Angela McGowan

Angela McGowan is an Australian archaeologist known for her work on Aboriginal and European heritage and culture in Tasmania, Australia.

She has spoken directly to the gaps in legislation regarding consultation, involvement, and representation of aboriginal communities. Her paper titled “Background to Changing Cultural Heritage Legislation in Tasmania” clearly and methodically covers the National Parks and Wildlife Act of 1970, Aboriginal Relics Act of 1975, and the Forestry Act of 1920, to name a few, revealing the imbalance in representation on each committee. McGowan brings to our attention that out of the twelve members under the National Parks and Wildlife Act only one representative is allocated historic structures, history, and anthropology while others are natural science based, and out of five on the Aboriginal Relics Advisory Council one member was a representative of Aboriginal interests while the rest were academic.

Select archaeological investigations of Tasmania Risdon Cove (1978-1980) Risdon Cove, Tasmania is historically recognized as the initial site of Hobart, the capital of Tasmania. Risdon Cove was established as a military base of the New South Wales military forces in September 1803, in order to prevent French explorers and militant forces from gaining access to settlement on Tasmania. This site is primarily remembered for the massacre of aboriginal people on 3 May 1804 by British forces. Risdon Cove was abandoned in July 1804.

Angela Gowan excavated the site of Risdon Cove. After the abandonment of the site, the area had remained in its pre-industrialized state when McGowan conducted the excavations.

Survey of Sealing Sites on Heard Island (1986-1987) One excavation that Angela McGowan has worked on are the sealer sites on Heard Island. She worked on this site in 1986 and 1987. The main reason that she wanted to shine a spotlight here is because the archaeological information at this site is being threatened by the wildlife and erosion of the coastline. This site gives a very unique perspective into the lives of European sealers in the 19th century, and so she wanted to save all of this information. She excavated the sites that were the most damaged sites first so that they could get the most data as possible.

Kerry Lodge Convict site (2015-2018)

The Kerry Lodge Convict project is located near Laucenston, Tasmania and is the site of a 19th-century British penal colony. McGowan was part of a small team made up of archaeologists, surveyors, and curators who invested time uncovering details of the relatively unknown site, their interests lay in the archaeology of incarceration and unfree labor. The main focus of the project is to excavate and analyze the "remains of a collapsed stone structure associated with the convict probation station."

Further publications

Archaeological investigations at Risdon Cove Historic Site: 1978-1980 Excavations at Lithend, Port Arthur Historic Site Photogrammetric recording of Aboriginal Paintings in Keyhole Cavern Report of Radiocarbon Dating Analyses