Dr William James (Bill) Metcalf is a Brisbane-based, semiretired historian, holding honorary positions at the University of Queensland (Associate Professor) and at Griffith University (Adjunct Lecturer).
He is the author of four books: The Gayndah Communes; Toil, Travel, Turmoil, Triumph; The Findhorn Book of Community Living; and The Environmental Crisis. He is joint author of Herrnhut: Australia’s First Utopian Commune; and Evolution of Environmental Sciences. He edited and contributed to Brisbane: Training, Teaching and Turmoil; From Utopian Dreaming to Communal Reality; and Shared Visions, Shared Lives. He has also written numerous peerreviewed articles for scholarly history journals, and is International Correspondent for Communities magazine.
Bill is recipient of the ‘Distinguished Scholar Award’, from the Communal Studies Association (USA), and the ‘John Douglas Kerr Medal of Distinction in Research and Writing Australian History’, from the Royal Historical Society of Queensland.
He belongs to various historical/professional groups including: the Professional Historians Association; the International Communal Studies Association; the Australian Historical Association; the Communal Studies Association (USA); the Royal Historical Society of Queensland; Brisbane History Group; and New Farm and District Historical Society. For over fifty years, Bill has been interested in utopian theory,
writing, and experimentation. This book brings together at least some of his extensive findings