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Australian Contributions to Strategic and Military Geography pp 13–34Cite as

Australian Contributions to the History of Military Geography

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Part of the book series: Advances in Military Geosciences ((AMG))

Abstract

The history of Australian military geography is poorly recorded. This appears to be a first historical description of Australia’s contribution to military geography. This is rather surprising given geography’s links to Australia’s history of settlement, frontier wars and expeditionary wars, and the importance of war memorials in the Australian landscape and culture. Using a few key themes, periods and profiles of several individuals, it becomes clear that there is a need for a more deliberate effort to consider the sub-discipline of military geography in Australia. Such an effort would start to close a gap that is similarly reported in Canada’s and South Africa’s military geography. In Australia, discussions of military geography are held mainly in government whereas strategy is discussed in international relations. There is superficially little academic interest in military geography. In Australian government, business and military there are people using integrated human and biophysical geography. There is potential for this to be a growing dialogue organised in a sub-discipline of military geography. A narrative history of this sub-discipline will inform users of military geography and identify where future efforts may best contribute.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Physical and Environmental Science, University of New South Wales, Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra, 2610, ACT, Australia

    Stuart Pearson

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Correspondence to Stuart Pearson .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Physical and Environmental Science, University of New South Wales, Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra, Aust Capital Terr, Australia

    Stuart Pearson

  2. Joint and Operations Division, Defence Science and Technology Group, Department of Defence, Canberra, Aust Capital Terr, Australia

    Jane L. Holloway

  3. School of Physical and Environmental Science, University of New South Wales, Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra, Aust Capital Terr, Australia

    Richard Thackway

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Pearson, S. (2018). Australian Contributions to the History of Military Geography. In: Pearson, S., Holloway, J., Thackway, R. (eds) Australian Contributions to Strategic and Military Geography. Advances in Military Geosciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73408-8_2

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