Gavin is a PhD candidate within the School of Culture, History and Language at the Australian National University. Gavin has spent over four decades working as a geologist in diamond and gold exploration, environmental contamination and remediation and most recently as a consultant within university laboratories interfacing with commercial and industrial organisations.

A weekend trip to the town of Gympie in south-east Queensland sparked a curiosity about Gympie’s gold mining history and the fate of mercury used there as well natural deposits of cinnabar in the district. This curiosity led to contact with Mercury Australia where team members encouraged Gavin to further explore the question of Gympie’s gold and mercury’s fate.