. J., '"The chain of connection": the material evidence' in Tribes and boundaries in Australia, Peterson, N., ed. (Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, 1976), pp. 72-94. Details
• Mulvaney, D. J., 'Gillen, Francis James (1855-1912)' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 9: 1891 - 1939 Gil-Las, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1983), pp. 6-7. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A090007b.htm. Details
• Mulvaney, D. J., 'Warner, William Lloyd (1898-1970), anthropologist and sociologist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 12: 1891 - 1939 Smy-Z, John Ritchie, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1990), pp. 386-387. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A120434b.htm. Details
• Mulvaney, D. J., 'Spencer, Sir Walter Baldwin (1860-1929), university scientist and administrator, anthropologist and connnoisseur' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 12: 1891 - 1939 Smy-Z, John Ritchie, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1990), pp. 33-36. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A120043b.htm. Details
• Mulvaney, D. J., '"A splendid set of fellows": achievements and consequences of the Horn Expedition' in Exploring Central Australia: society, the environment and the 1894 Horn Expedition, Morton, S. R. and Mulvaney, D. J., eds (Chipping Norton, N.S.W.: Surrey Beatty & Sons, 1996), pp. 3-12. Details
• Mulvaney, D. J., 'Massola, Aldo Giuseppe (1910-1975), Museum Curator [and Numismatist]' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 15: 1940 - 1980 Kem-Pie, John Ritchie, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2000), p. 327. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A150386b.htm. Details
• Mulvaney, D. J., 'Sir Walter Baldwin Spencer, 1860-1929' in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004). Details
• Mulvaney, D. J., 'Daisy May Bates, 1859-1951' in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004). Details
• Mulvaney, D. J., 'Stanner, William Edward Hanley (1905-1981), Journalist, Soldier and Anthropologist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 18: 1981 - 1990 L-Z, Melanie Nolan, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2012), pp. 449-52. http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/stanner-william-edward-bill-15541. Details
• Mulvaney, John, 'Conflict and the rituals of diplomacy: Les Hiatt and the AIAS' in Scholar and sceptic: Australian Aboriginal studies in honour of L. R. Hiatt, Merlan, Francesca, Morton, John and Rumsey, Alan, eds (Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press, 1997). Details
• Mulvaney, John, 'Isabel McBryde: from regional research to national reconciliation and global heritage' in Many exchanges: archaeology, history, community and the work of Isabel McBryde, Macfarlane, Ingereth with Mountain, Mary-Jane and Paton, Robert, eds (Canberra: Aboriginal History Inc, 2005), pp. 3-12. Details
• Mulvaney, John, 'Meeting the Tasmanians' in Rediscovering Recherche Bay, Mulvaney, John and Tyndale-Biscoe, Hugh, eds (Canberra: Academy of Social Sciences in Australia for the National Academies Forum, 2007), pp. 59-68. Details
• Mulvaney, John, '"Annexing All I Can Lay Hands On": Baldwin Spencer as Ethnographic Collector' in The Makers and Making of Indigenous Australian Museum Collections, Peterson, Nicolas, Allen, Lindy and Hamby, Louise, eds (Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 2008), pp. 141-59. Details
• Mulvaney, John, 'WEH Stanner and the foundation of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, 1959 - 1964' in An appreciation of difference: WEH Stanner and Aboriginal Australia, Hinkson, Melinda and Beckett, Jeremy, eds (Canberra: Aboroginal Studies Press, 2008), pp. 58-75. Details

Conference Papers

• Mulvaney, D. J., 'Patron and Client: the Web of Intellectual Kinship in Australian Anthropology', in Scientific Colonialism: A Cross-Cultural Comparison. Papers From a Conference at Melbourne, Australia, 25-30 May 1981 edited by Nathan Reingold and Marc Rothenberg (Melbourne: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1981), pp. 55-77.. Details

Edited Books

• Bonyhady, Tim; Griffiths, Tom ed., Prehistory to Politics: John Mulvaney, the Public Intellectual (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1996), 283 pp. Details
• Morton, S. R.; and Mulvaney, D. J. eds, Exploring Central Australia: Society, the Environment and the 1894 Horn Expedition (Sydney: Surrey Beatty & Sons, 1996), 408 pp. Details
• Mulvaney, D. J.; and Golson, J. eds, Aboriginal Man and Environment in Australia (Canberra: Australian National University Press, 1971), 389 pp. Details
• Mulvaney, John and Tyndale-Biscoe, Hugh eds, Rediscovering Recherche Bay (Canberra: Academy of Social Sciences in Australia for the National Academies Forum, 2007), 156 pp. Details
• Mulvaney, John; Morphy, Howard; and Petch, Alison eds, 'My dear Spencer': the letters of F.J. Gillen to Baldwin Spencer (South Melbourne: Hyland House, 1997), 554 pp. Details

Journal Articles

• Frankel, David, 'The archaeologist as tribal elder: John Mulvaney 1925 - 2016', Australian Archaeology, 82 (3) (2016), 286-9. Details
• Golson, J., 'Old guards and new waves: reflections on antipodean archaeology 1954 - 1975. Papers presented to John Mulvaney', Archaeology in Oceania, 21 (1986), 2-12, https://doi.org10.1002/J.1834-4453.1986.TB00120.X. Details
• Griffiths, B., 'The "dawn" of Australian archaeology: John Mulvaney at Fromm's Landing', Journal of Pacific archaeology, 8 (1) (2017), 100-11. Details
• Mulvaney, D. J., 'The Australian Aborigines 1606 - 1929: opinion and fieldwork, parts 1 and 2', Historical Studies - Australia and New Zealand, 8 (1958), 131-51, 297-314. Details
• Mulvaney, D. J., 'Anthropology in Victoria 100 Years ago', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, 73 (1959), 47-50. Details
• Mulvaney, D. J., 'Australian Archaeology 1929-1964: Problems and Policies', Australian Journal of Science, 27 (2) (1964), 29-44. Details
• Mulvaney, D. J., 'The anthropologist as tribal elder', Mankind, 7 (3) (1970), 205-17. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1835-9310.1970.tb00409.x. Details
• Mulvaney, D. J., 'Prehistory from antipodean perspectives', Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 37 (1971), 228-52. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0079497X00012652. Details
• Mulvaney, D. J., 'Obituary: D.A. Casey, M.C., F.S.A.', The Artefact, 2 (4) (1977), 225-8. Details
• Mulvaney, D. J., 'Two remarkably parallel careers', Australian Archaeology, 10 (1980), 96-101. Details
• Mulvaney, D. J., 'Australian anthropology: foundation and funding', Aboriginal history, 17 (1993), 105-28. Details
• Mulvaney, John, 'From "the dawn" to sunset: Gordon Childe in Melbourne, 1957', Australian Archaeology, 30 (1) (1990), 29-32. Details
• Spriggs, Matthew, 'Everything you've been told about the history of Australian archaeology is wrong', Bulletin of the history of archaeology, 30 (1:3) (2020), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.5334/bha-626. Details
• Spriggs, Matthew, '"Casey did very good work for Wheeler and you are lucky to have him": Dermot Casey's under-appreciated importance in Australian archaeology', Historical Records of Australian Science, 32 (1) (2021), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR20009. Details

Resources

• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/46885799. Details
• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q6249788. Details
• 'Mulvaney, D J (19251026-20160921)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-508617. Details
• 'Awarded honorary LittD, 2005 [Citation provided]', Honorary degree holders, University of Melbourne, 2023, https://about.unimelb.edu.au/notable-alumni-staff/honorary-degree-holders. Details

Resource Sections

• Mulvaney, John, 'From the Frontier', in Ockham's Razor Transcripts, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 3 December 2000, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ockham/stories/s218950.htm. Details

Reviews

• Fenner, Frank (ed.), The First Fifty Years (2005)
  Mulvaney, John, Historical Records of Australian Science, 16 (2), (2005), 249-251. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR05012. Details
• Gammage, Bill, The Biggest Estate on Earth: how Aborigines Made Australia (2011)
  Mulvaney, John, Australian Aboriginal Studies, 2012 (1), (2012), 108-10. Details

See also

• Allen, Harry, 'The first university positions in prehistoric archaeology in New Zealand and Australia', Bulletin of the history of archaeology, 29 (1:2) (2019), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.5334/bha-606. Details
• Bowler, Jim, 'Unlikely encounters: Geology and archaeology' in Dhoombak goobgoowana: a history of Indigenous Australia and the University of Melbourne - Volume 1: The Truth, Ross L. Jones, James Waghorne and Marcia Langton, eds (Carlton, Vic.: Melbourne University Press, 2024), pp. 107-124, https://www.mup.com.au/books/dhoombak-goobgoowana-paperback-softback. Details
• Flood, Josephine M., The moth hunters: Aboriginal prehistory of the Australian Alps (Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, 1980), 388 pp, https://www.ligatu.re/book/the-moth-hunters/. Details
• Hallam, Sylvia J., Fire and hearth : Karla yoorda : a study of Aboriginal usage and European usurpation in south-western Australia (Crawley, W.A.: UWA Publishing, 2014), 203 pp. Details
• Howes, Hilary, 'Aspects of the historiography of Australian archaeology', Historical Records of Australian Science, 32 (2) (2021), 125-40. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR20017. Details
• Jones, Ross L., 'Human remains' in Dhoombak goobgoowana: a history of Indigenous Australia and the University of Melbourne - Volume 1: The Truth, Ross L. Jones, James Waghorne and Marcia Langton, eds (Carlton, Vic.: Melbourne University Press, 2024), pp. 95-106. https://www.mup.com.au/books/dhoombak-goobgoowana-paperback-softback. Details
• Nettelbeck, Amanda (and others), The Overland Telegraph Line: A Transcultural History, [web resource; undated], South Australian Government, South Australia, 2023. https://otlhistory.sa.gov.au/. Details
• Turnbull, Paul, 'Australian museums, Aboriginal skeletal remains, and the imagining of human evolutionary history', Museum & society, 13 (1) (2015), 72-87. https://doi.org/10.29311/mas.v13i1.318. Pages 81. Details