Dr Kowald has demonstrated an enthusiastic and rigorous approach to preserving Queensland’s history, most notably in the areas of organizational, environmental and pastoral history. Kowald’s first major work The Queensland Police Force 1895-1910, a thesis prepared for the University of Queensland’s Master of Arts program, awarded in 1989, demonstrated Kowald’s assiduous research techniques and excellent skill for identifying appropriate primary source information. In 1992, Kowald collaborated with Professor W. Ross Johnston on You Can’t Make It Rain: the story of the North Australian Pastoral Company, an expanded version of which is to be published later this year. In 1993, Kowald and Helen Gregory published Women on the Course: the McLeod Country Gold Club 1968-1993, before embarking on several research projects connected to environmental history, the most significant of which, the Historical Overview of the South East Queensland Biogeographic Region with particular reference to forested areas, provided a contextual basis for cultural heritage assessment of forested lands. In a career spanning over 30 years, Kowald has authored dozens of research papers, conference presentations and published articles. She has worked as an oral historian for the Northern Territory Archives Service, a Cultural Heritage Assessor, a lecturer and tutor for tertiary students, and a consultant historian.