Douglas was an only child, born on 8 July 1946 in
Adelaide, Australia, to Jean Naughton Craig and Joseph Campbell Craig who worked as a railroad guard. After her father died suddenly in 1955, she was raised by her mother who supported them by working as a health inspector.
Education Douglas attended Adelaide Technical High School and Woodville High School in South Australia and won several scholarships, which allowed her to earn a university education at no cost. She graduated in 1966 with a BA in History from the
University of Adelaide combined with a Diploma of Teaching from the
Adelaide Teachers' College. Later that year, she left Adelaide for
Canberra, to accept a PhD scholarship in Pacific History at the
Australian National University (AUN). There she was supervised by historian
Dorothy Shineberg. In 1972 she was awarded a doctorate with her thesis titled,
A history of culture contact in north-eastern New Caledonia, 1774-1870.
Career Douglas worked as a Senior Tutor in History at
La Trobe University,
Melbourne, in 1971. The next year she became a Lecturer in History and gained tenure in 1973 and was promoted Senior Lecturer in 1979. She was teaching at La Trobe University "during the great days of the Melbourne 'ethnographic history' school of which she was an enthusiastic member." She remains an honorary professor at ANU and her archives are kept there. She has served as editor-elect of the
Journal of Pacific History and co-editor of
Palgrave Studies in Pacific History. Douglas was elected a fellow of the
Australian Academy of the Humanities (2020).
Personal life She was married in 1967 to Charles Douglas and they had two daughters. == Selected works ==