It is with immense sadness that the AANZEHN shares the news that our friend and colleague Heather Goodall passed away peacefully on 29 January 2026, surrounded by her family. Heather was a powerhouse of a historian, a leader and mentor to generations of Australian scholars, and an immense inspiration to many of us. The Network also benefited from her vital and enthusiastic membership of our steering committee.
In acknowledgement of Heather’s passing, her friends and colleagues Libby Robin and Tom Griffiths share the following reflection on her life and career.
If you would like to make a donation in Heather’s honour, her family suggest that a donation to support action for climate justice would be a fitting tribute: https://knittingnannas.org/donations/
Vale Heather Goodall
Environmental historians will be saddened to learn of the death of our dear friend Heather Goodall on 29 January 2026. We remember and celebrate her warm collegiality.
Her family, Judith, Emma, Paul, Sal, Peter and Joni, sent this message to colleagues and friends:
After a life full of joy, loving, traveling, writing, learning and teaching, Heather died peacefully on the 29th of January, surrounded by her family. Thank you for being part of her life.
We are deeply sad and we hold her very closely in our hearts.
It has been a privilege and a delight to have worked with Heather on the team of the National Environmental History Workshops (Australian National University, 2002—2018), where so many members of the Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand Environmental History Network enjoyed her intellectual generosity and wisdom. Heather was an active and valued member of our Network’s steering group.
She was a gifted mentor and friend to historians and geographers all around Australia and the world, sharing multicultural water stories from Sydney, Brewarinna (where the river runs backwards), India and Europe, and beyond. She was a listener and enabler of others, particularly in the fields of Indigenous history, Ocean and River history, Environmental activism and Public History. She was a great supporter of the Australian Historical Association and regular at AHA annual meetings.
Heather has published many important books, including:
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 Australian History Prize at the New South Wales Premier’s History Awards in 1997.
(with Isabel Flick) Isabel Flick: The Many Lives of an Extraordinary Aboriginal Woman, Allen & Unwin, 2004. Winner of the Magarey Medal for biography in 2005.
(with Allison Cadzow) Rivers and Resilience: Aboriginal People on Sydney’s Georges River, UNSW Press, 2009.
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.
Heather was co-editor of Conservation and Society from 2009 to 2014 and served on the Editorial Board of the journal Environmental Humanities. Until her retirement she was a senior researcher with the UTS Centre for Cosmopolitan Civil Societies, and deputy coordinator of the Indian Ocean South Asia Research Network.
In her last years she was an active member of Sydney Knitting Nannas. Her family suggests that if you want to express condolences, a donation to support action for climate justice would be a fitting tribute: https://knittingnannas.org/donations/
Libby Robin and Tom Griffiths
