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In recent years the Maritime Archaeology Program (MAP) at Flinders University has developed an innovative work-integrated learning program, in association with industry partners that includes fieldwork opportunities and internships (work-placements). This is largely in response to suggestions from consultancy companies and government agencies about the lack of job-ready skills among maritime archaeology graduate students. This is a very flexible program that aims to provide students with opportunities of at least two weeks and up to 3 months to develop both fieldwork skills and more general work practices. This paper will argue that work-integrated learning assists the graduates to get a position and then helps them to do well in that job. Participating in daily work practices and experiencing fieldwork are seen as keys in producing work-ready graduates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What has been learned from the detailed study of cargo material found on merchant shipwreck sites in Australia? Some extensive collections of shipwreck cargo material have resulted from archaeological excavations by maritime archaeologists over the past 30 years or so. Other collections have been created by SCUBA divers, primarily before the introduction of the Commonwealth (Federal) Historic Shipwrecks Act in 1976. Many of these have now been documented as a result of the 1993 amnesty. The relationship between cargo artifacts from archaeologically excavated shipwrecks and similar artifacts found on terrestrial historical archaeological sites is explored through a consideration of the meanings attached to these objects, suggesting ways that artifact studies focused on shipwreck cargo material can contribute to understandings of colonial societies, the nature of capitalism, and the rise of consumerism. It is argued that successful colonial settlement was only possible where there was a regular supply of suitable consumer goods for the newly arrived colonists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Abandoned Ships' Project (ASP) was a research initiative of the Department of Archaeology at Flinders University. South Australia, and carried out in conjunction with the doctoral research of one of the authors (Richards 2002). The project involved the compilation of a database of more than 1,500 discarded and partly dismantled watercraft sites, including information from the archaeological inspection of more than 120 deliberately discarded ships. Researchers used this data to assess the degree of correlation between discard activities and economic, social, and technological issues. The logistics of discard were also examined as reflected in commentaries describing discard processes and as seen in the archaeological signatures of these events. This information illustrated the causal relationships among processes (landscape. economic trends, regulatory frameworks, and cultural site formation) associated with harm minimization, placement assurance, salvage, and discard activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archaeologists have generally been slow to recognize the value of Annales approaches to their discipline, and maritime archaeologists, in particular, have been even slower. The analytical framework used in this paper draws on applications of Annales approaches to archaeology in what is termed the "archaeology of the event." The resulting holistic approach places the specificity of the event within the wider cultural context. Furthermore, terrestrial historical archaeology has largely ignored the potential that cargo material, derived from maritime archaeological excavations, has to contribute to understandings of colonial settlement. This paper moves beyond the usual functional approaches to the analysis of the meanings of material culture. A major part of the archaeological data used here is drawn from the cargo assemblages of four postsettlement shipwrecks excavated in Australian waters during the past 30 years: Sydney Cove, James Matthews, William Salthouse, and Eglinton. This paper provides a theoretical and methodological model for the systematic analysis of consumer goods that can be used to better understand cultural aspects of colonial settlement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]