Ian has a B.Sc in Geology and Geophysics from Melbourne University. He has lived, worked and travelled in Indonesia for thirty years and is the author of three books on aspects of Indonesian history. Spice Islands which tells the two thousand year history of the spice trade, East Indies which tells of the two hundred year struggle between the Portuguese, Dutch and English for trade supremacy in the Eastern Seas, and Archipelago which tells of his journey across the Indonesian islands. In his latest book, The Tasman Map – A Biography of a Map, Ian uses his knowledge of this history to put the early Dutch exploration of Australia and the first European mapping of Australia into historical context.
