I am an historian of environment, science, and culture. My research explores how
people live in and understand their environments, with a particular focus on rivers,
weather, and climate. I am especially interested in the changing environmental practices
and knowledges of town and city dwellers, industry members (farmers, miners), managers
and scientists (meteorologists, ecologists, industry technicians, engineers), as well as
the institutions that connect them. My research examines both historical and contemporary
changes in environmental understandings, their connections with specific places and the
particular environmental experiences of actors. My research centres on two themes: Past,
current and future river knowledge and management in Australia; and, the ways in which
government and non-government scientists have conceptualised weather and climate from the
beginning of the nineteenth century to the present.
