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André Brett

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Research fellow, The University of Melbourne

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)