Professor Colin Pearson: ‘one of the most versatile and capable conservators of his generation’

Histories of Australian Rock Art Research

“…The latter workshop was also where the Australian Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Materials was developed and presentations from attending specialists went on to inform and frame conservation practices across the country. There were several notable contributions to the field that emerged from this event: wrote the first dedicated book on rock art conservation in Australia; Pearson, who drove initial conservation efforts for rock art as well as material culture more broadly, has been the subject of recent reflections (Cook 2018;MacLeod 2000;Pearson et al 2011;Scott 2018); Chaloupka (1974) and Rivett (1983), both focused on the geographic area of what was to become Kakadu and who were foundational in efforts developed to document rock art; along with Clarke, who went on to develop the intervention trials that are discussed in this chapter.…”

Preserving the rock art of Kakadu: Formative conservation trials during the 1980s

“…The latter workshop was also where the Australian Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Materials was developed and presentations from attending specialists went on to inform and frame conservation practices across the country. There were several notable contributions to the field that emerged from this event: Rosenfeld (1985) wrote the first dedicated book on rock art conservation in Australia; Pearson, who drove initial conservation efforts for rock art as well as material culture more broadly, has been the subject of recent reflections (Cook 2018;MacLeod 2000;Pearson et al 2011;Scott 2018); Chaloupka (1974) and Rivett (1983), both focused on the geographic area of what was to become Kakadu and who were foundational in efforts developed to document rock art; along with Clarke, who went on to develop the intervention trials that are discussed in this chapter.…”