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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 April 2025
There is an enduring public interest in visiting sites of death, tragedy and suffering as part of a formalised tour or experience (Casella and Fennelly, 2016). Attached to creating and visiting these sites is a myriad of issues intertwined: the purpose of the site, motivations of tourists, interpretation and community acceptance or resistance. As White (2016, para. 2) aptly states, ‘the relationship between trauma, tourism, commemoration and the nature of the place itself is a complicated one’. Because of these complexities, it is a very important area of study, and in particular, a comprehensive examination of dark tourism in rural areas in Australia is well overdue.
At a time when rural and regional communities are turning specifically towards dark tourist activities to keep their community economically viable, it is essential that this phenomenon is examined and the distinctive constraints and opportunities for rural communities are understood. It is also necessary to understand the role that dark tourism plays in creating cultural narratives of Australia’s rural and regional spaces.
As such, this book is divided into two main sections. Part I explores rural dark tourism associated with Australia’s colonial history, including colonial violence, convict tourism and bushrangers. Part II presents an analysis of more ‘modern’ crime tourist sites and includes carceral tourism, serial killers and sensational crimes and deadly towns, ghosts, crime and bushfires. In essence, the book provides an exploration of the range of dark tourism activities available in rural and regional Australia around crime and punishment using a rural lens of analysis.
Jenny Wise
March 2024
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