In addition to qualifications in Asian studies, David Lawrence has trained in librarianship and museum curatorial practice. He undertook research for his doctorate in the Fly estuary region of PNG. Since then he has worked in environmental anthropology and project management in the Asia/Pacific region.

Research interests/expertise

David is currently managing a major research project in the Solomon Islands for the AusAID funded Community Sector Program. He maintains a research interest in environmental anthropology.

Key publications

• The Great Barrier Reef: Finding the Right Balance. Edited by David Lawrence, Richard Kenchington and Simon Woodley. Melbourne, Melbourne University Press, 2002
• Kakadu: The Making of a National Park. Melbourne, Melbourne University Press/Miegunyah Press, 2000. (One of 5 finalists in the 2000 NSW Premier's History Awards for the Australian History Prize)
• 'Customary Exchange Across Torres Strait'. (Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 34) Brisbane: Queensland Museum, 1994.
• 'The early ethnographic writings of EWP Chinnery: Government Anthropologist New Guinea' Frederick Watson Fellowship Paper, National Archives of Australia, 2006. (http://www.naa.gov.au/About_Us/FrederickWatson/papers.html)
• Hem nao, Solomon Islands, tis taem: Community Sector Program: Report of the CSP Community Snapshot (with Matthew Allen and others) Honiara, Community Sector Program.
• Lower Fly River: area study: 'You can't buy another life from a Store'. (Report no. 9) Ok-Fly Social Monitoring Programme Report for Pacific Social Mapping and Unisearch PNG, 1994.(http://rspas.anu.edu.au/rmap/projects/Ok-Fly_social_monitoring/Ofsmp09-Lawrence1995-Lower-Fly.pdf)

Career highlights

Between 1990 and 1994 David was Coordinator of the Torres Strait Baseline Study for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. He was then seconded to work in the Kakadu National Park on a study of Aboriginal joint management. He has also written on the environmental management of the Great Barrier Reef and on marine issues in Southeast Asia.

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