Queer trans-Tasman mobility, then and now

Abstract

This article situates queer mobility within wider historical geographies of trans-Tasman flows of goods, people and ideas. Using case studies of women’s and men’s experiences during the early twentieth century and the twenty-first century, it shows that same-sex desire is a constituent part of these flows. Conversely, antipodean mobility has fostered particular forms of desire, sexual identity, queer community and politics. Rural and urban landscapes in both New Zealand and Australia shape queer desire in a range of diverging and converging ways, and political and legal shifts in both countries have fostered changes in trans-Tasman travel over time. Our investigation of the circuits of queer mobility urges a wider examination of the significance of trans-Tasman crossings in queer lives, both historically and in contemporary society.