Dr Peter Crabb

Contacts

BSc (Hons), Glasgow; Post-Graduate Certificate in Education, London; MA, Adelaide; PhD, Hull
Honorary Senior Lecturer

Academic positions at University of Adelaide, University of Hull, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Macquarie University, University of New South Wales (Sydney), and University of New South Wales (ADFA).

Visiting positions at The Australian National University, Saint Mary's University, Halifax, the Murray-Darling Basin Commission, and the New South Wales State Department of Water Resources.

Established the Association for Canadian Studies in Australia and New Zealand.

Received Northern Telecom Five Continents Award in Canadian Stuies, 1989.

Received Merit Award in recognition of ten years' service to the Murray Darling Association, 2001.

Research interests

Natural resource and environmental management, particularly water resources in inter-jurisdictional river basins. I have a long-standing interest in the Murray-Darling Basin, my first related publications being in 1967. I am currently undertaking an historical study of the Inter-State Commission (specified in the Constitution, but not in existence) and its relationship with the River Murray Waters Agreement, the first of the inter-jurisdictional agreements for the management of the Bsin.

I have undertaken other historical research, primarily concerned with some of the reporters who reported on the nineteenth century goldfields of New South Wales and Victoria. This work has been published in journal articles and a biography of Charles Edward de Boos (see publications list). Further work from this research deals with aspects of the environmental history of the goldfields.

  • Worboys, G, Driscoll, D & Crabb, P, eds, 2018, Feral Horse Impacts: The Kosciuszko Science Conference, Australian Academy of Science, Australia.
  • Dalton, B, Antonia, A, Crabb, P et al 2016, 'Identifying another goldfields reporter: Frederick Dalton (1815-80)', History Australia, vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 557-574.
  • Crabb, P 2016, 'Just where will you spend your 'inevitable citizenship in the country of the old'?', Geographical Research, vol. 54, no. 3, pp. 348-354.
  • Crabb, P 2015, '"His life history can be told in a few words" Charles Edward Augustus de Boos 1819-1900', in Robert Nash (ed.), A New Tapestry: Australian Huguenot Families, Huguenot Society of Australia Inc, Australia, pp. 109-120.
  • Crabb, P, Antonia, A & Craig, H 2014, 'Who wrote 'A Visit to the Western Goldfields'? Using computers to analyse language in historical research', History Australia, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 177-193.
  • Crabb, P 2012, 'The Necessity for Multi-disciplinary research: Ralph Jacobi's Institute of Freshwater Studies', Australian Geographer, vol. 43, no. 1, pp. 1-16.
  • Crabb, P & Dovers, S 2007, 'Managing natural resources across jurisdictions: lessons from the Australian Alps', Australasian Journal of Environmental Management, vol. 14, no. 4, pp. 210-219.
  • Crabb, P 2003, 'Straddling boundaries: inter-governmental arrangements for managing natural resources', in Stephen Dovers and Su Wild River (ed.), Managing Australia's Environment, The Federation Press, Annandale, NSW, pp. 229-254.
  • Crabb, P 2002, 'Irrigation: environmental impacts', in Ted Munn (ed.), Encyclopedia of Global Environmental Change, John Wiley & Sons Inc, UK, pp. 392-399.
  • Lovering, J, Crabb, P & Goss, K 2001, 'Water and mining in the Murray-Darling Basin: meeting the demands for a sustainable environment', Geological Society of Australia Special Publication (now Australian Journal of Earth Science), vol. 21, pp. 145-151.
  • Crabb, P 2001, 'Australia's Murray-Darling Basin Initiative: correcting the record', Water International, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 444-447.

Formal and more especially informal assistance with the research of honours and graduate students.