Ian Evans (historian)


Ian Joseph Evans OAM is an Australian author, publisher and historian. In the latter category, Evans discovered the use of deliberately concealed objects to protect Australian houses and other buildings from evil spiritual forces in the period 1788 to circa 1935. The author of numerous books on the history and conservation of old Australian houses, Evans contributed to the growth of the heritage movement that spread throughout Australia in the 1980s. His first book, Restoring Old Houses is credited with having stimulated the movement that continues to the present day. Other books followed, including several published by Evans's family publishing house, The Flannel Flower Press Pty Ltd.

Life and career

Throughout his career, Evans has encouraged the conservation of Australia's architectural heritage in books, periodicals and newspapers, in interviews on radio and television, and in numerous lectures and seminars on the conservation of the built environment. Since 1979 he has produced a substantial body of work on this subject. In writing his books, he has worked with Government authorities such as the NSW Department of Planning, the Queensland Museum and the National Trust. In 1988 he was appointed a Trustee of the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales.
In 1989, he acquired and restored the John Mills' residence at 107 Kadumba Street, Yeronga in Brisbane. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 25 August 2000.
Dr. Evans's contribution to heritage conservation has facilitated the widespread use of traditional colours on old buildings throughout Australia – a trend which followed the publication of Colour Schemes for Old Australian Houses, a book which he wrote in association with the conservation architects Clive Lucas, OBE, and Ian Stapleton. Local Government authorities and heritage bodies use this book and a companion volume, More Colour Schemes for Old Australian Houses, as the source of traditional colour schemes for houses and other buildings in conservation areas. These books brought traditional exterior colours back into fashion and changed the face of inner-city suburbs in cities throughout Australia.
Evans sought to empower the owners of old houses by providing them with information hitherto available only to conservation architects and other professionals. He argued that the greater part of our built heritage is privately owned and that making authoritative information widely accessible would foster grassroots interest in Australia's heritage of old buildings.
In addition, Evans has been involved in campaigns to save important individual buildings such as the John Verge–designed Lyndhurst at Glebe, New South Wales which was for a time the headquarters of the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales. His efforts to stop the destruction of the traditional timber houses of Brisbane received widespread publicity in that city, in The Australian newspaper and on The 7.30 Report in Brisbane and Sydney. Brisbane City Council subsequently enacted planning measures to impede the removal of the timber buildings which are largely responsible for the character of the city.
Between 2002 and 2005 Evans served as architectural historian to the Troodos Archaeological and Environmental Survey Project and prepared a report on traditional buildings in the Troodos Mountains of Cyprus for the Department of Archeology at the University of Glasgow. Other archaeological sites on which he has worked are in England, Greece and Syria.
Evans's experience includes some 15 years as a print and television journalist in Sydney, as a public relations consultant and as a producer of documentary programmes at Channel Seven in Sydney. He continues to write and publish books and to act as a consultant on the conservation of old houses and buildings in many areas of Australia. He is currently researching apotropaic marks and deliberately concealed objects in old houses and buildings – two ancient rituals that travelled to Australia as part of the cultural baggage of convicts and settlers. In 2010 he received a PhD from the University of Newcastle, NSW, for his thesis on this topic. Entitled "Touching Magic: Deliberately Concealed Objects in old Australian Houses and Buildings".
In 2017, Evans conducted the Tasmanian Magic Project, looking for apotropaic marks like hexafoils and burn marks at 30 historic properties in Tasmania's Southern Midlands.
Evans was educated at Catholic and State schools in Parkes before moving to Sydney in 1959; copy boy and cadet journalist at Mirror Newspapers 1959–61; journalist at ATN7 News 1961–72; PR consultant 1972–79; author, publisher, heritage consultant 1979–present. He was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2005 for service to the preservation of the architectural heritage of Australia and a PhD from the University of Newcastle in 2010.

Awards

National Trust of Australia Australian Heritage Awards 2001The Queensland House – History and Conservation
National Trust John Herbert Award 1998World of Old Houses internet site
National Trust John Herbert Award 1996Body of work on Australia's architectural heritage
National Trust of Australia Australian Heritage Awards 1995The Federation House – A Restoration Guide
National Trust of Australia Australian Heritage Awards 1989Caring for Old Houses

Publications


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