Dr Bryant Allen
Areas of expertise
- Agricultural Land Management 070101
- Sustainable Agricultural Development 070108
- Environmental Impact Assessment 050204
- Economic Geography 160401
- Economic Development And Growth 140202
- Pacific History (Excl. New Zealand And Maori) 210313
- Human Geography 1604
Biography
Bryant Allen was born in New Zealand in 1944 and attended primary and secondary school there. He earned a BA degree from Massey University in 1965 and a Master’s degree with 1st class honours in 1969. His thesis was a study of development on the island of Mangaia, Cook Islands. In 1970 he was a Tutor at Flinders University School of Social Sciences, Adelaide and in 1971 he became a PhD Scholarship in Department of Human Geography, Research School of Pacific Studies, The Australian National University.
Bryant’s PhD research was a study of the adoption and diffusion of innovations in the Torricelli foothills, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea. In 1974 Bryant took up a position as Lecturer in Geography at the University of Papua New Guinea. With Andrew Wood, he studied in detail, Huli agriculture in the Tari Basin. During 1979 he was a visitor for 4 months at the Department of Geography, University of East Anglia, UK.
Bryant returned to ANU in 1982 as a Research Fellow in the Department of Human Geography, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, College of Asia and the Pacific. In 1987 he participated in a review of the AIDAB funded Magarini Resettlement Project in Coast Province, Kenya for AusAID and co-authored with Doug Porter and Gaye Thompson Development in Practice, published in 1991 and republished in 2013.
From 1996 Bryant worked in close collaboration with Mike Bourke, Robin Hide and the late Geoff Humphreys to plan, implement and complete the agriculture systems project. In 1997 he was co-leader of national surveys of food and water shortages in PNG. He has consulted for AusAID and the World Bank (PNG poverty survey). When he retired in December 2009 he had been the Head of the Department of Human Geography a number of times and in 2009 was the Convenor of the Division of Society and Environment in the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies. After retirement, from 2009 to the end of 2012 he worked on the PNG LNG Project in resettlement and as a lands and community affairs manager.
Researcher's projects
Food security in PNG – a book in progress, second draft being edited – completion by end of 2013.
Year 11 and 12 Geography text books for PNG for Oxford University Press – adapting New Zealand text books to the PNG syllabus by substituting PNG material for NZ material and writing new material where necessary. Year 11 conmpleted; Year 12 in 2014.
Future Projects 2014 and beyond
Agricultural Systems of PNG – a book based on the data created by MASP, describing PNG’s food production systems by levels of land use intensification (co-author Mike Bourke) – advanced planning stage, writing yet to begin.
A book on 80 years of demographic, agricultural and environmental changes in a Torricelli village – using air photographs from 1930s to recent satellite imagery, field surveys from 1971 to present, demographic monitoring from 1970 to present. Will involve re-visit to village in 2014 for at least two months. Will analyse changes to shifting cultivation system (secondary successions, fallow lengths, cultivation periods, crops), land tenure, cash cropping in an attempt to predict future challenges, if population continues to double every 30 years, as it has done between 1970 and 2000.
A book on the wartime history of the Dreikikir area, centred on the murder of labour recruiter Wally Hook in 1943. Will use oral accounts by eye-witnesses, patrol reports, wartime records, personal papers in the NLA, other archival material and interviews with Australian and Japanese ex-servicemen. Requires further archival work in Canberra and Melbourne.
Past student projects
Tim Sharp (PhD awarded 2013) the betelnut trade in the Papua New Guinea highlands.
Pyone Myat Thu (PhD awarded 2013) resettlement caused by the Indonesian occupation of Timor Leste.
Jennifer Litau (from PNG) (PhD awarded in 2012) internal migration in PNG.
Rie Makita (PhD awarded 2006) Livelihood Diversification and Landlessness in Rural Bangladesh (published in 2007 by The University Press, Dhaka).
Michael Pretes (PhD awarded 2006) trust funds and national income from mining. Now Associate professor, University of North Alabama, USA.
Michael Lowe (degree awarded 2006) agricultural change on the Gazelle Peninsular, East New Britain, PNG.
Ruth Turia (PhD awarded 2005) PNG timber trade. Now Director of Research, PNG Forest Authority.
Supervised a further 14 PhD projects, including David Craig and Doug Porter.
Publications
- Allen, B 2019, 'Book review: Takuro Furusawa, Living with Biodiversity in an Island Ecosystem: Cultural Adaptation in the Solomon Islands. Springer 2015', People and Culture in Oceania, vol. 35, pp. 131-133.
- Allen, B 2018, 'IB2018/13 Disaster Risk Reduction in Papua New Guinea'.
- Allen, B 2018, 'An 'infinite pause' at Dreikikir? Forty years of change in rural Papua New Guinea', in John Connell and Helen Lee (ed.), Change and Continuity in the Pacific: Revisiting the Region, Routledge, London, United Kingdom, pp. 102-117.
- Allen, B 2018, 'Disaster Risk Reduction in Papua New Guinea', Department of Pacific Affairs, vol. 2018, no. 13, pp. 2pp.
- Allen, M, Dinnen, S, Keen, M et al 2017, New Pathways Across Old Terrain? SSGM Research on Resources, Conflict and Justice.
- Bourke, R, Allen, B & Lowe, M 2016, The ongoing impact of the El Nino drought and frosts in Papua New Guinea.
- Bourke, R, Allen, B & Lowe, M 2016, Estimated impact of drought and frost on food supply in rural PNG in 2015, pp. 1-9.
- Allen, B 2016, 'Seminar / Workshop presentation - Forty Years of Change in an East Sepik Shifting Cultivation System, PNG Insitute of National Affairs, Port Moresby - 17 OCT 2016'.
- Allen, B 2015, Food risks in PNG: lessons from 1997, pp. Online.
- Allen, B 2015, Save Buk: PNG Upper Secondary - Geography, Grade 11, Oxford University Press, Papua New Guinea.
- Allen, B 2015, IB2015/39 Will a Major El Nino Event Disrupt Village Food Production in Papua New Guinea in 2015?, pp. 1-2pp.
- Allen, B 2015, IB2015/40 Will Papua New Guinea Be Able to Feed Itself in 2050?, pp. 1-2pp.
- Allen, B & Bourke, R 2015, 'Seminar / Workshop Presentation - Food security situation in PNG (drought and frost) SSGM Seminar - 8 SEPT 2015'.
- Allen, B 2015, 'Seminar / Workshop presentation - Food Security and the Millennium Development Goals in PNG - PNG Institute of National Affairs, Gateway Hotel, Port Moresby - 8 MAR 2015'.
- Allen, B 2014, 'SEMINAR - The Papua New Guinea LNG Project - Some implications for Australia'.
- Allen, B 2014, IB 2014-44 | Papua New Guinea National Census 2011: Rates of Population Change in Local Level Government Areas. In-Brief, State, Society and Governance in Melanesia Program, The Australian National University, Canberra.
- Allen, B. and Filer, C 2015. 'Is the "Bogeyman" Real? Shifting Cultivation and the Forests, Papua New Guinea', in Malcolm Cairns (ed.), Shifting Cultivation and Environmental Change: Indigenous People, Agriculture and Forest Conservation, London, Routledge, pp. 517-545.
- Allen, B 2013, 'Papua New Guinea: indigenous migrations in the recent past; Part II Holocene Migrations', in Peter Bellwood (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Global Human Migration Volume 1 Prehistory, Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford United Kingdom, pp. 1-6pp.
- Allen, B 2012, 'Simogun, Sir Pita (1900-1987)', Australian Dictionary of Biography (Online), vol. 18.
- Allen, B 2009, 'The sustainability of food security in Papua New Guinea', in Nancy Sullivan (ed.), Papua New Guinea's prospects for sustainable development, Divine Word University Press, Madang.
- Allen, B, Porter, D & Thompson, G 1991, Development in Practice: Paved with Good Intentions, Routledge, United Kingdom.
- Filer, C, Keenan, R, Allen, B et al 2009, 'Deforestation and forest degradation in Papua New Guinea', Annals of Forest Science, vol. 66, p. 813.
- Bourke, R & Allen, B 2009, 'Introduction (Food and Agriculture in Papua New Guinea)', in R. Michael Bourke and Tracy Harwood (ed.), Food and Agriculture in Papua New Guinea, ANU ePress, Canberra Australia, pp. 5-9.
- Allen, B 2009, 'Agricultural development, policies and governance', in R. Michael Bourke and Tracy Harwood (ed.), Food and Agriculture in Papua New Guinea, ANU ePress, Canberra Australia, pp. 425-488.
- Bourke, R, Gibson, J, Quartermain, A et al 2009, 'Part 2. Food production, consumption and imports', in R. Michael Bourke and Tracy Harwood (ed.), Food and Agriculture in Papua New Guinea, ANU ePress, Canberra Australia, pp. 129-192.
- Allen, B & Bourke, R 2009, 'Part 1. People, land and environment', in R. Michael Bourke and Tracy Harwood (ed.), Food and Agriculture in Papua New Guinea, ANU ePress, Canberra Australia, pp. 27-127.
- Bourke, R & Allen, B 2009, 'Twenty myths about Papua New Guinea agriculture', in R. Michael Bourke and Tracy Harwood (ed.), Food and Agriculture in Papua New Guinea, ANU ePress, Canberra Australia, pp. 1-4.
- Bourke, R & Allen, B 2009, 'Part 3. Village food production systems', in R. Michael Bourke and Tracy Harwood (ed.), Food and Agriculture in Papua New Guinea, ANU ePress, Canberra Australia, pp. 193-269.
- Allen, B & Bourke, R 2009, 'The 1997-98 drought in Papua New Guinea: failure of policy or triumph of citizenry?', in R J May (ed.), Policy Making and Implementation: Studies from Papua New Guinea, ANU ePress, Canberra Australia, pp. 325-343.
- Sengere, R, Susuke, W & Allen, B 2008, 'The rehabilitation of coffee plantations in Papua New Guinea: the case of Obihaka', Pacific Economic Bulletin, vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 85-98.
- Allen, B & Bourke, R 2007, 'Can rural development alleviate poverty in Papua New Guinea?', Development Bulletin (Canberra), vol. 72, pp. 30-35.
- Allen, B 2007, 'The setting: land, economics and development in the Southern Highlands', in Nicole Haley & Ronald J. May (ed.), Conflict and resource development in the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea, ANU ePress, Canberra, Australia, pp. 35-46.
- Allen, B & Tamura, K 2006, 'Food supply and relationships between Japanese troops and villagers in the inland Aitape-Wewak campaign, Papua New Guinea, 1942-45', RU-CAAS International Symposium, ed. Yukio Toyoda and Hank Nelson, Rikkyo University, Tokyo, pp. 297-319.
- Allen, B 2006, 'Remembering the war in the Sepik', RU-CAAS International Symposium, ed. Yukio Toyoda and Hank Nelson, Rikkyo University, Tokyo, pp. 11-34.
- Allen, B 2005, 'Book Review: New Guinea: Crossing Boundaries and History', Journal of Pacific History, vol. 40, no. 2, pp. 256-7.
- Allen, B, Bourke, R & Gibson, J 2005, 'Poor rural places in Papua New Guinea', Asia Pacific Viewpoint, vol. 46, no. 2, pp. 201-217.
- Gibson, J, Datt, G, Allen, B et al 2005, 'Mapping poverty in rural Papua New Guinea', Pacific Economic Bulletin, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 27-43.
- Siges, T, Hartemink, A, Hebinck, P et al 2005, 'The invasive shrub Piper aduncum and rural livelihoods in the Finschhafen area of Papua New Guinea', Human Ecology (Journal), vol. 33, no. 6, pp. 875-893.
- Allen, B 2005, 'The place of agricultural intensification in Sepik foothills prehistory', in Andrew Pawley, Robert Attenborough, Jack Golson and Robin Hide (ed.), Papuan pasts: Cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples, Pacific Linguistics, Canberra Australia, pp. 585-624.
- Allen, B & Sowei, J 2003, 'Papua New Guinea', in Harold Brookfield, Helen Parsons, and Muriel Brookfield (ed.), Agrodiversity: Learning from Farmers across the World, Institute of Samoan Studies, Japan, pp. 212-232.
- Allen, B 2003, 'Book Review: Horticulture in Papua New Guinea: case studies from the Southern and Western Highlands', Journal of the Polynesian Society, vol. 112, no. 1, pp. 98-99.
- Allen, B 2002, 'Birthweight and environment at Tari', Papua New Guinea Medical Journal, vol. 45, no. 1-2, pp. 88-98.
- Allen, B & Vail, J 2002, 'Focus Issue on Health and Environment in the Tari area', Papua New Guinea Medical Journal, vol. 45, pp. 1-2.
- Allen, B & Vail, J 2002, 'Editorial: Health and the environment in the Tari area', Papua New Guinea Medical Journal, vol. 45, no. 1-2, pp. 88-98.
- Allen, B, Ballard, C & Lowes, E, eds, 2002, Asia Pacific Viewpoint Vol 42(2-3) special issue: Agricultural Transformation and Intensification, Special Issue 42(2-3).
- Hanson, L, Allen, B & Bourke, R 2001, 'Mapping land resource vulnerability in the highlands of PNG', in R.M. Bourke, M. G. Allen, J.G. Salisbury (ed.), Food Security for Papua New Guinea: Proceedings of the Papua New Guinea Food and Nutrition 2000 Conference, Lae PNG, Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, Canberra, pp. 284-290.
- Vovola, P & Allen, B 2001, 'Computer managed databases relevant to PNG agriculture ', in R.M. Bourke, M. G. Allen, J.G. Salisbury (ed.), Food Security for Papua New Guinea: Proceedings of the Papua New Guinea Food and Nutrition 2000 Conference, Lae PNG, Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, Canberra, pp. 467-475.
- Allen, B 2001, 'Book Review: The New Guinea Volunteer Rifles NGVR 1939-1943 A History, by I Downs', Pacific Economic Bulletin, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 139-141.
- Allen, B 2001, 'Boserup and Brookfield and the association between population density and agricultural intensity in Papua New Guinea', Asia Pacific Viewpoint, vol. 42, no. 2/3, pp. 237-254.
- Allen, B & Ballard, C 2001, 'Beyond intensification? Reconsidering agricultural transformations', Asia Pacific Viewpoint, vol. 42, no. 2/3, pp. 157-162.
- Mueller, I, Vounatsou, I, Allen, B et al 2001, 'Spatial patterns of child growth in Papua New Guinea and their relation to environment, diet, socio-economic status and subsistence activities', Annals of Human Biology, vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 263-280.
- Allen, B & Bourke, R 2001, 'The 1997 drought and frost in PNG: overview and policy implications ', in R.M. Bourke, M. G. Allen, J.G. Salisbury (ed.), Food Security for Papua New Guinea: Proceedings of the Papua New Guinea Food and Nutrition 2000 Conference, Lae PNG, Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, Canberra, pp. 155-163.
- Allen, B, Bourke, R & Hanson, L 2001, 'Dimensions of PNG village agriculture ', in R.M. Bourke, M. G. Allen, J.G. Salisbury (ed.), Food Security for Papua New Guinea: Proceedings of the Papua New Guinea Food and Nutrition 2000 Conference, Lae PNG, Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, Canberra, pp. 529-553.
- Hanson, L, Allen, B, Bourke, R et al 2001, Papua New Guinea Rural Development Handbook, Australian National University, Canberra.
- Allen, B 2000, 'The 1997-98 Papua New Guinea drought: perceptions of disaster', in Grove, R H; Chappell, J (ed.), El Nino, history and crisis: Studies from the Asia-Pacific Region, The White Horse Press, Cambridge, UK, pp. 109-122.
- Allen, B 1999, 'The Mapping Agricultural Systems Project provides new information on village agriculture in Papua New Guinea', Development Bulletin (Canberra), vol. 49, pp. 103-105.
- Allen, B 1999, 'Rural poverty in Papua New Guinea', Development Bulletin (Canberra), vol. 49, pp. 42-44.
- Allen, B 1998, 'El Nino and the Drought in Papua New Guinea ', Asia-Pacific Magazine, vol. 9 and 10, pp. 39-42.
- Bourke, R, Allen, B, Hide, R et al 1997, Morobe Province: Text summaries, Maps, Code Lists and Village Identification, Agricultural Systems of Papua New Guinea, Working Paper 19.
- Allen, B 1997, 'HIV/AIDS in rural Melanesia and South-East Asia: Divination or description ', in Linge, G; Porter, D (ed.), No Place for Borders: The HIV/AIDS Epidemic and Development in Asia and the Pacific, St. Martins Press, New York, pp. 114-123.
