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Dr Allan du Toit AM

Dr Allan du Toit AM

Visiting Fellow and Adjunct Senior Lecturer
91É«ÇéƬ Canberra
School of Humanities & Social Sciences

Allan du Toit is a founding member of the Naval Studies Group. He retired from the Royal Australian Navy as a Rear Admiral in 2016 after 40 years’ service in two navies. He entered the South African Navy in 1975, transferring to the RAN in 1987. He commanded HMAS Tobruk during peacekeeping operations in Bougainville, the Australian Amphibious Task Group, the multi-national maritime interception force enforcing UN sanctions against Iraq, Combined Task Force 158 in the Persian Gulf, and Border Protection Command. He also served in a wide range of single-service and joint appointments ashore including Deputy Chief of Joint Operations, Head of Navy People, Head of Navy Capability and Australian Military Representative to NATO in Brussels.

Allan has written and lectured on historical and contemporary defence, naval and maritime affairs in Australia and abroad, has written three books and has contributed chapters to numerous publications. He is a graduate of Stellenbosch University where he received a Bachelor of Military Science degree and the University of New South Wales where he received both his master's degree in military studies and his doctorate. Allan was on the Advisory Board of the Australian National Centre for Oceans Resources and Security (ANCORS) at the University of Wollongong from 2008-13, served as President of the Australian Naval Institute from 2011-13 and is a member of the Northern Territory National Security Advisory Group and the Defence Honours and Awards Appeals Tribunal. He is also a member of the Australian National Submarine Museum Advisory Council and director of three defence enterprises.

Area of Interest

Allan’s research interests include the evolution and development of the British and Commonwealth navies during the 20th and 21st centuries, particularly the Royal Navy, Royal Australian Navy, South African Navy, and the Indian Navy, as well as contemporary strategic and maritime developments in the Indo-Pacific.

Website:

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Email

allandutoit01@gmail.com

    • Ships of the South African Navy, SA Boating Publications, Cape Town, 1976.
    • South Africaʼs Fighting Ships Past and Present, Ashanti Publishing, Rivonia, 1992.
    • A Navy for the Nation: The Fledgling South African Naval Service 1922-1940, Naval Heritage Trust, Simon’s Town, 2022.
    • ‘H²Ñ´¡³§ °Õ´Ç²ú°ù³Ü°ì’s Involvement in Peace Operations in Bougainville’, in The Face of Naval Battle: The Human Experience of Modern War at Sea, John Reeve and David Stevens, Ed’s., Allen and Unwin, 2003.
    • 'Multinational Interception Operations', in Presence, Power Projection and Sea Control: The RAN in the Gulf 1990-2009, Sea Power Centre Australia, Canberra, 2009.
    • 'The Anglo-South African Simon’s Town Agreement', in The Commonwealth Navies: 100 Years of Cooperation, Sea Power Centre Australia, Canberra, 2012.
    • 'Simon's Town and the Cape Sea Route', in Peter Hore, ed., Dreadnought to Daring 100 Years of Comment, Controversy and Debate in The Naval Review, Seaforth Publishing, Barnsley, United Kingdom, 2012.
    • 'Commanding Combined Task Force 158, 2007-08', in Australian Naval Command and Leadership in Recent Operations, John Perryman & Andrew Forbes, Ed’s., Sea Power Centre Australia, Canberra, 2014.
    • 'The Long Haul: The Evolution and Development of an Independent South African Navy', in From Empire to In(ter)dependence: The Canadian Navy and the Commonwealth Experience, 1910-2010, The Canadian Nautical Research Society, Ottawa, 2015.
    • 'The Anglo-South African Simon's Town Agreement', in Anglo-South African Naval Relations, 1936-1975, Naval Heritage Trust, Simon’s Town, 2016.
    • ‘South African Naval Forces’ in David Bruhn, Guns Up, Depth Charges Readied, Heritage Books, Berwyn Heights, Maryland, 2021.
    • Contribution to Chapters 13-16 covering operations in South African Waters, in David Bruhn, Send Some Kings Ships, Heritage Books, Berwyn Heights, Maryland, 2022.
    • ‘South African Sweepers in Greek Waters’, in David Bruhn, Stream Sweeps, Heritage Books, Berwyn Heights, Maryland, 2024.
    • ‘Admiral Sir Anthony Synnot, 1976–1979’, in James Goldrick and Alastair Cooper, eds., The Navy Chiefs: Australia’s naval leaders 1911-1997, Allen and Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 2024.
    • 'African Navies South of the Sahara', United States Naval Institute Proceedings, vol. 116/3, 1990.
    • 'African Navies South of the Sahara', United States Naval Institute Proceedings, vol. 117/3, 1991.
    • 'Australia: A Blue Water Tradition', United States Naval Institute Proceedings, vol. 121/3, 1995.
    • 'Breaking the Spears: HMAS Tobruk's Involvement in Truce Monitoring Operations in Bougainville', Australian Defence Force Journal, 1999.
    • ‘Russia’s southern strategy’ The Interpreter, The Lowy Institute,12 November 2019.
    • ‘Maritime’s big role in Defence Update’, Australian Naval Institute, July 2020.
    • ‘Maritime’s big role in Australian Defence Update’, The Naval Review, Volume CVIII (2020), Issue 4.
    • ‘The Birth of a Navy’, 100 years of Naval Service to South Africa, Military History Journal, South African African Military History Society, December 2022.
    • ‘NATO’s interests in a stable Indo-Pacific’, The Strategist, ASPI, 25 July 2023.
    • ‘ANI at 50: Breaking the Spears’, Australian Naval Institute, 4 October 2025.
    • From Cradle to Grave? The Place of the Aircraft Carrier in Australia's Post-war Defence Force, sub-thesis, University of New South Wales, 1996.
    • Southern Sentinel: The Anglo-South African Simon’s Town Agreements and the Collective Defence of the Cape Sea Route during the Cold War, 1945-1975, thesis, University of New South Wales, 2019.