Associate ProfessorTimothy Neale

My current areas of interest include:

• Science and technology studies, including environmental hazards, disasters and climate change
• Politics of infrastructure, including environmental monitoring and energy
• Settler-colonialism, including settler and Indigenous relations to lands and waters

My two primary research programs are:

1. The future of landscape firefighting. Emerging from my research with fire agencies, I am interested in continuing to investigate the cultural, political, and technical underpinnings of fire management in an increasingly flammable world. What are the costs and benefits of Australia’s firefighting arrangements today? How should Australia’s domestic emergency management infrastructures be built and integrated in the future?
2.  The net zero transition in northern Australia. Northern Australia is highly exposed to climatic changes and extremes, while also being positioned in government policies as committed to reaching net zero emissions and being a source of major energy production and "green" industry. But how do industry professionals and nearby residents view the local, national, and global value of net zero policies and projects? This program is supported by funding from the Australian Research Council under the 2025 Discovery Project Scheme (DP250100725).