Australian political geography I: conservative beginnings, 1920s to early 1980s

This article, the first in a two-part series, traces the development of Australian political geography from the 1920s to the 1980s, offering the first comprehensive review of the sub-discipline's evolution in the region. It situates contemporary scholarship in relation to the recent establishment of the Political Geography Study Group within the Institute of Australian Geographers. The article reflects on the challenges of writing this history, particularly the dominance of white, male, Western, and conservative perspectives that shaped the field. Much early scholarship was closely aligned with colonial agendas, including the ongoing colonisation of Australia and its surrounding regions. Between 1920 and 1945, ‘political geography' was used loosely to describe studies of political processes. After 1945, the field increasingly adopted quantitative approaches, especially in electoral geography and boundary studies. Unlike other areas of human geography, however, Australian political geography largely resisted radical and critical frameworks such as Marxism. Instead, it often reinforced colonial ideologies, including terra nullius and anxieties about Australia's position as a white settler state in a decolonising world. We argue that this conservative orientation limited the sub-discipline’s international influence. A critical reckoning with this past is necessary to reposition political geography in Australia and to clarify the ethical, political, and methodological commitments that should guide its future development.