Daniel Connell

Crawford School of Economics and Government

Daniel Connell works as an environmental historian in the Crawford School of Economics and Government at the Australian National University and the ANU Water Initiative. Since the mid 1980s, as a journalist and researcher he has focussed on the Murray-Darling Basin. (This included eight years at the Murray-Darling Basin Commission.) His book Water politics in the Murray-Darling Basin, based on his PhD thesis, examined the disputes about the future of the region from the perspective of the National Water Initiative. It was published by Federation Press in February 2007.

Research interests/expertise

People and their environment in the Murray-Darling Basin 1750 - 2050.
Cultural and institutions dimensions of water management
The design of institutions involved with environmental management.
International cross-jurisdictional water management and related cultural, economic, political and environmental issues.
The hydrological dimensions of climate change

Curriculum Vitae

2007	Joint appointment - Lecturer Crawford School, Fellow ANU Water Initiative.
2006	PhD Australian National University Post-doctoral fellow Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies ANU Publishing Fellow Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies ANU
1984 - present	Oral historian (part-time in parallel with other work) working for the National Library of Australia, the Australian War Memorial, Old Parliament House, Murray-Darling Basin Commission, the Australian National University and the Australian Bureau of Statistics etc.
1994 - 2002	Murray-Darling Basin Commission. Liaison with print and electronic news media, project and event management, audio and video documentary production, various corporate writing activities, management of annual reports 1997-2002, oral history projects and editing of a range of publications.
Pre - 1994	Radio and television producer in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's then Educational Broadcasting Department, producing programs for primary and secondary schools and, later, radio features in the Social History Unit in Radio National. During his time with the ABC, he was seconded to Papua New Guinea for three periods totalling eight years in the 1970s and 80s. There he worked as a broadcaster, manager and trainer with the Australian Broadcasting Commission (as it was then) and National Broadcasting Commission, as the director of the third South Pacific Festival of Arts (Pt Moresby 1980) during its planning phase, and as the director of a media unit attached to a World Bank rural development project in the southern highlands province (1982-84).

Publications

Books

Connell, Daniel, (2007 February) Water politics in the Murray-Darling Basin, Federation Press, Sydney.
Schofield N., Burt, A., Connell, D., 2003, Environmental water allocation: principles, policies and practices, Land and Water Australia, Canberra.
Connell, D., 2002, (Ed.) Uncharted Waters, Murray-Darling Basin Commission, Canberra. (A book of essays and artwork designed to promote debate about the future of the Murray-Darling Basin based on his proposal.)
Connell, D, 1990, The Confessions of Clyde Cameron, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Sydney.
Connell, D, 1988, The War At Home, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Sydney. (based on a radio series re life in Australia during WWII)

Journal articles, chapters, papers, book reviews etc

Connell, D., 2007 April/May, 'Contrasting approaches to water management in the Murray-Darling Basin', Australasian Journal of Environmental Management.
Connell, D., 2006 September, 'Tail wags dog - water markets and the National Water Initiative', Public Administration Today.
Connell, D., Hussey, K., 13/2/06 'Water policy is not that simple', www.onlineopinion.com.au
Connell, D., Colebatch, H., 2006, 'The Murray-Darling Basin - an evolving sphere of public policy' in Colebatch., H, (Ed.) Beyond the policy cycle: the policy process in Australia, Allen and Unwin, Sydney.
Connell D., Dovers, S., Grafton, Q., 2006, 'A critical analysis of the National Water Initiative' Australasian Journal of Natural Resources Law and Policy.
Connell, D., 2005, 'Talking Sustainability but dreaming production' in Agnoletti, M., Armiero, M., Barca, S., Corona, G., (Eds.) History and sustainability, proceedings of the third international conference of the European society for environmental history, European Society for Environmental History, Florence.
Connell, D., 2005, 'Managing Climate for the Murray-Darling Basin 1850-2050' chapter 7 in Sherratt, T, Griffiths, T, Robin, L, (Eds.) A change in the weather: climate and culture in Australia, National Museum of Australian Press, Canberra.
Robin, L., Connell, D., 2005 'History' chapter 2 in Grafton, Q., Wasson, R., Robin, L., (Eds.), Understanding the Environment. UNSW Press, Sydney.
Connell, D., Dec 2003, 'Section 100: a barrier to reform?' Australasian Journal of Natural Resources Law and Policy pp. 83-97 (Vol 8, 2, 2003.).
Yencken D., Connell, D., 2002 'A Winding Trial' chapter 6, in Connell, D., (Ed.) Uncharted Waters Murray-Darling Basin Commission, Canberra.
Connell, D., 2002, book review of Sinclair, P., The Murray: a river and its people, Historical records of Australian Science, Vol 14 (2).

Contact Details

Telephone:		61 2 6125 7556
Email:		Daniel.connell@anu.edu.au
Mailing address:		Room 214, Crawford Building # 13, Ellery Crescent, The Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia

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