Norman Houghton (born 1948) is an Australian historian and archivist in Geelong, Victoria, who has published more than 40 books, many focusing on timber tramways and sawmills of the Otway and Wombat Forests of Western Victoria, Australia. Most of his works have been self-published, while he has provided numerous articles to the newsletter and journal of the Light Railway Research Society of Australia.
Early life Houghton grew up in Colac in southwest Victoria and attended Monash University, graduating in history. His interest in railway and forest history of Victoria's Otway Ranges was nurtured from an early age and resulted in his documentation and mapping of more than 300 sawmills and 160 kilometres of timber tramlines, which were built in the area from the 1850s to the mid 20th century. Houghton worked at Sovereign Hill Historical Gold Mining Village and the Gold Museum in Ballarat and undertook assessment of the archives of the Queensland Railways, before operationally establishing the Geelong Heritage Centre as its foundation Director in 1979, where he held the role of archivist with the Geelong Historical Records Centre for many decades, and was instrumental in assisting the Geelong Historical Society to collate and compile records which formed the basis of the Heritage Centre archival collection.
Forestry research Houghton's primary research on sawmills and timber tramways has been used as the basis for comprehensive assessments of the value of forest heritage sites, for example by the Victorian Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, for conservation management of heritage places, and also to further the investigation of domestic and spatial arrangements of isolated bush settlements. His publications include histories of the sawmills and tramways of the Wombat and Otway Forests and have been described as "...part of his substantial legacy ... of the lives led by timber-getters, road-makers, railway workers, farmers, and others in the communities that battled with the high rainfall, heavily timbered, and steep landscapes of this unique part of Victoria." His research has been acknowledged by the Australian Forest History Society, while Gregg Borschmann, in the People's Forest Oral History Project, noted that he had:
...documented and mapped more than 300 sawmills & 160 kilometres of timber tramlines built in the area since the 1850s of which ...[spending] every Sunday for 4 years in the bush; his conclusions, based on his field work experience, that there had been no real appreciation of the heritage value of forests by bulldozer drivers and current foresters, much of the archaeological remains of our non-Aboriginal forest culture had been destroyed; that the current generation of forest managers at the district level had very little knowledge of the history of their resource. Houghton's contribution to forestry history has been recognized in a number of recent surveys of Australian and Victorian forest history, particularly in undertaking the primary field work which has relocated the isolated bush settlements, mill sites and tramway networks, and in the compilation of oral histories. He provided a large proportion of the entries to the first annotated bibliography of forest history, was a co-founder of, and subsequently contributed to most of the national conferences on Australian forest history since its inception. He is also credited as a major contributor to the reinvigoration of heritage protection and tourism in forest areas through his publications and promotion of timber tramway trails. Houghton is club historian for The Geelong Club for which he has written several histories.
Awards In the 2021 Australia Day Honours Houghton was awarded the Order of Australia Medal for services to community history.
Selected publications Some of Houghton's research has been self-published and distributed through the Light Railway Research Society of Australia (LRRSA). He has also been a regular contributor to the LRRSA newsletter, and its journal Light Railways, and to the newsletter of the Australian Forest History Society. Many of his other works have been published by local history societies.
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