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.
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’...
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...
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
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
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)