Holtze, Maurice William (1840 - 1923)

Summary

Maurice Holtze was Government Gardener of the Palmerston (later Darwin) Botanic Gardens 1878-1891 and Director of the Adelaide Botanic Garden 1891-1917. He trained in botany and horticulture in St Petersburg, Russia, and worked for a number of years in Europe before migrating to Australia with his family and settling in Palmerston (now Darwin) in the Northern Territory of South Australia. On appointment as Government Gardener in 1878 Holtze designed the Garden drawing on his European experience, although few of his planting survived later cyclones. With his son Nicholas, Holtze continued the work of William Hayes in trialling agricultural crops including sesame, opium, tapioca, arrowroot, bananas, cotton, jute and rice. During his time in the Northern Territory, Holtze collected many plant specimens which he sent to Ferdinand von Mueller in Melbourne, where they remain in the National Herbarium of Victoria. In 1891 Holtze was appointed Director of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens where, despite having fewer resources than his predecessor, he redesigned much of the Garden, developed a considerable collection of aquatic plants, and established a "type orchard" in the Mount Lofty Ranges with over 2000 varieties of apple and pear. The genus Holtzea (Fabaceae) was named in his honour.

Details

Chronology

1872

Life event - Migrated to Australia with family

1872 - 1878

Career position - Gaol warder, Palmerston, Northern Territory of South Australia

1878 - 1891

Career position - Government Gardener, Palmerston, Northern Territory of South Australia

1888 - 1891

Career position - Forester for the Northern Territory

1889 - 1923

Career position - Fellow, The Linnean Society of London (FLS)

1891 - 1917

Career position - Director, Adelaide Botanic Gardens

1913

Award - Imperial Service Order (ISO)

Related entries

Archival resources

State Records of South Australia

• Maurice William Holtze - Records, c. 1891 - 1917, 111/A1; State Records of South Australia. Details
• Maurice William Holtze - Records, c. 1891 - 1917, 112/A1; State Records of South Australia. Details
• Maurice William Holtze - Records, c. 1891 - 1917, 1047/125; State Records of South Australia. 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

• Adelaide Botanic Gardens, The Botanic Garden, Adelaide, South Australia: centenary volume 1855 - 1955:history, guides and catalogues of plants (Adelaide: Government Printer, 1955), 412 pp. Details
• Aitken, Richard, Seeds of Change: an Illustrated History of Adelaide Botanic Garden (Richmond: Board of the Botanic Gardens and State Herbarium/Bloomings Books, 2006). Details
• Bisa, Deborah, Remember me kindly: a history of the Holtze family in the Northern Territory (Casuarina, N.T.: Historical Society of the Northern Territory, 2016), 421 pp. Details
• Ruediger, Wynnis J., The Holtze saga (Morgan, South Australia: The author, 1988). Details

Book Sections

• Kraehenbuel, Darrell N., 'Holtze, Maurice William (1840-1923), botanist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 9: 1891 - 1939 Gil-Las, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1983), pp. 353-354. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A090353b.htm. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q6793541. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/28720157. Details
• 'Holtze, Maurice William (1840-1923)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1469018. Details