Rebecca Jones

I am an historian of the environment, climate and health.

My research includes environmental history, Australian climate and weather history, agricultural history and rural health.  I have published in the fields of environmental history, drought history, organic farming and gardening as well as rural mental and emotional health.

Slow Catastrophes: Living with Drought in Australia exploring resilience to drought in nineteenth and twentieth century Australia was published by Monash University Publishing in 2017. My new research explores the physical and emotional effects (including mental health) of extreme climatic events in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries through the focus of the Australian Inland Mission and Flying Doctor Service.

I have experience both as an academic and applied (public) historian.  I have worked at the Australian National University and Monash University and held research Fellowships at the National Library of Australia in 2018, the CH Currey Fellowship at the State Library of New South Wales in 2020 and the History Council of South Australia Fellowship in 2021-2022.  As a pubic historian, I worked for Museum Victoria, Heritage Hill Museum, Heritage Victoria, Australian Heritage Commission, community groups and local government.

Recently published: ‘Mapping the Inland: maps of the Australian Inland Mission and Flying Doctor Service of Service in the 1910s-1930s’, an essay exploring the concerns of the Australian Inland Mission through their maps.