Last updated: Tuesday 24 January 2002

 

This web site is the doorway to a large amount of information, and navigation can get a little bit confusing. We therefore thought a page like this one would be useful.

 

Firstly, the whole web site is designed to take advantage of Microsoft IE "frames". This has the advantage of making things load quite a lot more quickly. Although Netscape Navigator can also accommodate a frames page, our preliminary testing indicates there may be some alignment problems using that browser. If so, our site has a "no frames" facility which will activate if frames is switched off on your browser. If you have got this far, you most likely have access to the frames facility.

 

We have also designed the web site to use a full-screen presentation. In IE this is obtained by using the F11 button of your keyboard to toggle between full-screen and window modes.

 

Finally, we expect that you will use the back button of you browser to got to a previous page - especially when viewing photographs etc. Of course you can use side-buttons and the other tool bars in the usual manner.

 

The Milparinka Archaeology web site itself contains information presented from an archaeologist's perspective, even though a lot of the information is historical rather than archaeological. Because archaeologists have always called the places where they find interesting things 'archaeological sites', we use that term -  'site'  - when referring to places like "Mount Browne", "Tibooburra" etc. Similarly, when we have a link to "Sites in Outback NSW" or "Other Sites in Australia", we are linking to information about archaeological sites. We use 'web site' when referring to a page on the world-wide-web, whether it be this web-site or one maintained by someone else.

 

The main focus of the Milparinka Archaeology site is the Far West of New South Wales, Australia, but there is information here about a wide variety of other places. To get to the information, you simply click on a link. The trick is to know which link to use. For information about Milparinka, Tibooburra etc. you click on a link in the left-side panel. For information about sites which are not listed in the left-side panel - and there will eventually be quite a number of these – you must first click upon ‘Other Sites in Australia’ or ‘Sites in the PR (Peoples Republic) of China’, and then choose the archaeological site of interest.  At present, however, those  links only take you to a page which indicates the subjects which will be covered. Should you have an urgent need for specific information about one of those archaeological sites, you could contact us for advice about out publication schedule.

 

Within each page are numerous hyperlinks, embedded in the text. These will generally take you to pages addressing specific subject matter, or to a page which provides photographs of the site and a more detailed discussion. However, some are links to a small piece of additional information, which appear as a new frame. You close that frame to read on.

 

For example:

From the initial screen, click on Mount Browne, and a page or more of general information about Mount Browne will appear in the right-side panel. In the information about Mount Browne mention of the “Afghans” is made. The word “Afghan” is in blue colour and is underlined, indicating the presence of a hyperlink. Clicking on the blue-coloured word will take you to a page specifically about the Afghan cameleers and traders who plied the western plains of New South Wales right up to the 1950s. Within the “Afghans” page there are other hyperlinks, which might take you to information about specific people, or even back to one of the main pages such as “Milparinka”. Links will also take you to audio clips, photographs, and in some cases, video clips.

However, also within the Mount Browne page is a link to "John Harris Browne". The link looks identical to the "Afghans" one, but only brings up a frame with a paragraph or two about that man in some other document. There is not enough information to justify a full page, which is why we use this second approach for some material.

 

In some instances our approach will change as we develop the web - so a link which now takes you to a small piece of information could eventually take you to a full web page of John Harris Browne's exploits, his life story, or even a link to another web site... Also, some information will only be available as Adobe PDF files. To read these you will need a password and a copy of Adobe Acrobat. When this phase of development is reached will will provide information about how to obtain a password for access.

 

There is also a search button in the page banner. This search facility will find every mention of a word or phrase in this web site, which can be a bit of a pain. But it will sometimes help you find things much more quickly. 

 

The whole system can get to be a bit of a maze, or at least a web – which  of course is why we call this the world-wide web… But it doesn't really matter - as long as you enjoy the experience!!

 

Geoff Svenson

January 2002