On Thursday 10 July 2025 we farewelled our dear colleague Dr Malcolm Allbrook, who recently retired after over a decade as the ADB’s managing editor.
 
Malcolm’s career has been a rich and varied one, seeing him work in the Western Australian public sector and with Aboriginal organisations before joining the ANU’s School of History in 2011 as manager of the Mungo project. In 2014 he became part of the ADB/NCB and took up the post of managing editor.
 
A career like Malcolm’s needs to be celebrated. Friends and colleagues from the NCB, School of History, and beyond did just that at an event dubbed ‘Malcolmfest’. Several people spoke to different aspects of Malcolm’s life and work. Prof. Melanie Nolan shared the highlights of Malcolm’s academic career and spoke of his generosity as a colleague and friend. From the UK Dr Sophie Scott-Brown reflected on Malcolm as a family historian and historiographer, and from the Fitzroy River/Martuwarra in the Central Kimberley A/Prof Steve Kinnane spoke as chair of the First Nations Working Party (FNWP). Dr Shauna Bostock and Em. Prof. Tom Griffiths talked more about Malcolm’s work in the field of Indigenous history. And finally, Prof. Kim Sterelny spoke about the future of Malcolm.

A special gift was presented on behalf of the ADB/NCB and the FNWP: a shield crafted by Mr John Watson, a Senior Kimberley Elder with whom Malcolm collaborated in the completion of his biography, Never Stand Still: Life, Land and Politics in the Kimberley.
 
We wish Malcolm all the very best for a wonderful retirement. He will be sorely missed, but we are excited to see what he and Mary-Anne get up to in the months and years to come.