Since 2000, he has also undertaken detailed primary research into the contractual system used for transporting convicts to Australia in the early years of European settlement, and has delivered a number of academic papers and published articles in peer-reviewed journals on the operation of this system. In 2012, he started detailed research to identify the site where the founding Governor of Australia, Arthur Phillip, came ashore in Sydney Cove on 26 January 1788 - based on new documents, maps and drawings that had come to light in the more than 50 years since the question was last considered. The research he undertook with a colleague, Michael Flynn, has generally been accepted. He also led a media campaign, which resulted in the port-a-loo that had been erected on the landing site being removed.