Reflections from a Long Life

David Horton was born in 1945 and grew up in Perth, WA. He graduated from UWA with Zoology Honours in 1965, aged 20, then had a disastrous year at University of Melbourne, six good years at University of New England, an unhappy year in York, England, and then 24 very mixed years at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (first as an archaeologist, then as a not insignificant figure in Australian publishing, then as the creator of the Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia). His research involved scincid lizards and biogeography (1966-1974); archaeozoology (sites from Cape York to SW Tasmania), Pleistocene occupation of Australia, Pleistocene extinctions, the role of fire in Australian ecosystems (1974 to 1984).


He then ran Aboriginal Studies Press from 1984 to 1998. His major works include “Recovering the Tracks” (1991), “The Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia” [both print and electronic] (1994), and “Aboriginal Australia” [Map] (1996). He gained a BA, MSc and two doctorates along the way plus major awards (most notably the prestigious NSW Premier’s Literary Award 1995 Book of the Year 1994). After being forced to leave the Institute he published a book (“The Pure State of Nature” 2000) on prehistory and ecology in Australia (notably considering the role of fire). He had also become a leading stud sheep breeder. In 2004 he ran for federal parliament in the seat of Hume for The Greens.. The following year saw the start of a run of bad health – a heart attack, then lymphoma developed in 2011 resulting in years of treatment, then open heart surgery in February 2023, repeated in 2025, and a number of strokes. All of which he has survived.


Since 2023 he has published two memoirs:
Beginning’s end: Origins of an English migrant family to Australia in 1929.
An account of his family history up to his birth and early childhood.
Hammering on the mind’s door
An account of his school and university years and subsequent career.


And he has published in 2026 a book of poetry: The quiet still centre