Bryant Allen was born in New Zealand in 1944 and attended primary and secondary school there.

He earned a BA degree from Massey University in 1965 and a Master’s degree with 1^st class honours in 1969. His thesis was a study of development on the island of Mangaia, Cook Islands.

In 1970 he was a Tutor at Flinders University School of Social Sciences, Adelaide and in 1971 he became a  PhD Scholarship in Department of Human Geography, Research School of Pacific Studies, The Australian National University.

Bryant’s PhD research was a study of the adoption and diffusion of innovations in the Torricelli foothills, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea.

In 1974 Bryant took up a position as Lecturer in Geography at the University of Papua New Guinea. With Andrew Wood, he studied in detail, Huli agriculture in the Tari Basin. During 1979 he was a visitor for 4 months at the Department of Geography, University of East Anglia, UK.

Bryant returned to ANU in 1982 as a Research Fellow in the Department of Human Geography, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, College of Asia and the Pacific. In 1987 he participated in a review of the AIDAB funded Magarini Resettlement Project in Coast Province, Kenya for AusAID and co-authored with Doug Porter and Gaye Thompson Development in Practice, published in 1991 and republished in 2013.

From 1996 Bryant worked in close collaboration with Mike Bourke, Robin Hide and the late Geoff Humphreys to plan, implement and complete the agriculture systems project.

In 1997 he was co-leader of national surveys of food and water shortages in PNG. He has consulted for AusAID and the World Bank (PNG poverty survey).

When he retired in December 2009 he had been the Head of the Department of Human Geography a number of times and in 2009 was the Convenor of the Division of Society and Environment in the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies. After retirement, from 2009 to the end of 2012 he worked on the PNG LNG Project in resettlement and as lands and community affairs manager.

• Environmental Impact Assessment
• Agricultural Land Management
• Sustainable Agricultural Development
• Economic Development and Growth
• Human Geography
• Economic Geography
• Pacific History (excl. New Zealand and Maori)