Early life and career
Tindale was born in Randwick, New South Wales, the only child of George Harold Tindale and Grace Matilda Tindale. She attended primary school in New York while her father served as British Ambassador to the United States. She returned to Sydney, Australia to attend high school at Abbotsleigh. Tindale earned a B.Sc. in botany with Honours fromResearch
Tindale worked on the genera Glycine and Acacia. She was the first officer within NSW in the public service to be given the position of a Principal Research Scientist. She was an authority on both wattles and the native soya bean, known as Glycine. Tindale was an author of the 4th edition of the book called ''Flora of the Sydney Region'' (1994). She served on numerous international committees for ferns, and was a member of the Special Committee for Pteridophytes in the International Bureau of Plant Taxonomy and Nomenclature from the years of 1965 to 2005. In addition she was the secretary of the Systematic Botany Committee of ANZAAS. 49 taxon names have been authored by Mary Douglas Tindale and she contributed to ten books on botany.Gender
Tindale was reported to attend 'as many international botanical congresses as possible'."She lived through the era of elegant gowns and romantic dances and confessed she loved dancing the tango. She seemed proud of never having married - in those days,Reporting on her career and also preparation, the Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria Australian National Herbarium - Biographical Notes, states that,'' one had to give up work as soon as one married'' - and was proud to be a woman with an important academic career." ... "Tindale's assistants at the Botanic Gardens were mostly men. She was an exacting boss who kept them on their toes, toughening them up for their botanical careers."
"She was slapdash with her lipstick but prepared for every eventuality - on one occasion at a grand function, where there wasn't enough light to read the menu, she reached into her bag and got out a magnifying glass and a large torch."
Publications
* Tindale, M.D. 1962. A new species of the ''Acacia decurrens'' group from New South Wales. ''Contributions from the New South Wales National Herbarium'' 3(3): 127. Reference page. * Tindale, M.D. 1963. Studies in Australian Pteridophytes. No. 4. ''Contributions from the New South Wales National Herbarium'' 3(4): 245–248. * Tindale, M.D. 1975. Notes on Australian taxa of ''Acacia'' No. 4. ''Telopea'' 1(1): 68–83. DOI:10.7751/telopea19753110 * Tindale, M.D. & Kodela, P.G. 1992. New species of ''Acacia'' (Fabaceae : Mimosoideae) from tropical Australia. ''Telopea'' 5(1) 53–66. DOI: 10.7751/telopea19924961 * Tindale, M.D. & Kodela, P.G. 1996. ''Acacia valida'' (Fabaceae, Mimosoideae), a new species from Western Australia and the Northern Territory, as well as the typification and revision of ''A. pachyphloia''. ''Australian Systematic Botany'' 9(3): 307–317. DOIAwards and recognition
* 1948 - Linnean Macleay Fellowship (Botany), for study at the University of Sydney * 1968-1983 - Editor, ''Contributions from the New South Wales National Herbarium''References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tindale, Mary Botanists with author abbreviations Botanists active in Australia Australian women botanists Australian Botanical Liaison Officers 1920 births 2011 deaths University of Sydney alumni 20th-century British women scientists People educated at Abbotsleigh