Timothy Bottoms

Dr. Timothy David Reis Bottoms (December 1954 – May 2026) was an Australian historian, author, and educator based in Cairns, Queensland. His research focused extensively on the history of Far North Queensland, Indigenous Australian peoples histories, and the documentation of colonial frontier conflict.

His most notable Far North Queensland regional publicatons include Djabugay Country: An Aboriginal History of Tropical North Queensland (1999) and a comprehensive local history of the Cairns region entitled Cairns: City of the South Pacific: A History 1770–1995 (2015). The family arrived in Australia on 26 January 1957, residing in South Australia before moving to Albury, New South Wales. Bottoms attended Albury Grammar School, where he competed in sprinting and cross-country running.

Early career Bottoms began working as an upper-primary school teacher in 1977. In 1981, his four-part series Radio Oz – A History of Australian Radio won an award for Creative Use of the Medium at the Australian Hi-Fi Radio Awards. He operated the research firm NQ Research Associates and conducted cultural heritage and site surveys across the region, producing reports such as Djina:la Galing ('Going On Foot') for the Barron Gorge Walking Track Strategy (1995) and An Historical Overview of the Mulgrave Shire (1995).

In 1997, Bottoms was commissioned by Cairns Mayor Tom Pyne and the Cairns City Council to write the comprehensive municipal history of the city, supported philanthropically by local veterinarian Dr Paul Matthews. Completed in July 2002 as a 600-page doctoral dissertation, it earned him a PhD from Central Queensland University in 2003. The study examined political and economic development alongside the contributions of Indigenous peoples, Chinese settlers, and South Sea Islander labourers. In 2016, he published Yorkeys Knob Boating Club: A History.

Timothy Bottoms had one son, Louis. On 27 May 2026, police located him deceased inside his vehicle off Gillies Range Road at the age of 71, having sustained fatal injuries after falling down an embankment.

Publications Books

Selected articles and book chapters