Hunter completed a Bachelor of Arts with Honours and a PhD titled Dutiful daughters and 'father's right-hand man': single white women in rural Victoria, 1880s to the 1920s at the University of Melbourne.
[2] She was the Director of the Stout Centre for New Zealand Studies from 2017 to 2022, and has been Head of the History Programme.
[6] Hunter is interested in gender and race relations, and has written or co-authored books on the social history of the First World War, hunting in New Zealand, and women on Australian family farms.
[7][5][8] Her interest in hunting arose due to marrying a hunter, and finding it confronting to encounter people with guns in New Zealand national parks, a situation that would not happen in Australia.
[9] In her inaugural professorial lecture, delivered in 2023, she reflected on the craft of being a historian, and how seemingly trivial pieces of information could direct historical enquiry.