We are saddened at the passing of our member, Emeritus Professor Heather Goodall. She died peacefully on 29 January 2026, surrounded by her family.
Heather was a collaborative historian, whose writings and teaching influenced generations of historians. Key areas of her work were Indigenous histories and relationships, environmental history, and intercolonial networks.
Her academic career commenced at Macquarie University in 1987, before heading to the University of Technology Sydney in 1989. She was initially appointed as the coordinator of the Applied History Masters program at UTS. Many of our members are graduates from this program. Heather remained associated with UTS for the rest of her career, collaborating across departments and across universities. She was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australin in 2007.
But Heather was more than an academic. She embodied the role of public historian as activist: committed to community, truth telling and social justice. Early in her career she worked at Tranby Aboriginal Cooperative College in Glebe, and then in South Australia with the Pitjantjatjara Council. Her work with Aboriginal communities included significant historical research to inform royal commissions, notably the Maralinga Royal Commission into British Nuclear Testing in Australia (1984–85) and the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (1990–91).
Heather had an extensive publication record in both scholarly and popular media. She was collegiate, warm and encouraging to other scholars, and was actively involved in many organisations and networks. Her extraordinary contribution was honoured with the 2025 Annual History Citation from the History Council of NSW. This was awarded in recognition of her outstanding research and scholarship, particularly in environmental history, along with her broader contributions through teaching, leadership, mentoring and community involvement.
Her legacy will be enduring. We encourage people to revisit some of her seminal works. These include:
- Invasion to Embassy: Land in Aboriginal Politics in New South Wales, 1770–1972, Allen & Unwin with Black Books, 1996 (republished Sydney University Press, 2008).
Inaugural winner of the Australin History Prize, NSW Premier’s History Awards 1997. - (with Isabel Flick) Isabel Flick: The Many Lives of an Extraordinary Aboriginal Woman, Allen & Unwin, 2004.
Winner of the Magarey Medal for biography 2005. - (with Alison Cadzow) Rivers and Resilience: Aboriginal People on Sydney’s Georges River, UNSW Press, 2009.
Shortlisted for the Community History Award, 2010 NSW Premier’s History Awards
You can read a taster of this research on the Dictionary of Sydney. - Beyond borders: Indians, Australians and the Indonesian Revolution, 1939 to 1950, Amsterdam University Press, 2019.
- Georges River Blues: Swamps, Mangroves and Resident Action, 1945-1980, ANU Press, 2022. Free download available.
You may read more about Heather’s career in the Encyclopedia of Women & Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia.
Many of her more recent papers may be accessed through her profile on Academia.
Dr Lisa Murray
Chair, PHA (NSW & ACT)