Elspeth Young was a geographer who spent many years studying Indigenous communities in Australia and Papua New Guinea, focusing on land management issues facing Indigenous peoples.
She graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1963, with MA (Honours) in Geography, with her thesis: Glenelg: a study of the developments in the economy of a West Highland District. After completing a Diploma of Education she taught geography and mathematics for a number of years in the UK and later in Trinidad. She returned to the UK to a position lecturing in economic geography at the Edinburgh College of Commerce in 1969. In 1971, she was appointed a Research Assistant and Tutor in the Geography Department of the University of Papua New Guinea. At the University of Papua New Guinea, she also pursued an additional degree, earning a MA for her thesis: Population Mobility in the Kainantu Area. Under the direction of Gerard Ward and Diana Howlett, she pursued her PhD at the Australian National University, which was awarded for her thesis: Simbu and New Ireland Migration (1977). In 1978, she switched her focus from PNG to Australia and began a study of Willowra station, north of Alice Springs. She became the first geographer to have worked on Northern Territory Land Claims, contributing to the successful claims to Ti Tree and Mt Allen (1980–85). Elspeth Young became a Research Fellow in Demography, ANU, (1980–1981) and Senior Research Fellow (1982–1985) in the North Australia Research Unit of the ANU. In 1985, she joined the Department of Geography and Oceanography at University College, University of New South Wales, Australian Defense Force Academy (1985-1994), where she would become an associate professor. In 1994 Elspeth returned to the ANU as Director of the Graduate Studies in Environmental Management and Development program. She stepped down from the position in 1999 and became a Reader at the program. She died in the UK in 2002. She made a bequest to the ANU in the form of the Elspeth Young Memorial Grant (https://study.anu.edu.au/scholarships/find-scholarship/elspeth-young-memorial-grant), supporting Indigenous Australian undergraduate and graduate students at the Australian National University.