Adult Nonfiction Books
Koala: A Life in Trees
In Search of the Woman who Sailed the World
In Search of the Woman who Sailed the World
An immersive, entertaining journey into the hidden life of the koala, revealing what life is really like up in the trees.
In Search of the Woman who Sailed the World
In Search of the Woman who Sailed the World
In Search of the Woman who Sailed the World
An ode to the sea, to science and to one remarkable woman who charted her own course for others to follow.
The Wasp and the Orchid
In Search of the Woman who Sailed the World
The Wasp and the Orchid
‘Have you met Mrs Edith Coleman? If not you must – I am sure you will like her – she’s just A1 and a splendid naturalist.’
Killers in Eden
Voyages to the South Seas
The Wasp and the Orchid
The story of a strange and unique hunting partnership between killer whales and human in the small town of Eden.
Voyages to the South Seas
Voyages to the South Seas
Voyages to the South Seas
Brings to life the courageous and often tragic voyages of Australia’s French explorers
A Future in Flames
Voyages to the South Seas
Voyages to the South Seas
Why is Australia so prone to fires? Have we made things better or worse? Is it possible to live in the Australian bush and be safe from fire?
Continent of Curiosities
As if for a Thousand Years
As if for a Thousand Years
In museum backrooms, millions of specimens lie waiting to be discovered – bones, fossils, skins, eggs, rocks, plants and artefacts. Each one has a story to tell, a place in the history of our continent.
As if for a Thousand Years
As if for a Thousand Years
As if for a Thousand Years
The story of Victoria's unique Land Conservation Council and its role on protecting and managing public land and wilderness areas.
Children's Books
John Long: Fossil hunter
Prehistoric Giants: The megafauna of Australia
Prehistoric Giants: The megafauna of Australia
Have you ever wanted to be a palaeontologist? Find out how to turn a childhood passion into a lifelong career.
Prehistoric Giants: The megafauna of Australia
Prehistoric Giants: The megafauna of Australia
Prehistoric Giants: The megafauna of Australia
Step back to a time when giant goannas and marsupial lions stalked the Australian bush.
From Dinosaurs to Diprotodons: Australia's amazing fossils
From Dinosaurs to Diprotodons: Australia's amazing fossils
From Dinosaurs to Diprotodons: Australia's amazing fossils
Ever met a thingadonta or seen a fangaroo?
Come on an Aussie fossil adventure and discover prehistoric life down under.
Prehistoric Marine Life in Australia’s Inland Sea
From Dinosaurs to Diprotodons: Australia's amazing fossils
From Dinosaurs to Diprotodons: Australia's amazing fossils
Step back to a time when Australia’s red centre was flooded by a vast shallow ocean, the Eromanga Sea.
Anthologies and Documentaries
The First Wave: Exploring early coastal contact history in Australia
The First Wave: Exploring early coastal contact history in Australia
The First Wave: Exploring early coastal contact history in Australia
Edited by Danielle Clode and Gillian Dooley. A thought-provoking collection of essays, stories, poems and articles about early contact on Australian shores.
Science and Exploration: French Voyages of Discovery to Australia (film)
The First Wave: Exploring early coastal contact history in Australia
The First Wave: Exploring early coastal contact history in Australia
Discover Australia's fascinating French history - when French ships sailed the coast in pursuit of knowledge and enlightenment. Screening soon on SBS
Essays and other writing
As well as books, I occasionally write essays, book reviews and other short forms of writing.
Fire, Fear and Flames: Emotion and Evolution in Bushfire History - Understanding the psychology of our response to fire helps us to plan for the unimaginable and make sure that we don't keep forgetting the seemingly unforgettable.
Living with fire and facing our fears - Living in a bushfire zone in a changing climate has never been so scary. And yet being prepared means we need to recognise that every little bit we do helps to ensure our survival - even if we really don't want to think about it.
Is this the Endgame - and did we win or did we lose? I'm sure I'm not the only one to come out of Marvel movies a little bewildered at times. Entertaining though they are, popular movies often reveal a lot about how we think about big issues, like climate change and why we seem unwilling to stop it.
Mapping forgotten worlds: a conversation with Danielle Clode – This article records a conversation between myself and Gillian Dooley about style, genre and technique in my writing, for the journal Writers in Conversation. Always fun to talk about writing, especially across different books, which all demand very different approaches.
Connecting collections and collecting connections – One of the most fascinating and unexpected aspects of my research into the life of Edith Coleman was the material found in herbaria. This essay, in a special issue of the creative arts journal Unlikely, explores the connections between art and herbarium.
Mauritius – Paradise Regained – I visited Mauritius in the Indian Ocean when researching my books on French exploration and was impressed by conservation efforts to save species on the brink of extinction. Published in the excellent online nature magazine Zoomorphic.
The Last Whale – a short story inspired by real events. After the death of his long-time companion, the killer whale Old Tom, the whaler George Davidson decides to go out one last time, at the age of 70, to single-handedly harpoon his final humpback. Published in Transnational Literature.
Seeing the wood for the trees – There are few trees more iconically Australian than gum trees and yet the Tasmanian blue gum Eucalyptus globulus has, remarkably, reverse colonised the world, becoming one of the most widespread tree species on the planet. This personal essay was published as part of the Dahl Trust Fellowship in Australian Book Review.
Here on Earth – This review essay on Tim Flannery’s Here on Earth was commissioned by Reading Australia as part of a series on Australian authors and their works.
Cooperative killers helped hunt whales – One of the things I discovered in writing Killers in Eden was the important (and often unacknowledged) role of the local Indigenous community in established a relationship with killer whales and working in the whaling industry. In this article I explore that forgotten history for Afloat Magazine.
You can find my academic papers on ResearchGate or Academia and I regularly review for Australian Book Review and the Weekend Australian.
