Dr André Brett is Lecturer of History at Curtin University. He is a historian of Australia, New Zealand, and British imperialism, with particular emphasis on political, environmental, economic, and transport themes. He also has experience teaching and researching in the field of genocide studies.

His publications include four books and over twenty articles and book chapters as well as contributions to television documentaries, museum exhibitions, and other outputs. His most recent book, written in collaboration with mapmaker Sam van der Weerden, is Can't Get There from Here: New Zealand Passenger Rail since 1920 (Otago University Press, 2021). It explains how New Zealand became the car-dependent society today as a result of an accumulation of bad decisions and managed decline, and concludes with a vision for a more accessible, efficient, and sustainable transport network for New Zealand, one that is able to meet the challenges of climate change.

Dr Brett has received numerous awards and prizes in recognition of the calibre of his work, including the most prestigious award for early-career achievement in the humanities in Australia, the 2021 Max Crawford Medal from the Australian Academy of the Humanities. He has also received prizes from the Australian Historical Association, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, International Australian Studies Association, and other organisations.

Dr Brett came to Curtin from the University of Wollongong, where he was a Vice-Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow (2017–20) and then an honorary fellow of the Centre for Colonial and Settler Studies (2020–22). He was also a research fellow at the National Library of Austraia in Canberra (2021). He previously held numerous teaching and research roles at the University of Melbourne (2011–17), which conferred his PhD in 2014 and where he was a Gilbert Early Career Development Postdoctoral Fellow in the Faculty of Arts (2015–16) and a research fellow in the Chancellery (2016–17). Earlier in life, Dr Brett grew up on the Kāpiti Coast in the North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand, and undertook his secondary schooling in southeast Queensland. His interest in trans-Tasman and Australasian history reflects this background.

At present, Dr Brett is researching two major projects. The first is an enviro-economic history of railways in colonial Australasia. His National Library of Australia fellowship supported research towards the writing of a manuscript provisionally titled Scars in the Country: Railways in Australian and New Zealand Environments, 1850s–1915. The second is a history of separation/secession movements in colonial Australasia: the emergence of seven colonies in Australasia or the federation of six as the Commonwealth of Australia was not preordained. The Australian Academy of the Humanities awarded him a 2020 Humanities Travelling Fellowship to pursue research in New Zealand towards a manuscript provisionally titled Divide and Rule: Territorial Separation Movements in Colonial Australasia.

Other teaching and research interests:

• Genocide studies: Dr Brett has published on the genocide of the Moriori people of Rēkohu/Chatham Islands. He is an experienced lecturer of colonial and post-colonial African genocides.
• Higher education: at the University of Melbourne, Dr Brett participated in an ARC-funded research project on the Dawkins reforms and the emergence of the Unified National System of higher education. He is the co-author of two books with Stuart Macintyre and Gwilym Croucher on this topic, as well as authoring other outputs.
• New Zealand railway disasters: Dr Brett is descended from survivors of both of New Zealand's worst railway disasters (Hyde, 4 July 1943 and Tangiwai, 24 December 1953) and has published on the history and enduring effects of these and other tragedies on the track.