Board of Management

President

Paul Macgregor is an historian and heritage consultant, and was the curator of Melbourne’s Museum of Chinese Australian History 1990-2005. His specialty areas are colonial, 19th and early 20th century histories of Australia and China. He has a wide-ranging knowledge of Chinese material culture and initiated two archaeological excavations of sites in Victoria - the Cohen Place project in Melbourne's Chinatown (Sarah Myers 1999) and the Butcher's Gully project near Castlemaine (Zvonka Stanin 2002). He has also been involved in five major academic research projects including: the Thematic Survey of Sites of Chinese Australian History project, and the Studies in Victoria’s Goldfield Heritage: the Mt Alexander Diggings 1851-1901 project. He has organised four international conferences on the Chinese in Australasia, and curated numerous exhibitions on the history and material heritage of Chinese Australians. He has published widely on Chinese Australian history and is currently researching Chinese mining, joss houses, merchants and storekeepers in colonial Australia.

Vice-President

Melissa Tsafkas is passionate about promoting awareness of archaeology and heritage to the public and has over eight years’ experience as an archaeologist on various sites across the east coast of Australia. Her goal is to provide a greater appreciation of Australian culture through sustainable outcomes. She currently works in the telecommunications industry as a national expert on land access and heritage approvals. Melissa completed her MPhil (University of Queensland 2017) on researching Chinese sites across Australia. She has published on the 2017 excavation of the Harrietville Chinese Mining Village and also a chapter on the Dennis O’Hoy Chinese ceramics collection. She is currently on the Australian National Committee for Archaeology Teaching and Learning (ANCATL) sub-committee and is a member of Australia ICOMOS (International Council of Monuments and Sites), Australasian Society of Historical Archaeology (ASHA) and Australian Archaeological Association (AAA). Melissa is a registered heritage advisor with the Office of Aboriginal Victoria.

Secretary/Treasurer

Andrew Swift has worked as a mining heritage consultant to various state and local government agencies since the mid 1990s. Projects in conjunction with Robert Kaufman (LRGM Services) have included heritage feature surveys, site mapping and assessments of historic mining sites throughout the eastern ranges of Victoria in 2003-5, especially the Upper Ovens, Buckland, Mitta Mitta, Upper Dargo and Dart River goldfields. Published works include the section on mining in The Buckland Valley Goldfield, by Diann Talbot, and a number of local mining history documentaries under the banner of "Heritage Rat Productions". Andrew has been employed since 2008 by the Mt Hotham Alpine Resort Management Board as Cultural Heritage Officer. This role has seen him implement and supervise the construction of three iconic heritage themed walks, including the Cobungra Ditch Walking Track, The Huts Walk, and the Brabralung Trail. Andrew continues to present, record and conserve mining heritage in many formats.