Peter James Dunn is an Australian historian who specialises in researching all aspects of military operations, training, and exercises that occurred in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Dunn is particularly interested in researching wartime military aircraft losses and, in 2012, was responsible for identifying an unknown aircraft wreck off

Magnetic Island Magnetic Island ( Wulguru: ''Yunbenun'') is an island offshore from the city of Townsville, Queensland, Australia. This mountainous island in Cleveland Bay has effectively become a suburb of Townsville. The island is accessible from Townsvi ...

as being that of a

Curtiss-Wright CW-22 The Curtiss-Wright CW-22 is a 1940s American general-purpose advanced Trainer (aircraft), training monoplane aircraft built by the Curtiss-WCurtiss-Wright Corporation. It was operated by the United States Navy as a Scout plane, scout trainer with ...

that had ditched in 1943. As part of the Australia Day 2020 Honours List, Dunn was awarded the

Medal of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of then ...

"for service to community history".Australian Government n.d
"Award Extract - Australian Honours Search Facility"
Retrieved 2 April 2021.

''Australia @ War''

On 22 June 1996, Dunn launched his
Australia @ War
' website where he has described his research as a "part-time hobby". Despite this, the website is particularly renowned for cataloguing the historical details of Second World War military aircraft crashes that occurred across Australia and, as of 2019, the website reportedly listed over 2000 such incidents.Hobbins, P. 2019 "Unearthing airspace: the historical phenomenology of aviation artefacts". ''Australasian Historical Archaeology'', vol. 37, pg. 43.

References

External links

Australia @ War
Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia Australian male non-fiction writers 21st-century Australian historians Australian military historians Historians of aviation 20th-century Australian historians Historians of World War II {{Australia-historian-stub