Australian Botanical Liaison Officer was a secondment position, held for up to twelve months by an

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

n botanist (or expert in Australian botany) at the Royal Botanic Gardens in

Kew Kew () is a district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its population at the 2011 census was 11,436. Kew is the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens ("Kew Gardens"), now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace. Kew is ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

in the

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. The position was created in 1937, and the first ABLO was Charles Gardner. Travel and living costs for the position were funded by the

Australian government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government or simply as the federal government, is the national executive government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. The executive consists of the pr ...

, with the appointee's salary continuing to be paid by their current employing institution. The position was advertised by the Australian Biological Resources Study (ABRS), part of the Australian government's Department of the Environment and Heritage. Assessment and selection of candidates is undertaken by the Council of Heads of Australian Herbaria (CHAH), who advised the Australian Biological Resources Study Advisory Committee (ABRSAC) to recommend the Minister approve the appointment. In 2009, a review was conducted by ABRS, CHAH and the Advisory Committee which determined that there was no strong need for the ABLO position due to advances in digital technology which gave detailed access to herbarium specimen data over the internet, and the position was discontinued. A research grants system replaced the program, which aimed to fund overseas placements at botanical institutions other than Kew Gardens.

List of Australian Botanical Liaison Officers

(List sourced from Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water) * Charles Gardner (1937–1939) *

Cyril Tenison White Cyril Tenison White (17 August 1890 – 15 August 1950) was an Australian botanist. Early life White was born in Brisbane, Queensland, to Henry White, a trade broker, and Louisa (''nee'' Bailey). He attended school at South Brisbane State Sch ...

(1939) *

Mary Tindale Mary Douglas Tindale (19 September 1920 – 31 March 2011) was an Australia Australian botanist. She was an Australian botanist specialising in pteridology (ferns) and the genera ''Acacia'' and ''Glycine''. She devoted her life to the study of f ...

(1949–1951) * Nancy Burbidge (1952–1954) * Patrick Morris (1956–1957) * James Willis (1958–1959) * Hansjörg Eichler (1961–1962) *

Lawrence Alexander Sidney Johnson Lawrence Alexander Sidney Johnson (26 June 1925 – 1 August 1997) known as Lawrie Johnson, was an Australian Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic botany, botanist. He worked at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney, for the whole of his professional car ...

(1962–1963) * Stanley Blake (1964–1965) *

Michael Lazarides Michael may refer to: People * Michael (given name), a given name * he He ..., a given name * Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael Given name * Michael (bishop elect)">Michael (surname)">he He ..., a given nam ...

(1965–1966) * Arthur Bertram Court (1966–1967) * Alex George (1967–1968) * Donald McGillivray (1969–1970) * John Carrick (1970–1971) *

Leslie Pedley Leslie Pedley (19 May 1930 – 27 November 2018)IPNILeslie Pedley/ref> was an Australian botanist who specialised in the genus ''Acacia''. He is notable for bringing into use the generic name ''Racosperma'', creating a split in the genus, which r ...

(1971–1972) *

George Chippendale George Chippendale (18 April 1921 – 16 February 2010) was an Australian botanist and a strong proponent of growing Australian Native plants. As well as a career in botany, he also taught his love of botany to all who would listen through talks ...

(1972–1973) * Helen Aston (1973–1974) *

Donald Frederick Blaxell Donald Frederick Blaxell (born 1 February 1934, Sydney, New South Wales), is an Australian botanist, botanical collector and taxonomist. Blaxell worked at the University of New South Wales for 11 years and joined the New south Wales Herbarium i ...

(1974–1975) * Andrias Kanis (1975–1976) *

John Maconochie John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second Ep ...

(1976–1977) *

Bruce Maslin Bruce Roger Maslin (born 3 May 1946) is an Australian botanist, known for his work on ''Acacia'' taxonomy. Born in Bridgetown, Western Australia, Bridgetown, Western Australia, he obtained an honours degree in botany from the University of West ...

(1977–1978) * Rodney Henderson (1978–1979) * Ahmad Munir (1979–1980) *

Ian Brooker Murray Ian Hill Brooker Order of Australia, AM (2 June 1934 – 25 June 2016), better known as Ian Brooker, was an Australian botanist. He was widely recognised as the leading authority on the genus ''Eucalyptus''. Ian Brooker was born in Adelai ...

(1980–1981) *

Michael Crisp Michael Douglas Crisp (born 1950) is an emeritus professor in the Research School of Biology at the Australian National University located in Canberra. In 1976, he gained a PhD from the University of Adelaide, studying long-term vegetation chan ...

(1981–1982) * Rex Filson (1982–1983) * Surrey Jacobs (1983–1984) * Nicholas Lander (1984–1985) * Clyde Dunlop (1985–1986) * Gordon Guymer (1986–1987) * Judith G. West (1987–1988) *

Karen Louise Wilson Karen Louise Wilson (born 1950) is an Australian botanist. Career Some of her research interests are: systematics, phylogenetic and biogeographic studies on Cyperaceae, Casuarinaceae, Juncaceae and Polygonaceae. Other professional interests i ...

(1988–1989) *

Terry Desmond Macfarlane Terry Desmond Macfarlane (born 1953) is a botanist and taxonomist, who has worked in both Australia and Peru. A senior research scientist at the Western Australian Herbarium, Macfarlane is associate editor of its journal '' Nuytsia'' and curre ...

(1989–1990) * Gregory Leach (1990–1991) *

Philip Short Philip Short (born 17 April 1945) is a British journalist and author. He was born in Bristol. He studied at Queens' College, Cambridge. After graduation, he spent from 1967 to 1973 as a freelance journalist, first in Malawi, then in Uganda. He ...

(1991–1992) *

Peter Weston Peter Weston (19 October 1943 – 5 January 2017) was a British science fiction fan from Birmingham, UK. Weston made many contributions in fan writing, fanzine editing, convention-running and in local science fiction clubs. His 1960s pseudonym ...

(1992–1993) * L.W. Jessup (1993–1994) * Barry Conn (1994–1995) * Robert Owen Makinson (1995–1996) * Donald Bruce Foreman (1996–1997) * Kenneth Hill (1997–1998) * Alex Chapman (1998–1999) *

Robert Chinnock Robert James (Bob) Chinnock (born 3 July 1943) is a New Zealand-born Australian botanist who worked at the State Herbarium of South Australia as a senior biologist. He retired in 2008 but still works as an honorary research associate. His resear ...

(1999–2000) * Rodney Seppelt (2000–2001) * Neville Marchant (2001–2002) * Peter D. Bostock (2002) * Roberta Cowan (2002–2003) * Annette Wilson (2003–2004) * Alex George (2004–2005) *

Juliet Wege Juliet Ann Wege (born 1971 in Western Australia) is an Australian botanist. She graduated in 1992 and gained a PhD at The University of Western Australia in 1999 with a thesis titled "Morphological and anatomical variation within Stylidium (Stylid ...

(2005–2006) * Jenny Tonkin (2006–2007) * Jeremy Bruhl (2007–2008) * Anthony Orchard (2008–2009)

References

{{reflist

External links

Australian Biological Resources Study: ABLO page
Australian Botanical Liaison Officers Science and technology in Australia 1937 establishments in Australia 2009 disestablishments in Australia