John Holmes (professor)

John H. Holmes is Emeritus Professor of Geography at the University of Queensland. He has remained active during his "retirement" and has continued his primary research into changing resource values in Australia’s rangelands and their implications in the allocation of property rights.[1] More specifically, his expertise relates to:

• Policy input into issues relating to property rights and appropriate policy directions, tied to pastoral leases in all Australian jurisdictions.
• Interpretation of driving forces and regional outcomes affecting the ownership, use and market value of rural land in Australia in the multifunctional transition.
• Interpretation of population change and future directions in rural and remote Australia.[2]

During the past ten years, Professor Holmes has completed invited consultancies on pastoral lease tenure reform in the Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia and the Western Division of New South Wales, and has also been Chair of the Vegetation Management Advisory Committee, which set guidelines for the Queensland Vegetation Management Act 1999.[1]

John Holmes has contributed to the Encyclopædia Britannica and has edited Queensland: A Geographical Interpretation and coedited Settlement Systems in Sparsely Populated Regions.[3] Professor Holmes has also chaired the Australian Academy of Science National Committee of Geography and acted as Australian delegate at various international meetings. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia.[1]