Dr David Waldron is a Senior Lecturer in history at Federation University Australia, with a research focus on folklore and community heritage, particularly the development of urban legends and popular folklore as a response to traumatic community experiences.
David 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). He is also editor/contributor to Goldfields and the Gothic: a Hidden Heritage and Folklore (Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2016) and Aradale: the Making of a Haunted Asylum (Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2020).
David is regularly involved in public engagements, festivals and multimedia displays including Ballarat Heritage Weekend, and is the co-writer and researcher for the National Trust Australia People’s Choice award historical podcast series Tales from Rat City.
Ballarat Old Gaol Tour and Exhibition 2024
Digital Maps Reveal How the Gold Rush Devastated the Ballarat Environment
Spectral Schemes: the Mystery of the Ballarat Ghost: Call of Cthulhu
The Demon of the Deep Leads: A Call of Cthulhu Adventure
William Bailey's Haunted Mansion: Review
A Night with the Spirits
Ballarat Old Gaol Tour and Exhibition 2023
Fitzroy's Hand of Glory
Global challenges: South African and Australian students' experiences of emergency remote teaching
History on the Line
How Folklore Informs History'
In the 1800s, colonial settlers moved Ballarat’s Yarrowee River. The impacts are still felt today
"Mystery Airships: A night of Strange Things seen in the skies!"
Nine and a half things you did not know about Harry Houdini
Rethinking the Ghost Story: TEDx Talk Maldon
Shades of Haunted Melbourne
The Last Dance of Lola Montez: A Call of Cthulhu Modern Adventure
The Magic Lantern Show - Alice and Wonderland and Jane Conquest
William Bailey's Haunted Mansion - A call of Cthulhu Adventure
William Bailey's Haunted Mansion: an historical call of Cthulhu RPG adventure
Yarrowee River History: Peel to Prest project
Ballarat Old Gaol Tour and Exhibition 2022
Journey to the Southern Cross, Part 2
The Quack and The Charlatan
"Zerith and Kylan: The Wood Mothers Woe." In Roleplayer Adventures: The World of Ulos, Vol. 1
Ballarat Old Gaol Tour and Exhibition 2021
Journey to the Southern Cross, Part 1
Ju-Jitsu's Role in the Fight for Women's Suffrage
Ju-jitsu became a weapon in the struggle for women’s empowerment, spreading ‘like wildfire’...
Lucas Girls Avenue of Honour: Audio Tours
Suffrajitsu & Playing the Ghost Double Feature
The Witching Hour and a Night of Spiritualism
Aradale: The Making of a Haunted Asylum
Beyond the Corridors of the Mind: An Exploration of the Dark History of Aradale Psychiatric Hospital
This paper explores the practice of care for patients in Aradale, the asylum established in the...
Presented by Tales from Rat City: Ballarat heritage Festival In Lockdown
The Legend of Madman's Hill: Incarceration Madness and Dark Tourism on the Goldfields
First established in 1864 during the gold rush era of western Victoria, Australia, the Ararat...
A living chessboard: Make your own medieval world
Ballarat old Gaol Tour and Exhibition 2019
Beyond the Vale: Death, Ritual and Burial on the Goldfields of Bendigo
Ghosts on the Goldfields : Ballarat as a haunted city
The history of Ballarat, situated at the heart of the goldfields of central Victoria,...
MARKETING MADNESS; GOTHIC HERITAGE AT THE ARARAT LUNATIC ASYLUM
MYSTERY, MARKS AND MASONS
MYTHS AND FOLKLORE ON THE GOLD FIELDS
Ballarat old Gaol Tour and Exhibition 2018
A Medieval Mystery in Modern Ballarat
Why does the 1870s bluestone work under Bridge Street in the regional Victorian city of Ballarat...
I Tawt I Taw A Puddy Tat!
Homosexuality on the goldfields
Playing the ghost: ghost hoaxing and supernaturalism in late nineteenth-century Victoria
This article employs a Jungian analytical perspective in its exploration of the phenomenon of...
Playing the Ghost: Ghost Hoaxing and Supernaturalism in Late Nineteenth-Century Victoria'
Rethinking Appropriation of the Indigenous A Critique of the Romanticist Approach
The aim of this paper is to set out the effects of romanticism on attitudes of the New Age...
Snarls from the Tea-Tree
Invented Traditions and Regional Identity: The case of the black dog of bungay
Big Cats and Dead Sheep: An Overview of the Folkloric Phenomena of Big Cats in the Australian Bush
Shock! The Black Dog of Bungay
Post-modernism and witchcraft history
The sign of the witch: Modernity and the pagan revival
Role-playing games and the Christian right: Community formation in response to a moral panic
Witchcraft for sale! Commodity vs community in the neopagan movement
Error in publication code - Role-playing games and the Christian right
Jung and the neo-pagan movement
Eco-Feminism & The Reconstruction of The Burning Times
Error in publication code - Condescending and patronizing: Academic studies of computer games
Magic, myth and the rational in renaissance hermeticism
The last temptation of Christ
The neo-pagan appropriation of jungian analytical psychology
Error in publication code - Early modern European witchcraft: Learned and popularist definitions 1480-1650
Error in publication code - Globalisation and the problem of language
Hieroglyphic and alchemical recognition program (HARP)