Crossing over: In this Issue

As incoming Editors of Australian Historical Studies we are particularly pleased that our first issue focuses on histories that connect Australia to its Pacific region and the wider world. One of our aims for the journal is to encourage scholarship that situates Australian within international and transnational contexts, including its developing relations with its immediate neighbours in Asia and the Pacific. We are grateful to Professor Marilyn Lake, at the University of Melbourne, who convened a two-day symposium on ‘Writing the Pacific, Re-Writing Australia’ in September 2014. This stimulating event showcased new historical research that looks beyond national boundaries to consider Australia’s rich and varied exchanges across the Pacific, and provided the first airing for the six articles featured in this issue’s Pacific Forum.