AustLit logo

AustLit

David Horton David Horton i(A19144 works by) (a.k.a. David R. Horton)
Born: Established: 1945 ;
Gender: Male
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

Works By

Preview all
1 y separately published work icon Hammering on the Mind's Door David Horton , Port Adelaide : Ginninderra Press , 2023 26939931 2023 single work autobiography 'David Horton was born in 1945 and grew up in Perth, WA. He graduated from UWA with Zoology Honours in 1965, aged twenty, then had a disastrous year at University of Melbourne, six good years at University of New England, an unhappy year in York, England, and then twenty-four very mixed years at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (first as an archaeologist, then as a not insignificant figure in Australian publishing, then as the creator of the Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia). His research involved scincid lizards and biogeography (1966-1974); archaeozoology (sites from Cape York to SW Tasmania), Pleistocene occupation of Australia, Pleistocene extinctions, the role of fire in Australian ecosystems (1974 to 1984). He then ran Aboriginal Studies Press from 1984 to 1998. His major works include Recovering the Tracks (1991), The Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia (both print and electronic,1994), and Aboriginal Australia (map, 1996). He gained a BA, MSc and two doctorates along the way plus major awards (most notably the prestigious NSW Premier’s Literary Award 1995 Book of the Year 1994). After being forced to leave the institute, he published a book (The Pure State of Nature, 2000) on prehistory and ecology in Australia (notably considering the role of fire). He had also become a leading stud sheep breeder, and ran for federal parliament in the 2007 election. The following year saw the start of a run of bad health - a heart attack, then lymphoma developed in 2011 resulting in years of treatment, then a stroke in December 2020, then open heart surgery in February 2023. All of which he has survived. Married for fifty-four years, with two daughters and three grandchildren, he lives in retirement on his farm in the southern tablelands of NSW, where he writes and builds his stamp collection and records frog calls.' (Publication summary) 
 
1 9 y separately published work icon The Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia : Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander History, Society and Culture The Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia David Horton (editor), Canberra : Aboriginal Studies Press , 1994 Z96898 1994 anthology prose criticism

The Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia contains 2000 entries and 1000 photographs, it covers all aspects of Indigenous Australians' lives including history, art, language, sport, education, archaeology, literature, land ownership, social organisation, health, music, law, technology, media, economy, politics, food and religion. (Source: AIATSIS website)
X