I was deeply saddened to hear the news of the sudden, tragic death of Dr Stewart Williams, senior lecturer in Geography at University of Tasmania. I got to know Stewart when I spent three happy months at UTas in 2006, and we’d met a few times since – when I’d been back to Tasmania, or at conferences. One of his first post PhD papers, ‘On Islands, Insularity, and Opium Poppies: Australia’s Secret Pharmacy‘ was published in Society and Space when I was its editor. It’s very hard to know what else to say – he was a great scholar and good friend. I’ve been in touch with friends there, and through them, his family, but wanted to mark his passing on this site.