Australian colleague Andrew Viduka visits ICUA

A couple of days ago an exciting guest from Australia stayed at ICUA Zadar. Mr. Andrew Viduka, PhD., is a founder and director of GIRT (Gathering Information via Recreational and Technical Scientific Divers), and also the Assistant Director of Underwater Cultural Heritage in the Australian Government.

His visit was arranged in order to exchange viewpoints in the protection of underwater cultural heritage. As part of the program "Inspection and monitoring of protected underwater cultural sites in Croatia", Mr. Viduka visited a number of underwater archaeological sites with the ICUA Zadar archaeologists, some of which are accessible to the general diving public through licensed diving centers.

In addition to the underwater inspections, he also gave a lecture to the Zadar public entitled "Public engagement, community archeology and management of underwater cultural heritage: a case study from Australia". Visitors could see for themselves the state of underwater cultural heritage in Australia, but also the concept of involving the general public in the active protection and monitoring of cultural heritage.

The visitors attending lecture were able to listen about the state of underwater cultural heritage in Australia, but moreover the idea of involving the general public in the active protection and monitoring of cultural heritage.

During his visit Mr. Viduka presented the concept of GIRT and the methods that scientific divers use to monitor the state of underwater cultural sites around the world. This visit is a good beginning for future cooperation.