Dr John Young
Honorary Associate
Contact Details
| Contact Campus |
Sandy Bay Campus |
| Building |
Geography-Geology Building |
| Room Reference |
403 |
| Telephone |
+61 3 6226 2463 |
| Fax |
+61 3 6226 2989 |
| Email |
youngzjr@southernphone.com.au |
Achievements
Dr Young is an Honorary Research Associate of the School of Geography and Environmental Studies in the University of Tasmania, and a former Director of the Graduate Centre for Environmental Studies at the University of Adelaide, in South Australia
He studied History at the universities of Auckland and Oxford, before joining the History department at the University of Adelaide in 1962, where he specialised in the history of the Pacific Islands, and became Chairman of the department in 1983-5. His books include Adventurous Spirits(Queensland University Press, 1984) on planter society in Fiji, and Sustaining the Earth, (Harvard University Press, 1991), on environmental problems and political solutions.
He left Adelaide University in 1991, and settled in Tasmania, where he and his wife, Ruth, founded the Shipwrights Point School of Wooden Boatbuilding. This engaged him in the history, philosophy and politics of Tasmanian forestry, which is the subject of his paper.He has taught occasionally in the departments of History and Classics and the School of Geography and Environmental Studies, of which he is an Hon Research Associate.
Community Engagement I am Editor, and major contributor to Garboard Strake, the quarterly magazine of the Living Boat Trust Inc, a not for profit Community Association in Franklin which teaches local children and adults the arts of wooden boatbuilding and restoration, small boat cruising and sailing. We have contributed to the Tasmanian Bi-centenary by researching and constructing a reproduction of Swiftsure, a 31foot 8" whaleboat built in Hobart in 1860. She is used reglularly by educational institutions, and will participate in the Wooden Boat Festival next February.
I am also organising an expedition for open wooden boats from Recherche Bay to Hobart from 1 Feb to 9th Feb 2007. It will use the title "Tawe Nunnugah" or "going by canoe" in the indigenous language of the De'Entrecasteaux Channel Region. It will combine adventure with Cultural and historical lectures by prominent Tasmanians along the way, calling at Southport, South Bruny, Dover Franklin, Cygnet, and Coningham on the way.
I have also served for the past year on the Advisory Committee of the Huon Learning and Information Network Centre, (LINC)
Publications
My only publications this year have been a paper entitled Who We are and What we do, Why we are Important and How we want Tasmania's Forests to be Managed, on website www.twff.com.au, and The Usual Suspects: Tasmania's Ecologically Sustainable and Economically viable companion to Industrial Forestry, In Tasmanian Times June 2006
Conferences
I presented The Usual Suspects as an opening address at a Talking Timbers - Talking Forests one day Forum, organised by Timber Workers For Forests for Groups interested in alternatives to the clear-felling of old growth forests, on 9th July at Archer's Manor Launceston
