Dr Christine Garnaut

Christine Garnaut is Senior Research Fellow and Director of the Architecture Museum in the School of Art, Architecture and Design (AAD). Prior to moving full-time into academia in 1997, she was a secondary teacher of English and History.

An historian, her research focuses on the planning, and design history and heritage of planned twentieth century places. She has a particular interest in the application of planning history to planning and heritage policy. Much of her work lies at the nexus between the disciplines of planning and architecture and the contribution of both to academic, professional and community action.

Christine's book, Colonel Light Gardens: model garden suburb (Crossing Press, 2006. First published 1999), was the first published account of a planned Australian garden suburb. By providing extensive data about the history and principles underpinning the suburb’s original plan, as well as its implementation and progress, her research findings informed objectives and policies for the Colonel Light Gardens Plan Amendment Report (PAR) (2000) and the Conservation Management Plan (Weidenhofer Architects 2005). Her research contribution to the PAR was recognised in her being awarded the inaugural Edmund Wright Heritage Award (Heritage Management category) in 2003 (with Mitcham Council and the Colonel Light Gardens Historical Society).

Her research is supported by internal and external funding. She holds an ARC Linkage Project grant (2006-08)and an ARC Discovery grant (2007-08) and has secured other government and industry funding for projects based in the Architecture Museum. Her ARC Linkage study in collaboration with Robert Freestone (UNSW), Arnold Alanen (Partner Investigator, University of Wisconsin), the SA Department for Environment and Heritage and BAE Systems Australia, is investigating cultural heritage and the sustainability of Australia’s remote planned towns. Woomera Village in outback SA is the major case study. Her ARC Discovery project involves a national team of CIs who are examining the history of Australia's town planning associations and their contributions to environmental planning.

One of Christine's major funded projects based in the Architecture Museum is Architects of South Australia, an online database of biographies of architects who have practised in South Australia from colonial times to the present day. She has led a team of four researchers in the development of the biographies.

Christine has had various involvements in the application of heritage legislation in South Australia through appointments to local and state government committees. She was an inaugural member of the South Australian Heritage Council and was reappointed to the Council in 2009. She convenes the Editorial Committee of the Journal of the Historical Society of South Australia.

Architecture Museum

Architects of South Australia

• Occasional teaching in the fields of architectural history, planning history, conservation and management of heritage places, urban design.
• Promotion of the archival collections and the library of the Architecture Museum in the School of Art, Architecture and Design for teaching and research purposes.

Professional Historians Association (SA)

Society of Architectural Historians of Australia and New Zealand

International Planning History Society - Council member 2005-2008

Oral History Association of Australia (SA Branch)

Bachelor of Arts, Flinders University of South Australia, 1974

Bachelor of Arts (Honours), Flinders University of South Australia, 1975

Diploma of Education (Secondary), Flinders University of South Australia, 1976

Doctor of Philosophy, University of South Australia, 1997

• 'Cultural heritage in the sustainability of remote planned communities'. ARC Linkage Project 2006-08 Chief investigators: Christine Garnaut (UniSA), Robert Freestone (UNSW) Partner Investigator: Arnold Alanen (University of Wisconsin) APAI: Iris Iwanicki Industry Partners: SA Department for Environment and Heritage, BAE Systems Australia
• 'Rediscovering Historical Contributions in Environmental planning: Australia's Town Planning Associations' ARC Discovery Project 2007-08 Chief Investigators: Robert Freestone (UNSW), Christine Granaut (UniSA), Andrew May (Uni Melb), Stefan Petrow (UTas), Jenny Gregory (UWA), Chris McConville
• Architects of South Australia Ongoing biographical project on SA architects for online database Architects of South Australia. Team members: Christine Garnaut, Julie Collins, Susan Lustri, Alison McDougall and Christine Sullivan.
• Designed Civic Spaces for children: an interdisciplinary study of playgrounds in metropolitan and country South Australia Project team: Christine Garnaut, Wendy Schiller, Anne Glover (both School of Education, UniSA), Julie Collins, Susan Lustri and Louise Bird (all Architecture Museum researchers). Project outcomes include 'Reform, Fitness and Fun' an exhibition held in the Kerry packer Civic Gallery, UniSA, 19 March-22 April 2009

Garnaut, C (1999) Colonel Light Gardens: model garden suburb, Crossing Press, Sydney.

Langmead, D and Garnaut, C (2001) Encyclopedia of Architectural and Engineering Feats, ABC-Clio, Santa Barbara, California

Garnaut, C (2000) ‘Towards metropolitan organisation: town planning and the garden city idea’ in S. Hamnett and R. Freestone (eds) The Australian Metropolis: a planning history, London E&FN Spon; Sydney, Allen and Unwin.

Collins, J, Ibels, A and Garnaut, C (2005) ‘Years of Significance: South Australian architecture and the Great War’, Journal of the Historical Society of South Australia, no 33, 25-39.

Garnaut, C (2003) ‘Making Modern (River) Towns: town planning and the 1910s expansion of the Upper Murray Irrigation Area’, Journal of the Historical Society of South Australia, no 31, 69-84.

Garnaut, C and Hutchings, A (2003) ‘Building a planned community: the Garden Suburb Commission in Colonel Light Gardens’, Planning Perspectives, 18 (3) 277-293.

Freestone, R, Garnaut, C and Hutchings, A (2002) ‘A Bibliographic Guide to Recent Literature in Australian Planning History 1993-2002’, Planning History, vol 24 no 1, 21-35.

Garnaut, C, Johnson, P-A and Freestone, R (2002) ‘An island of civilisation: planning Woomera Village for the Long Range Weapons Project’, Journal of the Historical Society of South Australia, no 30, 5-30.

Garnaut, C (2006) ‘Planning for Heritage: planning history, heritage policy and the Colonel Light Gardens Conservation Management Plan’ in Miller, C. and Roche, M. (eds) Past Matters: Proceedings of the 8th Australasian Urban History/Planning History Conference, Wellington, February 2006, 135-146.

Garnaut, C (2004) ‘Not for ourselves alone’: Post-war Owner Building and the South Australian Home Builders’ Club’ in G. Lehmann and D. Nichols (eds) The 21st Century City: Past – Present – Future, Proceedings of the Seventh Australasian Urban History/Planning History Conference, School of Architecture and Building, Deakin University, Geelong, 188-201.

Garnaut, C (2004) ‘Chronicles from the Far East: the Garden City Model of Planning in the Federated Malay States, 1920-1929’ in P Monclus and M Guardia, Planning Models and the Culture of Cities. Proceedings of the 11th International Planning History Society Conference, Escola d’Arquitectura del Valles – UPC, Barcelona, CD-ROM.

Garnaut, C (2002) ‘Not for the faint-hearted: resident conservation initiatives in Colonel Light Gardens’ in D. Jones (ed) 20th Century Heritage: Proceedings of the Australia ICOMOS National Conference 2001, School of Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Design, University of Adelaide, and Australia ICOMOS Secretariat, Burwood, Melbourne, 450-456.

Freestone, R, Johnson, P-A, and Garnaut, C (2002) ‘Planning Woomera Village 1946-1947: International Crossings at an Australian Outback Crossroads’ in E Haarhoff, D Brand, E Aitken-Rose (eds) Southern Crossings Proceedings of the Sixth Australasian Urban History/Planning History Conference, University of Auckland, 249-262.

REPORTS 'Soldiers' Memorial Gardens Victor Harbor: brief history', (1997) [commissioned history] (in report by James Hayter Associates Pty Ltd); 'Pioneer Park, Gawler: site history', (1998) [commissioned history] (in report by James Hayter Associates Pty Ltd); Conservation Management Plan for Eden Park, Wistow [commissioned report by Louis Laybourne Smith School of Architecture and Design] June 2000