[1] Difficulties in obtaining a suitable permanent job in Britain and better prospects appearing elsewhere, saw Jeans travel to Australia in 1959, having been offered positions at universities in both New South Wales and Queensland.
[3] Jeans then undertook research on the role of early colonial surveyors in the layout of NSW towns, using archives of the Crown Lands Department and extensive fieldwork trips.
[5] In the wake of the popular success of Australian Pioneer Technology the newly established Heritage Council of New South Wales commissioned Jeans and historian Peter Spearritt to research the evolution of the NSW landscape and prepare a short paper.
The resulting project produces a substantial body of writing and photographs which led the Heritage Council to underwrite publication of Jeans and Spearritt's book The Open Air Museum: the cultural landscape of NSW.
In his later years, although retired, he was taking historical geography beyond Immanuel Wallerstein’s world systems theory, linking capitalist transitions on Australia's periphery and engaging the ideas of Barthes, Baudrillard, de Certeau and Foucault.