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Dr Nicole Townsend

Dr Nicole Townsend

Lecturer

PhD in History, UNSW

Bachelor of Arts (Honours), Monash University 

UNSW Canberra
School of Humanities & Social Sciences

Dr Nicole Townsend is a Lecturer in War Studies at UNSW Canberra, where she has taught at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

Her research focuses broadly on Australian military and diplomatic history, with a particular focus on Australian relations with and strategic interests in the Middle East. She has particular expertise in Australia's involvement in the Second World War. She has also previously worked on the Official History of Australian Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and is the David Scott Mitchell Fellow 2026 at the State Library of New South Wales.

Nicole is currently a Director of the Second World War Research Group, Asia Pacific.

 

 
E-mail
n.townsend@unsw.edu.au
  • Book Chapters | 2026
    Townsend N, 2026, 'Colin Henry Grace (1909–1999)', in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/grace-colin-henry-34858
    Book Chapters | 2023
    Townsend N, 2023, 'An Australian perspective on air and space power Introduction', in Townsend N; Pandey K; Pendlebury J (ed.), AUSTRALIAN PERSPECTIVES ON GLOBAL AIR AND SPACE POWER, ROUTLEDGE, pp. 1 - 10, http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003230656-1
    Book Chapters | 2023
    Townsend N, 2023, 'Introduction', in Australian Perspectives on Global Air and Space Power, Routledge, pp. 1 - 10, http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003230656-1
    Book Chapters | 2023
    Townsend N, 2023, 'Introduction', in Australian Perspectives on Global Air and Space Power, Taylor & Francis, pp. 1 - 10, http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003230656-1
    Book Chapters | 2023
    Yule P; Townsend N, 2023, 'Sir James Rowland and the changing strategic use of air power in Australia, 1942-1979', in Townsend N; Pandey K; Pendlebury J (ed.), AUSTRALIAN PERSPECTIVES ON GLOBAL AIR AND SPACE POWER, ROUTLEDGE, pp. 34 - 45, http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003230656-5
  • Edited Books | 2023
    Townsend N; Pandey K; Pendlebury J, (eds.), 2023, Australian Perspectives on Global Air and Space Power: Past, Present, Future, Routledge, London, http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003230656
  • Journal articles | 2026
    Townsend N, 2026, 'Heavy and Continuous Sacrifice: New Zealand, Her Allies, and the Second World War', The Journal of New Zealand Studies, http://dx.doi.org/10.26686/jnzs.ins41.11056
    Journal articles | 2025
    Townsend N, 2025, '“It Is Vital That We Should Not Keep It to Ourselves”: The Rats of Tobruk Association and the Siege of Tobruk in Australian National Memory', Australian Journal of Politics and History, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ajph.70021
    Journal articles | 2024
    Baker DP; Townsend N, 2024, 'Defiant heroism or wilful disobedience? John ‘Jack’ Hinton and the ethics of disobedience in war', Defence Studies, 24, pp. 349 - 364, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14702436.2024.2346486
    Journal articles | 2022
    Townsend N, 2022, ''Kangaroos' and 'Froggies': Australian-French relations and the allied invasion of Lebanon and Syria, 1941', The French Australian Review, pp. 61 - 85
  • Reports | 2026
    Townsend N; Dunley R; Hutchison M; Moss T; Brown A; Crawley R, 2026, Public Attitudes Towards the Australian Defence Force: 2026, https://www.unsw.edu.au/content/dam/pdfs/unsw-canberra/hass/2026-07-5253529-PublicAttitudeTowardsTheADFSurveyReport-Final.pdf
    Conference Presentations | 2026
    Townsend N, 2026, 'Australia’s Second World War: From the Home Front to the Pacific War', presented at Independent Schools NSW History Conference: Threads of time - Ancient legacies, modern lessons, future perspectives, Ascham School, Sydney, 23 March 2026 - 23 March 2026
    Conference Presentations | 2026
    Townsend N, 2026, 'Class Action: Examining Australian Newspaper Coverage of Student and Youth Protests against the Iraq War', presented at Australian Historical Association Annual Conference, Macquarie University, 29 June 2026
    Reports | 2026
    Townsend N, 2026, History Matters: Australian Attitudes to the Past
    Reports | 2025
    Dunley R; Moss T; Townsend N; Booth M; Crawley R; Hutchinson M; Richardson T, 2025, Public Attitudes Towards the Australian Defence Force Iterim Report, https://www.unsw.edu.au/content/dam/pdfs/unsw-canberra/hass/Public%20Attitudes%20Towards%20the%20Australian%20Defence%20Force%20Survey%20Interim%20Report%20v3.pdf
    Reports | 2025
    Dunley R; Moss T; Townsend N; Booth M; Crawley R; Hutchison M; Richardson T, 2025, Public Attitudes towards the Australian Defence Force: Final Report, UNSW Canberra, Canberra, https://www.unsw.edu.au/content/dam/pdfs/unsw-canberra/hass/Public%20Attitudes%20Towards%20the%20ADF%20Report%20-V3.pdf
    Reports | 2025
    Townsend N; Moss T; Booth M; Richardson T; Hutchison M; Stahel D; Crawley R; Dunley R, 2025, Understanding Attitudes to Australian Military History
    Conference Presentations | 2025
    Townsend N, 2025, 'Research-informed teaching', presented at UNSW Canberra Learning and Teaching Day, UNSW Canberra, 17 September 2025
    Conference Presentations | 2025
    Townsend N, 2025, 'The Australian Army and its Society', presented at Chief of Army History Conference, Canberra, 19 November 2025
    Conference Presentations | 2025
    Townsend N, 2025, 'The Struggle Against Forgetting: The Rats of Tobruk and the Legacy of the Second World War', presented at Fighting to the Finish: Australia in 1945 – Strategy, Victory and Legacy, Melbourne, 11 October 2025
    Conference Papers | 2024
    Townsend N, 2024, ''We cannot stress too strongly the importance we attach to holding this area’: the Middle East in the Australian official mind, 1939–41', Adelaide, presented at Australian Historical Association Annual Conference 2024, Adelaide, 01 July 2024 - 04 July 2024
    Theses / Dissertations | 2024
    Townsend N, 2024, More than a Sideshow: Australia, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East during the Second World War
    Conference Papers | 2023
    Townsend N, 2023, '"There will be no Dunkirk here": The sustainment and relief of Tobruk, 1941', Canberra, presented at In Brown and Green waters: Australian Army Operations in the Littoral, Canberra, 16 November 2023
    Conference Presentations | 2022
    Townsend N, 2022, 'Fueling the nation: Australia's Economic Imperative in the Mediterranean Theatre', presented at Hard Fought: Australia in the Mediterranean Theatre, 1940–45, Melbourne, 01 April 2022
    Conference Papers | 2022
    Townsend N, 2022, 'Fueling the nation: Australia's Economic Imperative in the Mediterranean Theatre', Melbourne, presented at Hard Fought: Australia in the Mediterranean Theatre, 1940–45, Melbourne, Melbourne, 01 April 2022
    Conference Presentations | 2021
    Townsend N, 2021, ''A thankless job for a thankless people'? French-Australian Relations and the Invasion of Lebanon and Syria, 1941', presented at Institute for the Study of French-Australian Relations, 08 April 2021 - 09 April 2021
    Conference Presentations | 2020
    Townsend N, 2020, ''The Frontline of Australian Defence': Australia and the War in the Mediterranean', presented at Heavy and Continuous Sacrifice: NZ Military Historical Committee, Wellington, 13 February 2020 - 14 February 2020
    Conference Presentations | 2019
    Townsend N, 2019, ''A situation ... dangerous beyond words'? The Australian Military Forces in the Depression, 1928–1935', presented at Towards a New Historyof the Interwar Period, Canberra, 01 September 2019
    Conference Presentations | 2019
    Townsend N, 2019, ''Ready to see it through'? Australan preparations for a second world war', presented at Preparing for Battle, University of Leeds, 21 June 2019
    Conference Presentations | 2019
    Townsend N, 2019, ''The Frontline of Australian Defence': Australia and the War in the Mediterranean', presented at Centre for the History of Violence Seminar Series, Newcastle, 02 September 2019
    Conference Presentations | 2019
    Townsend N, 2019, 'Local Events, Global Implications: The Second World War Jigsaw Puzzle', presented at King Hall Naval History Conference, Sydney, 08 October 2019
    Conference Presentations | 2018
    Townsend NL, 2018, 'Identity at war: Italian Australian experiences of otherness during the Second World War', presented at Diaspore Italiane - Italy in Movement, Co.As.It, Melbourne, 04 April 2018 - 08 May 2018
    Conference Presentations | 2017
    Townsend NL, 2017, ''They fought like demons': The British Eighth Army, the Australian 9th Division, and the disaster at Ruin Ridge, July 1942', presented at El Alamein: 75 Years On The War in the Mediterranean and the Campaign for North Africa 1942, University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, United Kingdom, 06 September 2017 - 08 September 2017
    Theses / Dissertations | 2017
    Townsend NL, 2017, Identity at War: Race, identity and belonging in the Italian Australian community during the Second World War, Monash University
    Other | 2016
    Baracchi P (ed.), 2016, Fraternising with the enemy: British-Italian prisoner of war relations, 1939-1947, Co.As.It/Italian Historical Society, Carlton, Melbourne, Victoria