Shaw returned to Australia in 1940, working for the federal Departments of Information, Army and Post-War Reconstruction. From 1941, alongside these government positions, Shaw returned to Melbourne University as part-time Lecturer in Economic History and Tutor at Trinity College. During 1944 Shaw was appointed as joint Acting Dean of Trinity College, and as Dean in 1947. Shaw was Captain of the squash team, and Vice-President of the Dialectic Society at Trinity from 1941 to 1950. In 1946, Shaw became Lecturer in Modern History. He was associate editor of the journal "Historical Studies" (now "Australian Historical Studies") from 1949 to 1951, and was a member of its editorial board. In 1950 he was awarded a Nuffield Dominion Travelling Fellowship and spent a year undertaking research in England into Australia's convict period.