“My role as a public historian is something like an archaeological rescue dig,” Jim Belshaw said. “I try to preserve and present our history before it is forgotten, and to do so before the next wave of social and economic change washes over the top.”
Jim decided almost a decade ago to become full-time writer specialising in history, after a career as a public servant and technology consultant.
He has written a weekly history column for the Armidale Express since 2008, and also communicates through the New England’s History Blog and his personal blog.
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Jim also speaks at UNE, most recently on the 30,000-year history of New England. His magnum opus will be a history of Northern NSW over the last 50,000 years.
“I seek to preserve our history as an area worthy of study,” Jim said, “and to present it so that both people living in the area and also the New England diaspora have access to material.”
He is himself part of that diaspora, one of the many New Englanders living outside the region. For every one Armidale resident, he points out, there are at four elsewhere who went to school or lived here.
Jim grew up in an academic household, as he’s described in his Express columns about the Belshaw family history. He planned to become an archaeologist and prehistorian, but ended up working for the Treasury, Canberra, as an economist and economic advisor.
He returned to Armidale as a post-graduate student, went back to the ACT, married, set up a high tech consulting agency in Armidale, and then moved to Sydney, where he presently lives, pending his return to Armidale later this year.
Knowledge of history is, Jim believes, important for public policy. Too often, policy makers and the people from whom they draw information lack the context they need to make better decisions.
“If history is not explained to people, if they don't have access to their history,” Jim said, “it's difficult for them to understand where they are, or to understand some of the joys and sadnesses of where they are. A bad side-effect is that people keep on inventing the wheel.
“Because people are not aware of forms of thinking or of writing that have taken place in New England, they come up with policy ideas or conclusions that are unlikely to work, instead of taking into account what's been done in the past.”
He points to the current discussions about decentralisation and immigration, or Tamworth mayor Col Murray’s attack on the proposal to move the APVMA to Armidale.
"If some of the previous material was better known, going back to the role of historian in recording and presenting, then the policy decisions here would be more informed.”
Nicholas Fuller
The exciting thing about journalism is the variety; one can explore the world, meet interesting people and write about it. I've sat in the caravan of an African circus ringmaster; I've squatted on my haunches in a plastic-sorting factory in the Mumbai slums, talking to the workers and drinking hot chai in plastic cups the size of thimbles; and I've interviewed Chinese cultural attachés, Danish football stars and Japanese drummers. Now I’ve come to the Northern Tablelands as a group journalist working across six of Fairfax’s mastheads. Living in New England is a return to country. My father’s side of the family lived here since the 19th century. My great-great-grandparents are buried in Ben Lomond. My great-grandmother and grandmother spent most of their lives in and around Glencoe and Glen Innes, and are both buried in Tamworth. My grandfather isn’t; his ashes are in a cupboard until we throw them in the Macdonald, near Bendemeer, where he used to fish. And my father cut his teeth as a cadet journalist on the Northern Daily Leader, before moving to Canberra, and studied history at UNE. Moving here is following in the family footsteps. Armidale seems charming: up here, in Australia’s highest city, one feels close to the sky. And the mixture of 1830s historic buildings; green, rain-washed hills, crowned with conifers; and one of the country’s leading universities give it a unique appeal. I completed my journalism qualifications last year, while freelancing for newspapers and magazines, and holding down a full-time job. I spent the end of last year in Sri Lanka, where I reported on visiting Buddhist dignitaries (from exotic Perth), UN development programs, Italian food weeks, and hotels in former war-zones. Previously, I worked as a writer and editor for the Australian Government in Canberra for a decade. In my day job, I briefed members of parliament about international relations, and wrote about agricultural aid programs to developing countries. Journalism, though, is where my heart lies. I want to experience life, rather than sit behind a desk. And, having grown up in Belgium, I want to be Tintin. I hope to get to know and love the region where my ancestors lived, while reporting on issues important to the Tablelands.
The exciting thing about journalism is the variety; one can explore the world, meet interesting people and write about it. I've sat in the caravan of an African circus ringmaster; I've squatted on my haunches in a plastic-sorting factory in the Mumbai slums, talking to the workers and drinking hot chai in plastic cups the size of thimbles; and I've interviewed Chinese cultural attachés, Danish football stars and Japanese drummers. Now I’ve come to the Northern Tablelands as a group journalist working across six of Fairfax’s mastheads. Living in New England is a return to country. My father’s side of the family lived here since the 19th century. My great-great-grandparents are buried in Ben Lomond. My great-grandmother and grandmother spent most of their lives in and around Glencoe and Glen Innes, and are both buried in Tamworth. My grandfather isn’t; his ashes are in a cupboard until we throw them in the Macdonald, near Bendemeer, where he used to fish. And my father cut his teeth as a cadet journalist on the Northern Daily Leader, before moving to Canberra, and studied history at UNE. Moving here is following in the family footsteps. Armidale seems charming: up here, in Australia’s highest city, one feels close to the sky. And the mixture of 1830s historic buildings; green, rain-washed hills, crowned with conifers; and one of the country’s leading universities give it a unique appeal. I completed my journalism qualifications last year, while freelancing for newspapers and magazines, and holding down a full-time job. I spent the end of last year in Sri Lanka, where I reported on visiting Buddhist dignitaries (from exotic Perth), UN development programs, Italian food weeks, and hotels in former war-zones. Previously, I worked as a writer and editor for the Australian Government in Canberra for a decade. In my day job, I briefed members of parliament about international relations, and wrote about agricultural aid programs to developing countries. Journalism, though, is where my heart lies. I want to experience life, rather than sit behind a desk. And, having grown up in Belgium, I want to be Tintin. I hope to get to know and love the region where my ancestors lived, while reporting on issues important to the Tablelands.
