I am a historian of Australia and New Zealand, primarily but not exclusively interested in political, environmental, economic, and transport themes. From June 2017 I will be a Vice-Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Wollongong researching a project entitled "Economic Growth and Environmental Change: Australasian Railways, 1850–1930". I am also researching colonial separation movements in Australasia.
In 2016 I published two books. Acknowledge No Frontier: The Creation and Demise of New Zealand's Provinces, 1853–76 (Otago University Press), is based on my PhD thesis completed at the University of Melbourne. It reveals the public works pressures and other demands that undermined New Zealand's provincial system of government. The second book, co-authored with Gwilym Croucher and Stuart Macintyre, is Life After Dawkins: The University of Melbourne in the Unified National System of Higher Education. It provides a holistic account of one institution's experience of major higher education reform.
I became passionate about Australian and New Zealand history while undertaking my undergraduate studies. I began my studies at the University of Queensland in 2006, but moved to the University of Melbourne at the start of the 2007 academic year. In 2008 I completed my Bachelor of Arts, majoring in History and Political Science, and went on to do Honours in History in 2009. My PhD, supervised by Stuart Macintyre and Patricia Grimshaw, was conferred in 2014 by the University of Melbourne.
My research interests extend to genocide studies, especially genocide in the colonial South Pacific and in post-colonial Africa. I have taught in this field at the University of Melbourne since 2011, and published on the Moriori genocide on the Chatham Islands (today part of New Zealand).
Experience
2013–present
Research assistant, University of Melbourne
2011–2016
Tutor in History, University of Melbourne
2014–2014
Researcher, Essential Media
Education
2013
University of Melbourne, PhD
2009
University of Melbourne, Bachelor of Arts (Honours)
2006
University of Queensland, Bachelor of Arts
Publications
2017
Australia and the Secretive Exploitation of the Chatham Islands to 1842, Journal of Australian Studies
2017
A Sudden Fancy for Tree-Planting? Forest Conservation and the Demise of New Zealand’s Provinces, Environment and History
2016
'Playing Sad Havoc with Our Forests': Foresters versus Railway Sleeper Hewers in Late Colonial Victoria, Australia's Ever-Changing Forests VII
2016
Acknowledge No Frontier: The Creation and Demise of New Zealand's Provinces, 1853–76, Otago University Press
2016
Life After Dawkins: The University of Melbourne in the Unified National System of Higher Education (with Gwilym Croucher and Stuart Macintyre), Melbourne University Publishing
2015
Did War Cause the Abolition of New Zealand’s Provincial System?, History Australia
2015
“Dreaming on a Railway Track: Public Works and the Demise of New Zealand’s Provinces”, Journal of Transport History
2015
“The Miserable Remnant of this Ill-Used People”: Colonial Genocide and the Moriori of New Zealand’s Chatham Islands, Journal of Genocide Research
2013
“A Limited Express or Stopping All Stations? Railways and Nineteenth-Century New Zealand”, Journal of New Zealand Studies
2012
“The Great Kiwi (Dis)Connect: The New Provinces Act and its Consequences”, Melbourne Historical Journal
Research Areas
New Zealand History (210311)
New Zealand Government And Politics (160608)
Maori History (210309)
Rail Transportation And Freight Services (150702)
Middle Eastern And African History (210310)
Australian Government And Politics (160601)
Australian History (Excl. Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander History) (210303)