Editors – Walker Brothers Prospecting Expedition 1913
Jeremy Long (1932–2021) was a history graduate of the University of Sydney. He joined the Commonwealth Department of Territories in January 1955 and until 1968 he held various positions in the Welfare Branch of the Northern Territory Administration. In 1966 the Royal Geographical Society in London conferred the Mrs Patrick Ness Award on him and Ted Evans for their joint investigations among Aborigines living in remote desert areas of Central Australia. His book, Aboriginal Settlements: a Survey of Institutional Communities in Eastern Australia, was published by ANU Press in 1970. He served with the Office of Aboriginal Affairs from 1969 to 1972 and then with the Department of Aboriginal Affairs until 1982, as Deputy Secretary from 1975. In November 1982 he was appointed Commissioner for Community Relations with the Human Rights Commission, responsible for investigating complaints of racial discrimination. When this appointment terminated in 1986 he left the Commonwealth Public Service and lived in Sydney as a consultant and writer.
David Nash (1951– ) hails from Parkes in central New South Wales. After degrees in mathematics then linguistics at The Australian National University, in 1980 he was awarded a PhD in linguistics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He then worked in central Australia in bilingual education and on various consultancies to do with Aboriginal land. In 1988–89 he worked on the National Lexicography Project at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Studies. He has continued studying languages of the central Northern Territory, including on an Australian Research Council fellowship during 1989–93. He has maintained an honorary affiliation with linguistics at The Australian National University.