Corporate Body

McCoy Society for Research and Investigation (1935 - 1999?)

From
1935
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
To
1999?
Functions
Association, Natural history and Society or Membership Organisation
Alternative Names
  • Society for the Study of Field Investigation and Research (Also known as)
Location
Melbourne, Victoria

Summary

The McCoy Society for Research and Investigation (briefly known as the McCoy Society for Field Investigation and Research) was founded in 1935 at the instigation of the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Melbourne, Raymond Priestly, with the enthusiastic support of many University people. Its purpose was to undertake multi-disciplinary studies on the biota and ecology of selected locations. Expeditions usually lasted several months over the summer period. Islands, being easily definable, somewhat inaccessible and inherently intriguing, were the first targets selected. Every expedition included University faculty members, and graduate and undergraduate students. The focus varied from island-based expeditions during the 1930s and from the 1960s, to land-based expeditions during WWII and the 1950s. Pelican Island, Western Port, Victoria, was the site of the Society's last excursion, with the research results being published in 1999. The Society was disbanded some time after that. Frederick McCoy was the University's first Professor of Natural Sciences from 1854 to 1899, and the first Director of the National Museum of Victoria from 1858 until his death.

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Details

Excursions undertaken by the Society were:

Lady Julia Percy Island, Victoria, 1935 - 1936

Sir Joseph Banks Islands, South Australia, 1936 - 1937: leader Frederick Wood Jones

King Island, Bass Strait, 1937 - 1938: leader Gwyneth Buchanan

Sunday Island, Corner Inlet, Victoria, 1938 - 1939: leader John Turner

Walpeup Research Station, Victoria, 1943

Cathedral Range, Victoria, 1947

Black Range, Grampians, Victoria 1948 - 1949

Rhyll salt marshes, Phillip Island, Victoria 1950

Lake Purrumbeete, Victoria 1951 - 1954

Chinaman's Island, Warneet 1957

Waterloo Bay, Wilsons Promontory, Victoria 1958

Mt Hunter Peninsula, Wilsons Promontory, Victoria 1959 - 1963

Hogan Island , Tasmania, 1968

Curtis, Island, Tasmania, 1971

Pelican Island, Western Port, Victoria, 1992 - 1998

[taken from Ashton (2001).]

Related People

Archival resources

The University of Melbourne Archives

  • McCoy Society for Research and Investigation - Records, 1947 - 2001, 102/66; The University of Melbourne Archives. Details
  • McCoy Society for Research and Investigation - Records, 90/29; The University of Melbourne Archives. Details
  • McCoy Society for Research and Investigation - Records, 1935 - 1950, 91/14; The University of Melbourne Archives. Details

Published resources

Journal Articles

  • 'The Sir Joseph Banks Islands: reports of the expedition of the McCoy Society for Field Investigastion and Research, part 1', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, ns, 50 (1938), 310-413. Details
  • 'The Sir Joseph Banks Islands: reports of the expedition of the McCoy Society for Field Investigastion and Research, part 2', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, ns, 51 (1939), 141-86. Details
  • Ashton, David H., 'The history of the McCoy Society', The Victorian naturalist, 118 (2001), 321-7. Details
  • Jones, F. Wood, 'Lady Julia Percy Island: reports of the expedition of the McCoy Society for Field Investigation and Research', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, ns, 49 (1937), 327-437. Details
  • Long, Rohan, 'The McCoy Society's 1936 expedition to Lady Julia Percy Island: specimens in the Tiegs Zoology Museum', University of Melbourne Collections, 21 (2017), 3-11. Details

Resources

See also

  • Archbold, N. W., 'Nineteenth Century Views on the Australian Marine Permian', Earth Sciences History, 5 (1) (1986), 12-23. Details
  • Ashton, D. H., 'Ecological studies on Pelican Island, Western Port, Victoria', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, 111 (1999), 229-52. Details
  • Jones, Frederick Wood, 'The McCoy Society's expedition to Lady Julia Percy Island', Nature, 138 (28 November) (1936), 906-8. Details
  • Massey, J. S., 'Natural history of Curtis Island, 1: introduction', Papers and proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania, 107 (1974), 129-30. Details
  • Pescott, T., 'A visit to Lady Julia Percy Island', The Victorian naturalist, 81 (1965), 290-302. Details
  • Pescott, T., 'Lady Julia Percy Island revisited', The Victorian naturalist, 85 (1968), 125-8. Details

Ailie Smith and Helen Cohn

Created: 15 July 2002, Last modified: 10 October 2023

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