Professor David Andrew Roberts works in the Department of Archaeology and History at the University of New England where he teaches a variety of History subjects, including ‘Convict Australia’, and administers a large postgraduate program that specialises in the study of early Australia. He is the editor (since 2003) of the Journal of Australian Colonial History. He is best known for his work on the history and legacy of Australia’s convict past. His current research is funded by an Australian Research Council Discovery Project grant titled ‘Australia’s First Colony: connected isolation on Norfolk Island, 1788-1814’