Denis Gojak

Current position

Recently retired from the NSW public service

Where did you study?

University of Sydney

How did you become interested in archaeology?

I had that thing that young kids have about dinosaurs, and extended that into a fascination with a much broader, human past as well.

What archaeological projects are you working on at the moment?

Having just retired from working professionally as a consultant and in the NSW public sector in archaeological and heritage consultancy, I now have the chance to get stuck into a long list of topics and questions that I've only had time to dabble in or just be left wondering by, in my case mainly to do with Australian historical archaeology. I'm working on a comprehensive study of clay tobacco pipes and smoking in Australasia. That's been compiled as lists, snippets of reports, bits of writing, conference papers and miscellaneous physical and digital info collated over nearly four decades, which needs to be beaten into a coherent form. I'm also exploring further the early career of possibly the first person to call themselves an archaeologist in Australia, the complex rat-bag Arthur J. Vogan.

One of our big current issues is how we are managing legacy collections from past archaeological work, to get continuing value from them. I have been looking at a 1911 midden dig at Woollahra Point, Sydney with interesting, almost surreal politics. As part of my clay pipe research I am also revisiting museum and legacy collections, casting fresh eyes on material dug up to half a century ago.

And now that I have time to enjoy myself, I really want the chance to do more digging while my knees and back are still holding out, but on someone else's dig, so it’s all care but no responsibility.

Tell us about one of your most interesting archaeological discoveries

As a just-graduated archaeologist in 1983 I uncovered a skull-shaped pipe bowl at the First Government House site. It was a pretty amazing artefact in its own right, and has now become one of the central pieces in a new display about the dig at the Museum of Sydney on the site of FGH in Sydney. It also inspired my career-long interest in clay pipe research in archaeology.

Tell us about a funny / disastrous / amazing experience that you have had while doing archaeology

While still an undergraduate on fieldwork focussed on possible megafaunal remains, I was put in charge of a daytrip to visit a farmer who said he may have uncovered remains of a 'giant lizard', a rare but entirely possible find in the Liverpool Plains (as long it was a megalania and not a dinosaur) An hour's drive to get to his place and he pulled back the tarp to reveal what was a very obviously a dead skeletal cow. Trying to be nice and thank him for his sincere interest it brought home how much archaeology helps you to look and see the familiar with very different eyes.

What’s your favourite part of being an archaeologist?

After a good working life it’s hard to decide between the lifelong friendships that you develop through fieldwork and projects, the chance to see the world in different ways to others or the opportunity to explore so many fascinating topics, going down one fascinating rabbit-hole after another.

Follow up reading

My Research Gate page has lots of papers on my research - https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Denis-Gojak-2