Dr John Long

John was born in Melbourne and began collecting fossils at age 7 and in 1971, he won the Victorian Science Talent Search major junior division prize for his work on fossils.

John graduated with PhD from Monash University in 1984, and spent 6 years as a researcher in palaeontology at universities in Canberra, Perth and Tasmania before being appointed at the Western Australian Museum in 1989 as Curator of Vertebrate Palaeontology. In 2004 John returned to Melbourne as the Head of Sciences for Museum Victoria.

John's research has focussed on the early evolution of vertebrates (fishes) as well as dinosaurs and general evolutionary theory. He has collected fossils in Antartica ( 2 expeditions and wrote a book on it), Africa, throughout Asia and has worked extensively in North America and Europe and in every part of Australia. He has published over 200 scientific papers and general science articles, and some 24 books. He has named almost 50 new species of prehistoric creatures through his work.

When not writing books, John is an avid martial artist. He holds a 3rd degree black belt in Uechi Ryu Karate and was the Chief instructor in this art for Western Australia from 1998-2004. He also loves to draw (and has self illustrated some of his books) and ride his motorcycle.

Johns writing career began in 1990 when he published the first book exclusively on Australians dinosaurs. He ventured into fiction in 1997 with "Mystery of Devil's Roost" (FACP, 1997) and "Journey to the Dawn of Time" (FASCP 2003), novels taking children back into prehistoric Australia, with all the scientific facts as accurate as then known. His own kids were the prime characters in the books.

In 2001 John won the prestigious Eureka Prize for the Public Promotion of Science, in part for his active role in talking to children about science and teaching science through his writing.

John Long - Books authored, and edited volumes
*** Children's books

• LONG, J.A. Mystery of Devil's Roost.*** Fremantle, WA., Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1997. (juvenile educational fiction-for primary schools)
• McNAMARA, K.J. and LONG, J.A. The Evolution Revolution. London and New York, Wiley and Sons, 1998
• LONG, J.A. 1999. The Hermit of Hyde Park***. Perth, Gogo Press, Perth, 1999. (juvenile educational fiction). Self published as an exercise, but professionally edited and proofed using Fremantle Arts Centre Press staff
• BRETT-SURMAN, M.K. (ed): BROCHU, C., LONG, J., McHENRY, C., SCANLON, J.D. & WILLIS, P. Dinosaurs: The ultimate guide to prehistoric life. London, Harper-Collins, 2000
• LONG, J.A. Mountains of Madness- A Scientist's Odyssey through Antarctica. Joseph Henry Press, (National Academies Press), 2000
• BRETT-SURMAN, M.K. (ed): BROCHU, C., LONG, J., McHENRY, C., SCANLON, J.D. & WILLIS, P. The Time-Life Guides: Dinosaurs. Sydney,Time-Life Books, Weldon Owen Publishing, 2000
• LONG, J.A., ARCHER, M., FLANNERY, T.F. & HAND, S. Prehistoric Mammals of Australia and New Guinea: One Hundred Million Years of Evolution. University of New South Wales Press, NSW & Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, USA., 2002
• LONG, J.A. The Dinosaur Dealers. Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 2002
• LONG, J.A. The Journey to the Dawn of Time*** . Perth, Fremantle Arts Centre Press. 2003
• LONG, J.A. Gogo Fish! The story of the Western Australian State fossil emblem. *** Perth, The Western Australian Museum, 2004. (for primary kids)
• LONG. J.A. Its True! Dinosaurs Never Died! *** Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 2004LONG. J.A. The Big Picture Book.*** Melbourne, Allen & Unwin, 2005. (full colour treatment for kids about the formation of the universe and the great events in Earth history and evolution)
• LONG, J.A. & SCHOUTEN, P. 2008. Feathered Dinosaurs– From Dinosaurs to Birds. CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne, 200 pp.
• LONG, J.A. 2008.The Big Picture Book of Environments. Allen & Unwin, Sydney. 48pp.

LITERARY AWARDS

Books short-listed for the Eureka Book Prize for Australia's best science writing

• 1996. The Rise of Fishes-500 Million years of Evolution (UNSW Press, 1995)
• 1999. Dinosaurs of Australia and New Zealand (UNSW Press, 1998)
• 2003. Prehistoric Mammals of Australia and New Guinea (UNSW Press, 2002)

2003 Whitely Award for most popular zoological Book

• Prehistoric Mammals of Australia and New Guinea (UNSW Press, 2002)

Children's Book Council Awards and Honorary Books

• 1998. Mystery of Devils Roost (Fremantle Arts Centre Press, notable book)
• 2005. Gogo Fish! The Story of the Western Australian State Fossil Emblem (W A Museum, 2004; Short-listed for Eve Pownall Award)

Other Awards

• 2006 - Winner. Wilderness Society’s Award for Children’s Environmental Literature for "The Big Picture Book"
• 2006 - Winner, Australian Publishers Award for best primary reference book. "The Big Picture Book"
• 2006 - Short-listed. Western Australian Premiers Literary Awards for best children’s book, "The Big Picture Book"
• 2006 - Short-listed. Children’s Book Awards for best children’s information book, "The Big Picture Book"
• 2007 - Short-listed. Victorian Premiers Literary Awards for Science Writing for "Swimming in Stone - The Amazing Gogo Fossils of the Kimberley"
• 2008 - Special Commendation. Australian Geography Teachers Association, for "The Big Picture Book of Environments"
• 2008 - Winner of The Australasian Science Prize 2008, for an outstanding contribution to Australian Science through the discovery fo the world's oldest fossil vertebrate embryos.

Public Science Education

Throughout his career John has been passionate and active at taking complex science down to simple levels through his writing, where it can understood by everyone from lower primary school children to the general public. A list of John's popular science books and publications, and some recent media projects are shown below.

During 2002/2003 John gave 34 public lectures. During Library Week over the past few years John has also given several public lectures at various suburban libraries (eg Subiaco Library).

In April 2002 John gave several author talks at the All Saints College Literary Festival (All Saints, Bullsbrook). And for the Perth International Writers Festival (Feb 2003), he participated in the following literary forum sessions:-

• Editing and writing public forum with Janet Blagg and Jane Hammond-Foster, chaired by Prof. Richard Nile (Curtin University).
• Science Fiction writing session, with Tess Williams and Steven Deddman, chaired by international sci-fi author Sean Williams (ie the science behind fiction).
• Crime writing public session with author Hanifa Dean (my section dealt with fossil crime and the international fossil trade).
• Taught a 3 hour workshop on Writing Across Genres at the State Library (a sold-out session to 30 adults). (teaching writing skills)
• I delivered a public talk at Broome Library (to 120 people) and talks to 3 Broome schools as part of the Perth International Arts Festival 2003 regional events program (Feb, 2003).
• In May 2004, John delivered 3 talks at the Rosalie Writers Festival, Perth, and chaired a discussion panel on writing.

Science Media

John has had extensive experience at presenting science to camera, consulting on documentary scripts and providing the intellectual input for such projects, and have built up extensive media contacts throughout Australia and overseas through this work.

• 1991. The Great Aussie Dinosaur Hunt. Reel Images (Brian Beaton). I hour documentary about John's dinosaur hunt with the Australian army -shown nationally in September 1992 on Ch. 7. His role was as a central character in the show, doing many camera to sync grabs, explaining the fossils.
• 1993. Quantum, ABC TV. First episode, 8 pm March 3rd . Show about Gogo fish fossils. Explaining his science to the public. (Filmed on location, Kimberley in October 1992).
• 1993 -2003. Many TV appearances relating to news stories re the giant egg (Cervantes), new finds of dinosaurs and prehistoric reptiles, and megafauna in W.A. Also appeared on Totally Wild, Ch 10. around 1996 filmed in Sydney.
• Recently: Feb 15th, 2003, Ch 10 news (re: French dinosaur egg).
• 1998. When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth. 5 part series, John worked on the episode about Australia- Antarctica, narrated by Jeff Goldblum (of Jurassic park fame). For Discovery Channel (USA), put together by Wall to Wall TV, UK.
• Filmed Sat-Sun July 25- 26th in Townsville, Qld. he was used in 5 camera to sync grabs, introducing dinosaurs, talking about (whilst holding) a crocodile, etc. Was aired globally in 1999.
• 2001. May. Quantum -Eureka Prizes (ABC, TV aired May 17th, 8 pm). 7 min profile piece as the 2001 winner of the Eureka Prize for Promotion of Science, presented by Graham Philip.
• 2001. November 17 & 24. The Dinosaur Dealers, by Alan Carter (Alley Kat Productions, Fremantle, co-produced with Andrew Ogilvie of Electric Pictures). I was contracted in the 2 part TV series for SBS (Australia and overseas coproductions in UK, USA). Filmed in August 2001-April 2002 in Broome, and London, September in Germany and USA (6 weeks continuous filming in total for this stint). Working with US lawman Steve Rogers.
• 2002-2003. Operation Leo. Working as a presenter with Clay Bryce of the W. A. Museum documentary film unit to document the recovery of megafauna skeletons from the Nullarbor caves (July 2002). To be completed with funding from NHK (for Australian TV in 2004), and was screened in Japan, on August 23rd, 2003 (50 mins) in high definition format.
• 2003. Catalyst ABC TV. First episode for the year, 8 pm, July 3rd . About the discovery of megafauna in caves on the Nullarbor, based on 2002 and 2003 expeditions. 8 minute piece (took 3 days to film)
• 2003. Nexus ABC International. Filmed 5 minute news item on Nullarbor megaphone discoveries for Nexus, the international current affairs program broadcast all over the world (ref: Bernadette Nunn).
• 2005. The Einstein Factor, ABC TV Sunday at 6.30pm–as one of the "Brains Trust" for episodes screening on May 29th and Aug. 14th 2005.