Cambage, Richard Hind (1859 - 1928)

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

Archival resources

Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science

• Australian Botanists - Biographies, MS 064; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. 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

• 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

• Currie, George; Graham, John, The Origins of CSIRO: Science and the Commonwealth Government, 1901-1926 (Melbourne: CSIRO, 1966), 203 pp, https://ebooks.publish.csiro.au/content/origins-csiro. pages 142. Details
• 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