Jim Maurice Bowler (born 1930) is an Australian geologist known for discovering the

Lake Mungo remains The Lake Mungo remains are three prominent sets of human remains that are Aboriginal Australian: Lake Mungo 1 (also called Mungo Woman, LM1, and ANU-618), Lake Mungo 3 (also called Mungo Man, Lake Mungo III, and LM3), and Lake Mungo 2 (LM2). ...

, which are considered the oldest human remains in Australia. He is a professorial fellow at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...

, School of Earth Sciences.

Early life

Bowler’s father was a fisherman who came from Ireland to farm in Leongatha, southern Victoria. He spent his adolescence and young adulthood working as a farmer and rancher, growing potatoes and herding cattle. For a time, he studied to become a

Jesuit priest The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

, but gave up and went back to farming. He left farming in his mid-twenties and enrolled at the University of Melbourne where he studied geology and received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1958, and later, a Masters in 1961. Bowler moved to Canberra in 1965 and became a research fellow at the Australian National University. He received his PhD in 1970, for his thesis "Late

quaternary The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), as well as the current and most recent of the twelve periods of the ...

environments: a study of lakes and associated sediments in south-eastern Australia."

Lake Mungo remains

Bowler made his discovery in western New South Wales in March 1969. At the time, Bowler was in the department of biogeography and geomorphology at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

. The human remains he found, and their subsequent radiocarbon dating, contributed to the historical rewriting of the timeline for Aboriginal settlement. They have been dated to approximately 40,000 years ago.Roberts, R., Russell, L. & Bird, M. (July 5, 2018).
Fifty years ago, at Lake Mungo, the true scale of Aboriginal Australians' epic story was revealed
. ''The Conversation''. Retrieved September 1, 2020.

Awards and recognition

Bowler was elected a Fellow of the

Australian Academy of the Humanities The Australian Academy of the Humanities was established by Royal Charter in 1969 to advance scholarship and public interest in the humanities in Australia. It operates as an independent not-for-profit organisation partly funded by the Australi ...

in 1988. He was awarded the Mawson Medal by the

Australian Academy of Science The Australian Academy of Science was founded in 1954 by a group of distinguished Australians, including Australian Fellows of the Royal Society of London. The first president was Sir Mark Oliphant. The academy is modelled after the Royal Soci ...

in 1989. He was appointed a

Member of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honours and awards system, Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarch ...

in the 1999 Australia Day Honours for "service to earth sciences, particularly through the study of landscape and environmental history, and to Australian prehistory". Also in 1999, he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Victoria The Royal Society of Victoria (RSV) is the oldest scientific society in Victoria, Australia. Foundation In 1854 two organisations formed with similar aims and membership, these being the Victorian Institute for the Advancement of Science (found ...

References

External links

University of Melbourne
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bowler, Jim 1930 births University of Melbourne people Australian National University alumni Geologists from Melbourne Living people Members of the Order of Australia Fellows of the Australian Academy of the Humanities