Person
Cambage, Richard Hind (1859 - 1928)
- Born
- 7 November 1859
Applegarth, New South Wales, Australia - Died
- 28 November 1928
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia - Occupation
- Public servant, Surveyor and Botanist
Summary
Richard Cambage had a distinguished career in surveying and mining in New South Wales. Following several years as a pupil-teacher at the Ulladulla Public School he qualified as a surveyor in 1882. After a period with the Lands Department , he joined the Department of Mines, retiring in 1924 as Under-Secretary of the Department. During his time with Mines he surveyed the abandoned Newcastle works running under harbour and sea-bed, and was involved in the inquiry into the Mount Kembla mining disaster which resulted in considerable loss of life. Cambage played a central role in the scientific societies, including as President of the Royal and Linnean Societies of New South Wales, the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Wildlife Preservation Society of Australia. He also served for ten years on the Australian National Research Council. Cambage was an enthusiastic botanist and collector of plant specimens, collaborating with leaders in the field including Joseph Maiden, William Woolls and Henry Deane. Often in conjunction with Maiden, Cambage published descriptions of new species, notably Acacia and Eucalyptus. He was particularly interested in the physiology and morphology of Acacia, and the relationship of the chemical composition of soils to the distribution of Eucalyptus. Between 1901 and 1928 he published 31 papers in local scientific journals titled: "Notes on the botany of the interior of New South Wales"; "Notes on the native flora of New South Wales"; and "Acacia seedlings". Most of his plant collections are held by the National Herbarium of New South Wales.
Details
A number of plant species were named in honour of Cambage. These include: Acacia cambagei R. T. Baker and Eucalyptus cambageana Maiden.
Cambage published descriptions of new species, particularly eucalypts (sometimes in association with Joseph Maiden), and collected numerous type specimens. These include:
1899 Eucalyptus oreades R.T.Bak. Cambage was joint collector of the type specimen
1905 Eucalyptus moorei Maiden & Cambage
1909 Eucalyptus parvifolia Cambage ( = Eucalyptus parvula L.A.S.Johnson & K.D.Hill)
1915 Eucalyptus benthamii Maiden & Cambage
1915 Eucalyptus kybeanensis Maiden & Cambage
1919 Eucalyptus mitchelliana Cambage
1919 Eucalyptus blaxlandii Maiden & Cambage
1919 Eucalyptus pumila Cambage
1920 Eucalyptus cullenii Cambage
1922 Eucalyptus yarraensis Maiden & Cambage; Cambage also collected the type specimen
1926 Eucalyptus x bucknellii Cambage
Chronology
- 1879 - 1880
- Career event - Participated in survey of the National Park, New South Wales
- 1882
- Education - Qualified as licensed surveyor
- 1882 - 1885
- Career position - Draftsman, New South Wales Department of Lands
- 1885 - 1891
- Career position - Mining Surveyor, New South Wales Department of Mines
- 1891 - 1902
- Career position - Mining surveyor, New South Wales Department of Mines and Agriculture
- 1896 - 1928?
- Career position - Member, Linnean Society of New South Wales
- 1902 - 1907
- Career position - Chief Mining Surveyor, New South Wales Department of Mines and Agriculture
- 1903 - 1918
- Career position - Member, Licensed Surveyors Examination Board
- 1906 - 1923
- Career position - Member of Council, Linnean Society of New South Wales
- 1907 - 1909
- Career position - President, Institution of Surveyors, New South Wales
- 1907 - 1916
- Career position - Chief Mining Surveyor, New South Wales Mines Department
- 1909 - 1915
- Career position - Lecturer on surveying, Sydney Technical College
- 1912
- Career position - President, Royal Society of New South Wales
- 1913
- Career position - President, Wild Life Preservation Society of Australia
- 1914 - 1922
- Career position - Secretary, Royal Society of New South Wales
- 1916 - 1924
- Career position - Under-Secretary, New South Wales Mines Department
- 1917 - 1924
- Career position - Superintendent of explosives, New South Wales Mines Department
- 1919 - 1926
- Career position - Foundation Councillor (Botany), Honorary Secretary, Australian National Research Council
- 1923
- Career position - President, Royal Society of New South Wales
- 1923
- Career position - Chair, organising committee, 2nd Pan Pacific Science Congress, Melbourne and Sydney
- 1924
- Career position - President, Australian Historical Society
- 1924
- Career event - Retired
- 1924 - 1925
- Career position - President, Linnean Society of New South Wales
- 1925
- Career event - Attended the conference on reorganisation of the Commonwealth Institute of Science and Industry
- 1925
- Award - Commander of the Order of the British Empire
- 1925 - 1928
- Career position - Trustee, Australian Museum
- 1925 - 1928
- Career position - Secretary, Royal Society of New South Wales
- 1926 - 1928
- Career position - President, Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science
- 1926 - 1928
- Career position - President, Australian National Research Council
- 1928
- Career position - President, New South Wales Branch, Australian Forest League
Related entries
Colleague
Archival resources
Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science
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
- Maiden, J. H., A critical revision of the genus Eucalyptus, 8 vols (Sydney: Government Printer, 1903 - 1933). Details
Book Sections
- McMinn, W. G., 'Cambage, Richard Hind (1859-1928), surveyor and botanist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 7: 1891 - 1939 A-Ch, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1979), pp. 529-530. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A070533b.htm. Details
Journal Articles
- A., E. C. [ie Andrews, E. C.], 'Richard Hind Cambage, 1859-1928 (memorial series, no. 4)', Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 59 (1934), 435-447. Details
- Cambage, R. H., 'Chairman's address', Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 53 (1) (1928), i-viii. Details
- Cambage, R.H., 'Biographical Sketches of Some of the Members of the Philosophical Society of Australasia', Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, lv (1921), xxxiii-xlii. Details
- Cambage, R.H., 'Exploration Between the Wingecarribee, Shoalhaven, Macquarie and Murrumbidgee Rivers', Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, 7 (1921). Details
- Maiden, J. H.; and Cambage, R.H., 'Botanical, Topographical and Geological Notes on Some Routes of Allan Cunningham', Journal and Proceedings of The Royal Society of New South Wales, xliii (1909), 123-138. Details
- Walkom, A. B., 'Mr R. H. Cambage, C.B.E.', Nature, 123 (3095) (1929), 286-7. Details
Resources
- Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q7326472. Details
- VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/94692053. Details
- 'Cambage, R H (18591107-19281128)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-628088. Details
See also
- Fagg, Murray, 'Cambage, Richard Hind (1859 - 1928)', Australian Plant Collectors and Illustrators, Council of Heads of Australian Herbaria (CHAH), 2010, https://www.anbg.gov.au/biography/cambage-richard.html. Details
- Flood, Josephine M., The moth hunters: Aboriginal prehistory of the Australian Alps (Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, 1980), 388 pp, https://www.ligatu.re/book/the-moth-hunters/. Details
- George, Alex S., Australian botanist's companion (Kardinya, W.A.: Four Gables Press, 2009), 671 pp. Details
- Hall, Norman, Botanists of the Eucalypts: short biographies of people who have named eucalypts, whose names have been given to species or who have collected type material (Melbourne: CSIRO, 1978), 101 pp. Details
- Serle, Percival, Dictionary of Australian biography (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1949). Details
McCarthy, G.J., Moje, C. & Walsh, N.
Created: 20 October 1993, Last modified: 28 February 2023
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