No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
An all too brief and superficial history of Australian vertebrate palaeontology.
... Unlike Brown (1946), Vallance (1978) in his history mentioned not one woman, likewise bicentennial texts in 1988. This has been rectified with recorded memories (e.g., Teichert 1991), studies by Rich et al. (1982), Turner & Wade (1986), Turner (e.g., 1994Turner (e.g., , 1996Turner (e.g., , 1998a, and Vickers- Rich (e.g., in Vickers-Rich & Archbold 1991). ...
... 'Edie' Smith enjoyed the Tasmanian wilderness of her youth and went on to become the first woman president of the Australian Speleology Society (Poulter & Goede 2001, with photos). Rich et al. (1982) and Turner (e.g. 1986;Turner & Wade 1986) and Vickers- Rich & Archbold (1991) have emphasised the role of women in vertebrate palaeontology in Australia, especially over recent decades. ...
Women have played a significant role in Australian geoscience, and especially in palaeontology. ‘Australian’ women gained degrees by the early 20th century and began to contribute intensively. Australian-born young women already immured to the rigours of climate and culture, collected and illustrated fossils, enrolled in the first university courses, thrived in the field, in some instances outnumbering and out-achieving men. Where women palaeontologists made their mark they often energetically concentrated on a taxonomic group, making them their own, as Isabel Cookson did with palynology, Joan Crockford with bryozoans, Irene Crespin especially with foraminifans, Dorothy Hill with corals, Ida Brown with brachiopods, Nell Ludbrook with molluscs, Elizabeth Ripper with stromatoporoids, Kathleen Sherrard with graptolites, and Mary Wade, initially with foraminiferans and then the Ediacaran fauna. Brown, Crespin, Hill, Ludbrook, Wade and their contemporaries did alpha taxonomy, classical geology and biostratigraphical studies that laid the foundations for making maps and work that became recognized nationally and internationally. Some achieved greatness; some – Hill, Cookson, Ludbrook and Phillips Ross – by leaving the country, either to gain their higher degree or to work. Many – for example, Hosking, Johnston, Prendergast, Richards, Ripper, Sullivan and Vincent – are or have been mere shadowy figures with a few publications and then oblivion or even tragedy. Women in geosciences spanning the 20th century in Australia contributed some hundreds of scientific papers, maps and textbooks.
... Unlike Brown (1946), Vallance (1978) in his history mentioned not one woman, likewise bicentennial texts in 1988. This has been rectified with recorded memories (e.g., Teichert 1991), studies by Rich et al. (1982), Turner & Wade (1986), Turner (e.g., 1994Turner (e.g., , 1996Turner (e.g., , 1998a, and Vickers- Rich (e.g., in Vickers-Rich & Archbold 1991). ...
... 'Edie' Smith enjoyed the Tasmanian wilderness of her youth and went on to become the first woman president of the Australian Speleology Society (Poulter & Goede 2001, with photos). Rich et al. (1982) and Turner (e.g. 1986;Turner & Wade 1986) and Vickers- Rich & Archbold (1991) have emphasised the role of women in vertebrate palaeontology in Australia, especially over recent decades. ...
Women have played a significant role in Australian geoscience, and especially in palaeontology. ‘Australian’ women gained degrees by the early 20th century and began to contribute intensively. Australian-born young women already immured to the rigours of climate and culture, collected and illustrated fossils, enrolled in the first university courses, thrived in the field, in some instances outnumbering and out-achieving men. Where women palaeontologists made their mark they often energetically concentrated on a taxonomic group, making them their own, as Isabel Cookson did with palynology, Joan Crockford with bryozoans, Irene Crespin especially with foraminifans, Dorothy Hill with corals, Ida Brown with brachiopods, Nell Ludbrook with molluscs, Elizabeth Ripper with stromatoporoids, Kathleen Sherrard with graptolites, and Mary Wade, initially with foraminiferans and then the Ediacaran fauna. Brown, Crespin, Hill, Ludbrook, Wade and their contemporaries did alpha taxonomy, classical geology and biostratigraphical studies that laid the foundations for making maps and work that became recognized nationally and internationally. Some achieved greatness; some – Hill, Cookson, Ludbrook and Phillips Ross – by leaving the country, either to gain their higher degree or to work. Many – for example, Hosking, Johnston, Prendergast, Richards, Ripper, Sullivan and Vincent – are or have been mere shadowy figures with a few publications and then oblivion or even tragedy. Women in geosciences spanning the 20th century in Australia contributed some hundreds of scientific papers, maps and textbooks.
Abbreviations
AAP, Association of Australasian Palaeontologists; AAS, Australian Academy of Science; AMDEL, Australian Mineral Development Laboratories; ANZAAS, Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science; ARC, Australian Research Council; BAAS, British Association for the Advancement of Science; BMNH, British Museum (Natural History), now The Natural History Museum; BMR, Bureau of Mineral Resources, now Geoscience Australia; CSIRO, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization; FGS, Fellow of the Geological Society, London; GA, Geological Association, London; GSA, Geological Society of Australia; GSL, Geological Society, London; GS, Geological Survey (GSNZ, New Zealand; GSQ, Queensland; GSSA, South Australia; GST, Tasmania; GSV, Victoria; GSWA, Western Australia); IGCP, International Geological Correlation Programme (now International Geoscience Programme); IUGS, International Union of Geological Sciences; MBE, Member of the order of the British Empire; NSW, New South Wales; OBE, Officer of the British Empire; PIRSA, Primary Industries Research, South Australia; QLD, Queensland; SA, South Australia; U, University (ANU, Australian National; CU, Cambridge, UK; MU, Melbourne; MUGS, MU Geology Section; SU, Sydney; UA, Adelaide; UMA, MU Archives; UN, University of Newcastle; UNE, New England; UNSW, New South Wales; UQ, Queensland; UT, Tasmania; UWA, Western Australia); UNESCO, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
In the mid-nineteenth century European settlers discovered prehistoric vertebrates in the northern part of the Colony of New South Wales, which later became the State of Queensland in 1859. Most of these finds were dealt with by overseas professionals, of whom Richard Owen at the British Museum (Natural History) (BM(NH)) was pre-eminent. By the late nineteenth century Australian-based vertebrate palaeontologists, who were usually self-educated, were beginning to work on Australian material. At this time, under the direction of Charles Walter De Vis, the Queensland Museum in Brisbane became the focal point for this science in Queensland; a programme of collecting was initiated which continued as funds allowed. The early twentieth century saw a new phase of exploration undertaken with the specific objective of collecting, carried out by large overseas scientific institutions. Thanks mainly to individual donations, new finds kept appearing regularly in the first half of the twentieth century. As a result there were scientific contributions from a few notable people, Heber A. Longman for example. Yet vertebrate palaeontology in Queensland languished, following the fortunes of the Museum between wars and it did not flourish again until after the Second World War. Since then both trained and amateur palaeontologists have been on the increase, and greater financial assistance has been made available from private, and State and Commonwealth Government sources, allowing progress in this science to be made.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.