Now slightly over halfway through my time at the National Library, I’m nearing the end of my collection phase. One of the challenges of doing library/archival research abroad is that you have to find a balance between locating/recording records and analyzing/writing about them. My June 1st deadline for my presentation at the NLA is a helpful incentive to move into this second phase as well.

The challenge of researching this subject, I’ve discovered, is that it requires becoming familiar with multiple chronologies across literatures that only occasionally acknowledge the existence or significance of the others. For instance, although virtually all “ballast water management” documents note the importance of woodchips, few discuss the industry, since it had very little influence on the policymaking process. Similarly, aquaculture gets short shrift in just about all literature save its own, despite being the linchpin for policy action in Australia.

What follows is my first attempt to create a master chronology for the environmental history of ballast water in Australia. It heavily emphasizes Tasmania, although it features material from other regions as well. I’ve also divided up the “historical events” into distinct categories. There is sometimes overlap across divisions, so this breakdown codes events to the subject headers they MOST influenced. For instance, ballast water science and management have obvious interconnection, so I try to align policymaking events and/or publications with “management”, while most other ballast water publications would fall under “science.” Its sometimes admittedly arbitrary, but since the purpose is for cross referencing by year, perfect alignment isn’t necessary.