Associate Professor David Andrew Roberts

Head of Department, Archaeology, Classics and History - School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences

David Andrew Roberts

Phone: +61 2 6773 3794

Email: drobert9@une.edu.au

Biography

Associate Professor David Andrew Roberts has over twenty years experience as a researcher and supervisor, with expertise in early Australian History. He is the editor (since 2003) of the Journal of Australian Colonial History. His current research is funded by an ARC Discovery Project Grant, "Inquiring into Empire: Remaking the British Empire after 1815 [DP180100537]".

Qualifications

BA(Hons), PhD (Newcastle)

Awards

Teaching Areas

  • HIST150 Colonial Australia
  • HIST338 Australian Frontiers: Rural and Regional Histories
  • HIST351 Convict Australia
  • HIST511 Crime, Incarceration, Servitude: Historical Views (with Dr Andrew Piper)
  • HINQ200 History - Uses and Abuses
  • HINQ201/501: Researching History

Primary Research Area/s

Australian Colonial History

Research Interests

2018- 2021 research funded by ARC Discovery Project Grant: Inquiring into Empire: Remaking the British Empire after 1815 [DP180100537], administered through University of New South Wales.

2017-2019 research funded by an ARC Discovery Project Grant, titled Landscapes of Production and Punishment: the Tasman Peninsula 1830–77 [DP170103642], administered through the University of New England.

2010-2012 research funded by an ARC Discovery Project Grant, titled 'Liberty, Anti‑transportation and the Empire of Morality' [DP1096538] with Prof HM Carey, administered through University of Newcastle.

Research Supervision Experience

Successful PhD theses completions (as primary supervisor)

  • Myriam Amar, ‘Providing for the Royal Australian Air Force in the Defence of Australia 1934-1944: Meeting the Political and Economic Challenges in Strengthening Australia's Defences’ (2018)
  • Stephen Cunneen, 'From Phillip to Grose: Leadership in New South Wales from 1788 to 1794' (2011)
  • David Stoneman, 'The Church Act: The Expansion of Christianity or the Imposition of Moral Enlightenment' (2011)
  • Janette Holcomb, ' Opportunities and Risks in the Development of the NSW Shipping Industry, 1821-1850' (2010)
  • Margaret Ina Vivers, 'Female Perspectives: A Study of the Colonial Texts of Adelaide Bowler and Lucy Gray' (2008)
  • Kate Gahan, 'Live Like Us: The Aborigines Welfare Board and Assimilation in Northern NSW' (2007)

As secondary supervisor

  • Shawn Christopher Rowlands, 'The Manufacturers: Collection, Display and Aboriginality at the Queensland Museum From the Late Nineteenth to the Early Twentieth Century' (2011)
  • Kerry Mills, '"Of the People, By the People, For the People": Law-Making in New South Wales, 1843-1855' (2007)

Successful MA(Hons) theses completions (as primary supervisor)

  • Kris McCabe, "'Harry Grimsby' Reconsidered. The New South Wales Colonial Constabulary 1825-35' (2009)

PhD thesis examined

  • 1 for School of Communications, University of Technology, Sydney
  • 1 for School of Humanities, Griffith University (2016)
  • 2 for Research School of Humanities and the Arts, Australian National University
  • 1 for School of Classics and History, University of Tasmania
  • 2 for Department of History, University of Sydney
  • 1 for School of English, Media Studies and Art History, University of Queensland
  • 1 for Department of History, University of Melbourne
  • 1 for School of Humanities and Languages, University of New South Wales

MA theses examined

  • 1 for School of Historical and European Studies, La Trobe University (2012)
  • 1 for Faculty of Arts and Design, University of Canberra

Publications

Books & Monographs

  • Martin Crotty and D.A. Roberts (eds), Turning Points in Australian History, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney, 2009.
  • D.A Roberts & A. Parker (eds), Carl Warburton's Buffaloes: Adventures in Arnhem Land, Gecko Books, Marleston, 2007 xxiii + 261 pp.
  • Martin Crotty and D.A. Roberts (eds), The Great Mistakes of Australian History, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney, 2006.
  • Ancient Ochres: The Aboriginal Rock Paintings of Mount Borradaile, J.B. Books, Adelaide, 2003 (with Adrian Parker).

Refereed Articles and Book Chapters

  • (with Lisa Ford) '"Mr Peel’s Amendments” in New South Wales: Imperial Criminal Reform in a Distant Penal Colony’, The Journal of Legal History, Vol. 37, No. 2, 2016, pp. 198-214.
  • (with Jenny Wise), 'Development of Crime and the Criminal Justice System in Australia’, in A. Harness, B. Harris and D. Baker (eds), Locating Crime In Context and Place, Sydney, Federation Press, 2016, pp. 35-48.
  • (with Lisa Ford), Legal Change, Convict Activism and the Reform of Penal Relocation in Colonial New South Wales: The Port Macquarie Penal Settlement, 1822–26, Australian Historical Studies, Vol 46, Issue 2, June 2015, pp. 174-90.
  • (With Margaget Reeson) 'Wesleyan Methodist Missions to Australia and the Pacific’, in G. O'Brien and H.M. Carey, Methodism in Australia: A History, Ashgate, 2015, pp. 197-210.
  • 'Dissent and ill-discipline: The Newcastle Penal Settlement, 1804-1823’, in J. Bennett, N. Cushing and E. Eklund, Radical Newcastle, Sydney, NewSouth Publishing, 2015, pp. 16-23.
  • (with Lisa Ford),  'ŒNew South Wales penal settlements and the transformation of secondary punishment in the nineteenth-century British Empire', Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History, Vol. 15, No. 3, Winter 2014.
  • 'Beyond 'the Crossing’: The Restless Frontier at Bathurst in the 1820s', Journal of Australian Colonial History, Vol. 16, 2014, pp. 244-59.
  • (with Carol Baxter), 'Mrs Thunderbolt: Setting the Record Straight on the Life and Times of Mary Ann Bugg', Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, Vol. 99 Issue 1, 2013, pp. 55-75.
  • (with Lisa Ford) 'Expansion, 1820-1850', in Macintyre ABS (ed.), The Cambridge History of Australia Volume 1 Indigenous and Colonial Australia, edn. 1st, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, 2013, pp. 121 - 148.
  • (with Erik Eklund) Australian Convict Sites and the Heritage of Adaptation: The Case of Newcastle's Coal River Heritage Precinct, Australian Historical Studies, 43:3, 2012, pp. 363-80.
  • 'Remembering ''Australia's glorious League'': The Historiography of Anti-Transportation', Journal of Australian Colonial History, Vol. 14, 2012, pp. 205-215.
  • (with Carol Baxter) Exposing an exposé: Fact versus fiction in the resurrection of Captain Thunderbolt', Journal of Australian Studies, Vol. 26, No. 1, March 2012, pp. 1-15.
  • The 'Knotted Hands that Set us High': Labour History and the Study of Convict Australia, Labour History, No. 100, May 2011, pp. 33-50.
  • 'A "City on a Hill": Religion and Buildings on the Frontier Mission at Wellington Valley, New South Wales, Australian Religion Studies Review, Vol. 23, No.1, 2010, pp. 91-114.
  • (with Daniel Garland), The Forgotten Commandant: James Wallis and the Newcastle Penal Settlement, 1816-1818', Australian Historical Studies, Vol. 41, No. 1, March 2010, pp. 5-24.
  • 'Bearing Australia's "beloved burden": recent offerings in Australian convict history', Journal of Australian Studies, Vol. 33, Issue 2, 2009, pp. 227–236
  • (with Hilary M. Carey), '"Beong! Beong!" (more! more!)": John Harper and the Wesleyan Mission to the Australian Aborigines', Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History, Vol.10, No.1, 2009.
  • (with Martin Crotty), 'Introduction', in M. Crotty and D.A. Roberts (eds), Turning Points in Australian History, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney, 2009, pp. 1-17.
  • '26 January 1788: The Arrival of the First Fleet and the "Foundation of Australia"', in M. Crotty and D.A. Roberts (eds), Turning Points in Australian History, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney, 2009, pp. 32-47.
  • (with Iain Davidson), '14 000 BC: On Being Alone: The isolation of the Tasmanians', in M. Crotty and D.A. Roberts (eds), Turning Points in Australian History, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney, 2009, pp. 18-31.
  • '''language to save the innocent'':Reverend L. Threlkeld's linguistic mission', Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, Vol.94, Pt.2, December 2008, pp.107-125.
  • 'Russel Ward and the Convict Legend', Journal of Australian Colonial History, Vol.10, No.2, 2008, pp. 37-58
  • (with Jeffrey Atkinson), '''Men of Colour'': John Joseph and the Eureka treason trials', Journal of Australian Colonial History, Vol.10, No.1, 2008, pp. 75-98
  • (with Frank Bongiorno) 'Russel Ward's The Australian Legend at (Almost) Fifty', Australian Folklore, No.22, November 2007, pp.43-46
  • 'Introduction', in D.A Roberts & A. Parker (eds), Carl Warburton's Buffaloes:Adventures in Arnhem Land, Gecko Books, Marleston, 2007 pp vii-xxiii.
  • 'More sinned against than sinning': George Arnold Wood and the noble convict', in Making Australian History: Perspectives on the Past since 1788, D. Gare & D. Ritter, Thomson, Melbourne, 2007,pp 122-130.
  • (with Martin Crotty), 'Introduction', in Martin Crotty and David Andrew Roberts (eds), The Great Mistakes of Australian History, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney, 2006 pp. 1-13.
  • '"They would speedily abandon the country to the new comers": The denial of Aboriginal rights', in Martin Crotty and David Andrew Roberts (eds), The Great Mistakes of Australian History, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney, 2006, pp. 14-31.
  • 'The Frontier', in A. Atkinson, J. Ryan, I. Davidson and A. Piper (eds), High Lean Country: Land, people and memory in New England, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 2006, pp. 98-110.
  • '"The Valley of Swells": Educated convicts on the Wellington Valley settlement, 1827-31', History Australia, Vol. 3, No. 1, 2006, pp. 11.1-11.21.
  • 'Windradyne', in Australian Dictionary of Biography, 1580-1980, C. Cunneen (ed.), Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2005, pp. 408-9.
  • 'A "change of place": illegal movement on the Bathurst frontier, 1822-1825', Journal of Australian Colonial History, Vol. 7, 2005, pp. 97-122.
  • 'Nautical Themes in the Aboriginal Rock Paintings of Mount Borradaile, Western Arnhem Land', The Great Circle, Vol.26, No.1, 2004, pp.19-50.
  • 'The Bells Falls Massacre and Oral Tradition', in Attwood and Foster (eds.), Frontier Conflict: The Australian Experience, Canberra, National Museum of Australia, 2003, pp.150-8.
  • (with Hilary M. Carey) 'Smallpox and the Baiame Waganna of Wellington Valley, New South Wales 1829-40: the earliest nativist movement in Aboriginal Australia?', Ethnohistory, Vol. 49, No. 4, November 2002, pp. 821-69.
  • "`A Sort of Inland Norfolk Island"?: Isolation, Coercion and Resistance on the Wellington Convict Station, 1823-26', Journal of Australian Colonial History,  April 2000, pp. 50-72.
  • 'Bells Falls Massacre and Bathurst's history of violence: local tradition and Australian historiography", Australian Historical Studies 26, October 1995, pp.615-33.

Non-refereed publications and websites

  • 'Bruce Arthur Mitchell (1935-2009)', Journal of Australian Colonial History, Vol. 12, 2010, pp. 230-33.
  • 'Precious but Partial? Some Comments on the Nomination of Australian Convict Sites for World Heritage Listing', Australian Policy and History, May 2010
  • 'The Legend Turns fifty', Inside Story: Current Affairs and Culture, 27 November 2008
  • 'Authenticating a Lock of Napoleon's Hair: The Bizarre and Dubious Career of Frederick Lahrbush', The Napoleonic Alliance Gazette 2, 2002.
  • (with Sue Wiblin) 'The Castle Forbes Affair: Records of the 1833 Convict Revolt in the Hunter Valley, NSW Australia',
  • (with Hilary M. Carey) 'The Wellington Valley Project: Papers relating the Church Missionary Society Mission to Wellington Valley, New South Wales, 1830-1842'
  • (with Hilary M. Carey) 'Awaba: A Database of Historical Materials Relating to the Aborigines of the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie Region',

Book reviews

  • Anne McMahon’s Floating Prisons: Irish Convict Hulks and Voyages to New South Wales (Halstead Press, 2017). Reviewed for Australian Historical Studies, Vol. 49, Issue 1, 2018, pp. 140-141. <http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1031461X.2018.1415619>
  • Andrew Gill,  Convict assignment in Western Australia, Carlisle, Hesperian Press, 2016. Reviewed for Labour History, No. 112, May 2017, pp. 224-226.
  • B. Smith, The luck of the Irish: How a shipload of convicts survived the wreck of the hive to make a new life in Australia, Crows Nest (NSW), Allen and Unwin, 2014. Reviewed for Labour History, No. 108, June 2015, pp. 196-197.
  • Emma Christopher, A Merciless Place: The Lost Story of Britain's Convict Disaster in Africa and How it Led to the Settlement of Australia, Sydney, NSW: Allen and Unwin, 2010. Reviewed for Britain and the World, Vol. 7, Issue. 2, pet 2014, 287-89.
  • T. Moore, Death or Liberty: Rebels and Radicals Transported to Australia 1788-1868,
    Sydney, Murdoch Books, 2010. Reviewed for Reviews in Australian Studies, Vol 5, No 2, 2011.
  • A. Alexander, Tasmania's Convicts: How Felons Built a Free Society, Sydney, Allen and Unwin, 2009. Reviewed for Reviews in Australian Studies, Vol 4, No 5, 2010.
  • G. Karskens, The Colony: A History of Early Sydney. Sydney, Allen and Unwin, 2009. Reviewed for Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, Vol. 96, Pt. 1, 99-101.
  • S. Faulker, Life B'long Ali Drummond: A Life in the Torres Strait by Samantha Faulkner (with Ali Drummond). Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press, 2007. Reviewed for Reviews in Australian Studies, Vol. 3, No. 9, 2008.
  • B. Smith, Australia's Birthstain: the startling legacy of the convict era, Allen & Unwin, 2008. Reviewed for the Australian (Weekend Australian Review), 26-27 April 2008.
  • R. Waterhouse, The Vision Splendid: A Social And Cultural History of Rural Australia, Fremantle, Curtin University Press, 2005. Reviewed for History AustraliaVol.4, No.2, December 2007.
  • C. Dyer, The French Explorers and the Aboriginal Australians, 1772-1839, University of Queensland Press, 2005. Reviewed forInternational History Review, Vol.29, 2007.
  • J. Connor, The Australian Frontier Wars, 1788-1838. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2002. Reviewed for International History Review, Vol.27, 2005.
  • J. Campbell, Invisible Invaders: Smallpox and other Diseases in Aboriginal Australia, 1780-1880. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press. Reviewed in Australian Aboriginal Studies, 2003.
  • A. Curthoys, Freedom Ride: A Freedom Rider Remembers. Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 2002. Reviewed in Australian Aboriginal Studies, 2003.
  • R. Johnson, The Search for the Inland Sea: John Oxley, Explorer, 1783-1828, Melbourne University Press, 2001. Reviewed in Journal of Australian Colonial History , 2002.
  • L. Frost and H. Maxwell-Stewart (eds.), Chain Letters: Narrating Convict Lives. Melbourne University Press, 2002, Reviewed in Journal of Australian Colonial History, 2002.

Clinical Skills and Experience

Memberships

Consultancy Interests

Community and Advocacy Organisation Collaborations

Related Links

Further Information