My most recent PhD completions at Monash include-

Cheryl Glowrey, ‘An environmental history of Corner Inlet, South Gippsland, Victoria’, 2012

Kay Steel, ‘To the bitter end: the 1977 State Electricity Commission of Victoria maintenance workers’ dispute’, 2011.

I have 6 previous completions and have been active as a supervisor since 1997.

Postgraduate Examinations

I have examined several PhD theses, mostly in Australian history and Australian studies, for candidates from the University of Sydney, University of Queensland, University of Technology – Sydney, and James Cook University.

I have also examined a Masters of Communication dissertation from Monash, an M.Lit from the University of Newcastle, and a BA (Hons) thesis from the Australian Catholic University.

‘Radical Protest in Newcastle (Australia) in the late Nineteenth Century’,  Draft Chapter for the ‘Radical Newcastle Project’, December, 2012.

• Radical Newcastle Chapter

‘An Incident at Mount Morgan: company and class loyalties in a central Queensland gold mining town, 1882 to 1902′,  Paper Presented to the 17^th Australian Mining History Conference, Waihi, New Zealand, 5-11^th November, 2012.

• An Incident at Mount Morgan 

‘Scale and Place in History’, Paper presented to the Australian Historical Association Conference, 9-13^th July, 2012.

• AHA2012Scale and Place in History

Life Matters Interview, Life Matters, ABC Radio National, Australia, 27 September, 2012

Opinion Piece: Melbourne and Mining History, Monash University Online, 10 September, 2012

Living with the Boom Inside Story, 20 August 2012

Contributor to radio documentary, Guest Workers, Rear Vision, ABC Radio National, Australia, 29 July, 2012

My research focuses on a broad range of histories and communities with the common theme of people and place in Australia. I have done extensive oral history research and engaged with regional communities on history and heritage. I have also worked on notions of heritage and the role of heritage in cultural and economic revival.

Following an excellent mining history conference in Johannesburg in April, 2012 I am also developing a research agenda on international trajectories of mining and community development with colleagues from Monash, the ANU and international partners.

My more recent work is looking at outer suburban communities, particularly those on the border line between suburban and rural, where rapid change is proceeding on the edges of Australian cities.

I have been involved in Human Research Ethics for over 10 years and am currently a member of the Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee (MUHREC).

Grants

A History of Toomuc Creek, Pakenham, Victoria (2011-2012)

ARC Discovery Grant, Frontiers of Labour: A History of Industrial and Mining Towns in Australia (2005-2008)

Newcastle City Council, Preliminary study into the location of the first convict-coal mines of Newcastle (2003-2005)

NSW Heritage Office, Heritage Incentives Programme, Promoting and Resourcing Coal River, Newcastle (2006-2007)

Mining Towns: making a living, making a life, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney, 2012. ISBN 9781742233529. Published in August 2012.

The Living History of Fort Scratchley (with Julie McIntyre), University of Newcastle/Newcastle City Council, Newcastle, 2008. ISBN 978190701901

The Making of a Nation: selected readings in the making of a nation (2003)

Co-edited with Dr Martin Crotty, Tertiary Press, Melbourne, ISBN  0 86458 349 4 

Steel Town: The making and breaking of Port Kembla (2002) Melbourne University Press

Melbourne, ISBN  0-522-85026-X

I teach in the area of Australian History and Politics for both on campus and off-campus students. 

ATS1312 Modern World issues and events

ATS2569/3569 Australian History: professional and political contexts

ATS3797  Truth, Power and Structure: Understanding History and Politics

Looking towards Thackaringa from Broken Hill, 2006

Latest Publications

‘Australian convict sites and the heritage of adaptation: the case of Newcastle’s Coal River Heritage Precinct’, Australian Historical Studies. (with David Roberts) Vol. 43, No. 3, 2012, pp.363-380.

Mining Towns: making a living, making a life (2012) UNSW Press, Sydney, ISBN 9781742233529 

In 2001 I was a recipient of the Australian Academy of Humanities Travelling Fellowship to support the writing of Steel Town: the making and breaking of Port Kembla (MUP, 2002). That same year I held a visiting appointment at Georgetown University in Washington DC teaching Australian Studies.

In 2003 Steel Town was awarded the NSW Premier’s History Prize for Community and Regional History. In 2005 I spent a period in Canberra as a Visiting Fellow at the Humanities Research Centre, ANU, before joining Monash in 2008. I was the Head of the School of Applied Media and Social Sciences in the Faculty of Arts until June 2012.

I served as Treasurer of the Australian History Association from 2008 to 2012.  I am also on the editorial boards of History Australia, and Labour History.  I very much enjoy the interdisciplinary environment which a diverse University such as Monash allows. I am currently involved in projects focusing on people, place and community in regional areas and outer suburban sites.