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Ghosts of the Goldfields

  • 05/12/2023
  • 19:00-20:30
  • Online talk

Ghosts of the Goldfields

A Folklore Society online talk by

David Waldron (Federation University)

Tuesday 5 December 2023, 19:00 GMT

In this talk, Dr David Waldron will discuss his research into ghost beliefs and stories of the 19th-century goldrush in colonial Victoria, Australia. He will draw on his research into ghost stories as a cultural response to traumatic histories entwined with popular culture in Ballarat, the Ararat Lunatic Asylum and other locations in Western Victoria as well the fad of ‘playing the ghost’ or ghost hoaxing.

Dr David Waldron is a Senior Lecturer in History at Federation University Australia, with a research focus on folklore and community heritage. He is the author of Sign of the Witch: Modernity and the Pagan Revival (Carolina Academic Press 2008), Shock! The Black Dog of Bungay – a Case Study in Local Folklore (Hidden Press 2010) and Snarls from the Tea-Tree: Victoria’s Big Cat Folklore (Australian Scholarly Publishing 2013), editor/contributor of Goldfields and the Gothic: a Hidden Heritage and Folklore (Australian Scholarly Publishing 2016) and author of Aradale: the Making of a Haunted Asylum (Australian Scholarly Publishing 2020). He is regularly involved in public engagements, festivals and multi-media displays including Ballarat Heritage Weekend and is the co-writer and researcher for the National Trust Australia People’s Choice award historical pod cast series Tales from Rat City.

Tickets £6.00 (£4.00 for Folklore Society members with Promo Code: log in to the Members Area to get the code) from https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ghosts-of-the-goldfields-tickets-537718810437

Every ticket sold helps to support the work of The Folklore Society