Broadening horizons: Wynn in and about the antipodes

The early 1970s were an exciting time to be a historical geographer. The world was grappling with the consequences of ongoing decolonization; immigration policies had been, or were being, transformed in several nations; new social movements were changing political and intellectual landscapes; and environmental issues were taking on a new, critical urgency. Historians and geographers working in this context were seeking and finding new problems, questions, sources, and approaches. In North American universities, environmental history began to emerge as a field of inquiry and historical geographers were establishing their own journal and regional conferences. Meanwhile, down under, a range of scholars—Les Heathcote, Joe Powell, Jim Cameron, and George Seddon among them—were producing rich studies of historical relationships between people and antipodean environments. It was in this context, in 1974, that Graeme Wynn completed his PhD at the University of Toronto and moved to New Zealand, where he spent two years as a lecturer at the University of Canterbury. During this relatively short stay Wynn met his wife-to-be Barbara, who would in subsequent years support his academic career; together they would raise two children. The visit also sparked an interest in the historical geography of New Zealand, and to a lesser extent Australia, that has spanned the entirety of Wynn’s academic career. On arriving in Christchurch, one of Wynn’s first tasks was to review the local historical geography scene, an exercise that resulted in an article published in the Journal of Historical Geography in 1977. Though there had been some uncertainty over the future of historical geography in Australia and New Zealand in the 1960s, Wynn found that much had been accomplished. He also, however, identified “immense possibilities for further work.” 2 There had been much discussion about the need for geographers to adopt more quantitative approaches and produce more theoretically informed studies. The work undertaken in this vein did not impress Wynn, who with the bold vigor of all good early career scholars deemed “the best of it . . . no more than a preliminary to further research” and “the worst of it . . . both precious and pretentious.” 3 Characteristic of Wynn’s scholarship, however, this critique was not meanspirited, but a steppingstone to broader questions. In this case, the questions were about the purpose of geographical research: “Is it to develop theory . . . or is it to understand particular parts of the earth’s surface?” Should geographers prioritize “abstract universals” over the “rich complexity of the local scene”? 4 He found in favor of the latter. More specifically, Wynn astutely identified the need for more research on Māori and Aboriginal geographies, as well as micro-scale studies of particular areas and examination of the ecological implications of rapid urban growth in the antipodes. He urged geographers to undertake studies of geographic and social mobility, of attitudes to land as reflective of the ethos of Australian and New Zealand societies, and more. While completing this timely review, Wynn also undertook significant original research, publishing in 1977 an important paper on “Conservation and Society in Late NineteenthCentury New Zealand” in the New Zealand Journal of History. 5 Here, he used debate around the New Zealand Forests Act of 1874 to explore settler attitudes toward conservation. The paper

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