A heritage ‘trailscape’: tracking the exploits of historical figures – an Australian case study

ABSTRACT

One of the many distinct problems encountered in tracking the exploits of historical figures such as folk heroes – especially in their guise as tourist icons – is engagement, not only with the principal routes and trails taken by them, but also with the minor pathways and the many small-scale rural settlements, meeting grounds, base camps, and replenishment stopovers which serviced their lifestyle. An aggregation of these trails and servicing points would contribute significantly to determining, firstly, the regional operational areas of such folk heroes (including highwaymen, outlaws, social bandits, and bushrangers) and secondly, a potential pattern for history-linked and heritage-based regional tourism. It is likely that in responding to the meanderings of the folk hero, the spatial pattern would conform more to the idea of a ‘themescape’ than to other linear-like configurations, and the outcome could be envisaged and interpreted as a ‘trailscape’. Using as a case study the story of the Australian folk hero Edward (Ned) Kelly, this paper experiments with ‘ways of looking at the evidence’ and of interpreting and engaging with the ‘trailscape’ which is a hallmark of the overlapping spheres and clusters of the hero’s activities.

KEYWORDS:

• Heritage-based tourism
• cultural heritage trails
• ‘trailscape’
• folk heroes
• Ned Kelly

Notes on contributor

Michael Fagence trained as a geographer. His principal interests now lie in historical geography, and history-linked and heritage-based tourism.