Hillshade’s Services
Every project presents different challenges. Some require a detailed historical landscape change assessment, while others need specialist mapping, photogrammetry modelling outputs, or an understanding of historical mining impacts. Hillshade's services can be delivered independently or integrated to provide a comprehensive understanding of landscape change and its implications for cultural heritage, infrastructure planning, and land management.
Historical Landscape Change Assessments
Understanding how a landscape has changed through time provides critical context for cultural heritage management, infrastructure planning, and land management. Historical landscape change assessments investigate the cumulative effects of natural and cultural landscape change processes, such as urbanisation, resource extraction, agriculture, landfilling, erosion, and river modification, to explain how present-day landscapes came to be and what those changes mean for archaeological potential and project planning.
Hillshade combines archival research, historical mapping, aerial imagery, LiDAR, historical survey data, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to reconstruct historical landscapes and identify where ground surfaces are likely to have been removed, preserved, or buried. Where appropriate, assessments incorporate Digital Elevation Models of Difference (DoDs), a methodology developed and refined through Greg's doctoral research that models and quantifies historical landscape change, allowing areas of removal or deposition to be identified and interpreted.
Rather than relying on assumptions about disturbance, assessments provide an evidence-based prediction of landscape change that can be integrated into project planning and risk assessments.
Cultural Heritage Management Plans (CHMPs)
Due diligence and heritage risk assessments
Infrastructure and development projects
Registered Aboriginal Party decision making
Land management and environmental assessments including ground contamination projects
Strategic planning and desktop investigations
Historical Landscape Change Assessments can support:
Some clients require specialist DoD modelling and interpretation to support existing investigations, while others seek a comprehensive assessment incorporating historical research, landscape interpretation, heritage inventories, and reporting. Hillshade can provide standalone technical inputs or deliver complete historical landscape change assessments, depending on the scope and objectives of the project.
Assessments are tailored to the requirements of each project.
Historical Mining Impact Assessments
Historical gold mining fundamentally reshaped large areas of Victoria, altering ground surfaces through excavation, tailings deposition (i.e., ‘sludge’), river modification, and other earthworks. The outcomes of these processes can significantly influence archaeological potential, ground conditions, contamination risk, and project planning, yet the extent and nature of historical mining impacts are often poorly understood.
Hillshade undertakes historical mining impact assessments to evaluate the likelihood that historical mining has affected a project area and what those impacts may mean for cultural heritage management, infrastructure planning, environmental investigations, and land management. Assessments combine historical research, mining records, geological information, historical mapping, aerial imagery, elevation data, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to interpret landscapes, and assess the potential that an area was affected by mining and, if so, in what manner.
Recognising that historical records vary considerably across Victoria, assessments are tailored to the available evidence. Depending on the project, this may involve detailed historical investigations of documented mining landscapes or predictive modelling to evaluate the likelihood of mining-related landscape change in areas where historical evidence is less complete. Rather than treating mining as a simple indicator of disturbance, assessments consider the type, intensity, and likely outcomes of historical mining activities to provide a more nuanced understanding of ground conditions and archaeological potential.
Where appropriate, assessments can also evaluate the likelihood of historical sludge deposition using methodologies developed through doctoral research and subsequently refined through their application across major infrastructure projects. These approaches help identify areas where former ground surfaces may have been buried and preserved beneath mining sediments, supporting more targeted and evidence-based archaeological investigations.
Further Reading
The concepts underpinning Hillshade's approach to historical mining landscape assessment are discussed in:
Hil, G., et al. 2026. Capped Country: Assessing the presence and implications of historical gold mining and sludge for Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Management—with an example from Wadawurrung Country, Excavations, Surveys and Heritage Management in Victoria, 14. https://doi.org/10.26181/31291435
Hil, G. 2022. Rethinking Disturbance: Characterising the outcomes of cultural landscape change as artificial ground for archaeologists. Unpublished PhD thesis, La Trobe University. (Pages 71-119) https://doi.org/10.26181/22408327
LiDAR, Photogrammetry, & Terrain Modelling
High resolution terrain models are fundamental to many archaeological, environmental, engineering, and land management investigations. Hillshade provides specialist LiDAR processing, photogrammetric modelling, and elevation data processing to produce accurate, project-ready spatial products that provide the foundation for further analysis and interpretation.
Services include Digital Elevation Model (DEM) production from current and historical elevation datasets, orthomosaics, point clouds, contours, and a wide range of terrain derivatives including hillshades, slope models, Local Relief Models (LRMs), Sky View Factor, openness, curvature, and other analytical surfaces. Hillshade also processes existing photogrammetric datasets and high-resolution aerial imagery to generate three-dimensional terrain models suitable for archaeological, environmental, and land management applications.
By transforming raw spatial data into high-quality geospatial products, Hillshade provides clients with reliable datasets that can be integrated into GIS workflows or interpreted by project teams as part of broader heritage, environmental, and infrastructure assessments.
Hillshade can source LiDAR datasets and process raw LAS point cloud data into sub-metre Digital Elevation Models and other terrain products.
Need LiDAR data for your project?
Digital Elevation Model (DEM) production
LiDAR sourcing, point cloud processing, and classification
Photogrammetric processing of aerial imagery and existing photo datasets
Terrain derivative generation (hillshade, slope, Sky View Factor, openness, Local Relief Models)
Typical applications include:
Specialist Mapping Support
High-quality mapping is essential for communicating complex spatial information and supporting informed decision-making. Hillshade provides specialist mapping and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) support for heritage consultancies, Registered Aboriginal Parties, government agencies, developers, and researchers requiring specialist spatial analysis and mapping solutions.
Services are tailored to the requirements of each project and range from regional cultural landscape mapping through to historical map georeferencing, predictive modelling, spatial analysis, and the integration of historical and contemporary datasets. Hillshade also develops publication-quality maps and atlases that communicate complex spatial information clearly and effectively.
Have a mapping problem? Get in touch to discuss your project.