Basedow, Herbert (1881 - 1933)

Summary

Herbert Basedow was a geologist and medical practitioner, highly respected in these fields and as an explorer and anthropologist. In his early career with the South Australian Department of Mines he made several expeditions between 1903 and 1916 in South Australia and the Kimberley region in search of mineral resources. In 1911, for the Commonwealth Government, he was Chief Protector and Chief Medical Inspector of Aboriginals at Darwin. Nine years later he led medical relief expeditions, funded by the South Australian and Commonwealth governments, to examine and report on the prevalence of disease among Central Australian Aboriginals. In the 1920s Basedow led expeditions, financed by Donald Mackay, to the Petermann Ranges and Arnhem Land, and participated in the Leichhardt search party, Barcoo District, Queensland. During these journeys Basedow collected botanical, zoological, geological and ethnographic items, now distributed in collections across Australia and overseas. He was particularly concerned with the condition of the Indigenous people, and during his expeditions established good relations with those he encountered. His interests ranged from in their language and songs, to material culture. He also held office as Chairman of the Aborigines' Protection League. Basedow published widely on anthropology, geology and natural history. An early conservationist, he advocated sanctuaries and national parks to preserve rare inland flora and fauna. Many insects, plants and a mollusc discovered by Basedow were named after him.

Details

Chronology

1903

Career position - Member, South Australian Government North-West Prospecting Expedition

1904 - 1933

Award - Fellow, Royal Society of South Australia

1905 - 1906

Career position - Assistant to the Government Geologist, South Australian Department of Mines

1908

Education - PhD, Breslau University, Germany

1910

Education - BSc, University of Adelaide

1910

Education - MD ChD, Heidelberg and Göttingen Universities, Germany

1910 - 1911

Career position - Assistant Government Geologist, South Australian Department of Mines, and government medical officer for remote districts

1911

Career position - Chief Protector and Chief Medical Inspector of Aboriginals at Darwin, Commonwealth of Australia

1911 - 1933

Career position - Private medical and geological practice, Adelaide

1916

Career event - Led expedition to search for munition mineral, northern Kimberleys, Western Australia

1920

Career event - Led medical relief expedition to Central Australia to report on prevalence of disease among Indigenous people

1926

Career event - Led expedition financed by Donald Mackay to the Petermann Ranges, Northern Territory

1927 - 1930

Career position - Member for Barossa, South Australian House of Assembly

1928

Career event - Led expedition financed by Donald Mackay to Arnhem Land, Northern Territory

1933

Career position - Member for Barossa, South Australian House of Assembly

1934

Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus coolabah Blakely & Jacobs var. arida Blakely (= Eucalyptus microtheca F.Muell. (1859). Basedow collected the type

Related entries

Archival resources

Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales

• Angus & Robertson - Records, 1824 - 1933, ML MSS 314; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Herbert Basedow - Records, 1911 - 1928, A 2492; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Ralph Tate - Records, 1856 - 1941, ML MSS 161; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details

National Archives of Australia, National Office

• Herbert Basedow - Records, 1911 - 1931, CRS A1 12/2149; National Archives of Australia, National Office. Details

South Australian Museum Archives

• Herbert Basedow - Records, 1910 - 1934, A.D. 35; South Australian Museum Archives. Details

State Library of South Australia, Mortlock Library of South Australiana

• Herbert Basedow - Records, 1925, D 5304; State Library of South Australia, Mortlock Library of South Australiana. Details
• Herbert Basedow - Records, 1894 - 1934, PRG 324; State Library of South Australia, Mortlock Library of South Australiana. Details

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

• McCarthy, Gavan; Smith, Ailie; Moje, Christine; Rigby, Rebecca, The Study of Australian Eucalypts, eScholarship Research Centre, 2013, http://www.eoas.info/eucalypts/index.html. Details

Books

• Basedow, B., The Basedow story: a German South Australian heritage (Adelaide: Lutheran Publishing House, 1990), 240 pp. Details
• Basedow, H., The Australian Aboriginal (Adelaide: F. W. Preece & Sons, 1925), 422 pp. Details
• Basedow, Herbert, Catalogue of minerals in the Technological Museum of South Australia School of Mines and Industries (Adelaide: Government Printer, 1907), 200 pp. Details
• Basedow, Herbert, Narrative of an expedition of exploration in north-western Australia (Adelaide: W.K. Thomas & Co., Printers, 1918), 295 pp. Details
• Basedow, Herbert, Diseases of the Australian Aborigines (1932), 32 pp. Details
• Basedow, Herbert, Knights of the boomerang : episodes from a life spent among the native tribes of Australia (Sydney: Endeavour Press, 1935), 239 pp. Details
• Basedow, Herbert, Narrative of an Expedition of Exploration in North-western Australia (Carlisle (W.A.): Hesperian Press, 2009), 248 pp. Details
• Glover, John; with Bevan, Jenny, The Forgotten Explorers: Pioneer geologists of Western Australia, 1826-1926 (Victoria Park, W.A.: Hesperian Press, 2010), 246 pp. Details
• Kaus, David, A different time : the exhibition photographs of Herbert Basedow 1903-1928 (Canberra: National Museum of Australia, 2008), 218 pp. Details
• Wrigley, J.; and Fagg, M., Eucalypts: a Celebration (Crows Nest Australia: Allen & Unwin, 2010), 344 pp. Details
• Zogbaum, Heidi, Changing skin colour in Australia: Herbert Basedow and the black Caucasian (North Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2010), 324 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Harmstorf, Ian, 'Basedow, Herbert (1881-1933), anthropologist, geologist, explorer and medical practitioner' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 7: 1891 - 1939 A-Ch, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (Carlton, Vic.: Melbourne University Press, 1979), pp. 202-203. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A070204b.htm. Details
• Kaus, David, 'Professionals and Amateurs: Different Histories of Collecting in the National Ethnographic Collection' in The Makers and Making of Indigenous Australian Museum Collections, Peterson, Nicolas, Allen, Lindy and Hamby, Louise, eds (Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 2008), pp. 281-308. Details
• Kaus, David, 'Herbert Basedow (1881 - 1933): surgeon, geologist, naturalist and anthropologist' in German ethnography in Australia, Peterson, Nicolas and Kenny, Anna, eds (Canberra: Australian National University Press, 2017), pp. 301-28. Details

Journal Articles

• Basedow, H., 'Anthropological notes on the western coast tribes of the Northern Territory of South Australia', Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia, 31 (1907), 1-62. Details
• Basedow, H., 'Aboriginal rock carvings of great antiquity in South Australia', Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 44 (1914), 195-211. Details
• Basedow, H., 'Journal of the Government North-West Expedition', Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, South Australian Branch, 15 (1914), 58-242. Details
• Basedow, H. & Hedley, C., 'South Australian nudibranchs, and an enumeration of the known Australian species', Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 29:134–160, 29 (1905), 134-60. Details
• Basedow, Herbert, 'Anthropological notes made on the South Australian Government North-west prospecting expedition, 1903', Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia, 28 (1904), 12-51, https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/34980013. Details
• Basedow, Herbert, 'Geological report on the country traversed by the South Australian Government North-west Prospecting Expedition, 1903', Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia, 29 (1905), 57-102. Details
• Basedow, Herbert, 'Notes on the natives of Bathurst Island, North Australia', Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 43 (1913), 291-323. Details
• Kaus, David, 'It is a Treat at Any Time to Study Nature: an Introduction to the Collections of Herbert Basedow', Australian Systematic Botany Society Newsletter, 138 (2009), 7-18 . Details
• Pearn, John H., 'Dr. Herbert Basedow (1881-1933), a social, scientific and expeditionary pioneer', Medical Journal of Australia, 160 (1994), 213. Details
• Stehlik, Brigitte, 'Hermann Klaatsch and the Tiwi, 1906', Aboriginal history journal, 10 (1986), 59-77. http://doi.org/10.22459/AH.10.2011.06. Details
• Zogbaum, Heidi, 'Herbert Basedow and the removal of Aboriginal children of mixed descent from their families', Australian historical studies, 34 (121) (2008), 122-38. https://doi.org/10.1080/103146103085962. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1556647. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/71486441. Details
• 'Basedow, Herbert (18811027-19330604)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-577877. Details

See also

• Serle, Percival, Dictionary of Australian biography (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1949). Details