Plomley, Norman James Brian (1912 - 1994)

Summary

Norman Plomley qualified as a biophysicist and anatomist, and early in his career undertook research on the effects of ultra violet light. Between 1950 and 1973 he taught anatomy at several Australian and overseas universities. Plomley is best known as a highly respected and scholarly ethnographic historian, particularly of Tasmanian Indigenous people. He published widely on the culture and languages of Tasmanian Aborigines, their relations with European visitors and settlers, and Aboriginal material in overseas repositories. Some of these works are regarded as seminal in the field. Plomley donated a large collection of papers, books, maps and other material to the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston, with which he had a long association. As Director from 1946 to 1950 he promoted scientific research, appointing to the staff a geologist and an anthropologist. He was an early advocate for the preservation of Tasmanian historical records.

Details

Chronology

1935

Education - Bachelor of Science (BSc), University of Sydney

1936 - 1937

Career position - Postgraduate fellow, University of Cambridge

1938

Career position - Secretary, northern branch, Royal Society of Tasmania

1938

Career position - Temporary assistant, Queen Victoria Museum

1939 - 1943

Career position - Research student, Department of Physics, University of Tasmania

1946 - 1949

Career position - Secretary, northern branch, Royal Society of Tasmania

1946 - 1950

Career position - Director, Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston, Tasmania

1947

Education - Master of Science (MSc), University of Tasmania

1950 - 1960

Career position - Senior Lecturer in Anatomy, University of Sydney

1961 - 1965

Career position - Senior lecturer in anatomy, University of New South Wales

1966 - 1973

Career position - Senior lecturer in anatomy, University College, London

1974 - 1976

Career position - Senior Associate in Aboriginal and Oceanic Ethnology, University of Melbourne

1979

Award - Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for service in the field of historical research

1983

Award - Clive Lord Memorial Medal, Royal Society of Tasmania

Related entries

Archival resources

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

• Norman James Brian Plomley - Records, 1891 - 1962, ML MSS 1248; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Norman James Brian Plomley - Records, ML MSS 694; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details

Published resources

Books

• Plomley, Brian, The Tasmanian Aborigines (Launceston, Tas.: Plomley Foundation, 1993), 107 pp. Details
• Plomley, Brian; and Cameron, Mary: edited by C. B. Tassell, Plant foods of the Tasmanian Aborigines (Launceston, Tas.: Queen Victoria Museum, 1993), 27 pp. Details
• Plomley, Brian; and Henley, Kristen Anne, The sealers of Bass Strait and the Cape Barren Island community (Hobart: Blubberhead Press, 1990), 94 pp. Details
• Plomley, Brian; and Piard-Bernier, Josiane, The general: the visits of the expedition led by Bruny d'Entrecasteuax to Tasmanian waters in 1792 and 1793 (Launceston, as.: Queen Victoria Museum, 1993), 379 pp. Details
• Plomley, Brian; Cornell, Christine; and Banks, Max, Francois Peron's natural history of Maria Island, Tasmania (Launceston, Tas.: Queen Victoria Museum, 1990), 50 pp. Details
• Plomley, N. J. B., A list of Tasmanian Aboriginal material in collections in Europe (Launceston, Tas.: Museum Committee, Launceston City Council, 1962), 18 pp. Details
• Plomley, N. J. B., A summary of published work on the physical anthropology of the Tasmanian Aborigines (Launceston, Tas.: Museum Committee, Launceston City Council, 1966), 7 pp. Details
• Plomley, N. J. B., An annotated bibliography of the Tasmanian Aborigines (London: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 1969), 143 pp. Details
• Plomley, N. J. B., A word-list of the Tasmanian languages (Launceston, Tas.: N. J. B. Plomley in association with the Government of Tasmania, 1976), 486 pp. Details
• Plomley, N. J. B., The Baudin Expedition and the Tasmanian Aborigines, 1802 (Hobart: Blubber Head Press, 1983). Details
• Plomley, N. J. B., The Tasmanian tribes and cicatrices as tribal indicators among the Tasmanian Aborigines (Launceston, Tas.: Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, 1992?), 51 pp. Details
• Plomley, N. J. B.; with the assistance of Goodall, Caroline, Tasmanian Aboriginal place names (Launceston, Tas.: Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, 1992), 98 pp. Details
• Plomley, N. J. B.; with the assistance of Smythe, Martina and Goodall, Caroline, The Aboriginal/settler clash in Van Diemen's Land, 1803 - 1831 (Launceston, Tas.: Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, [1992]), 100 pp. Details
• Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Guide to the Plomley collection: CHS 53 (Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Tas.: Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, [?1994]), 33 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Glover, Margaret, 'Plomley, Norman James Brian (1912-1994), biophysicist, anatomist, museum director, and historian' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 19: 1991 - 1995 A-Z, Melanie Nolan, ed. (Canberra: Australian National University Press, 2021), pp. 677-678, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/plomley-norman-james-brian-18742. Details
• Plomley, N. J. B., 'Meston, Archibald Lawrence (1890-1951), educationist, historian and anthropology' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 10: 1891 - 1939 Lat-Ner, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1986), pp. 489-490. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A100476b.htm. Details
• Plomley, N. J. B., 'Scott, Herbert Hedley (1866-1938), museum curator' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 11: 1891 - 1939 Nes-Smi, Geoffrey Serle, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1988), p. 546. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A110561b.htm. Details

Edited Books

• Plomley, N. J. B. ed., Friendly mission: the Tasmanian journals and papers of George Augustus Robinson, 1829-1834 (Hobart: Tasmanian Historical Research Association, 1966), 1074 pp. Details
• Plomley, N. J. B. ed., Friendly mission: the Tasmanian journals and papers of George Augustus Robinson, 1829-1834: supplement (Bellerive, Tas.: Tasmanian Historical Research Association, 1971), 32 pp. Details
• Plomley, N. J. B. ed., Weep in silence: a history of the Flinders Island Aboriginal settlement, with the Flinders Island journal of George Augustus Robinson, 1835 - 1839 (Sandy Bay, Tas.: Blubberhead Press, 1987), 1034 pp. Details
• Plomley, N. J. B. ed., Jorgen Jorgenson and the Aborigines of Van Diemen's Land: being a reconstruction of his "lost" book on their customs and habits, and on his role in the Roving Parties and the Black Line (Sandy Bay, Tas.: Blubberhead Press, 1991), 164 pp. Details

Journal Articles

• Glover, Margaret, 'Obituary: Norman James Brian Plomley 1912 - 1994', Tasmanian Historical Research Association papers and proceedings, 41 (2) (1994), 125-6. Details
• Plomley, N. J. B., 'The Tasmanian Journal of Natural Science', Papers and proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania, 103 (1969), 13-5. Details
• Plomley, N. J. B.; and Meston, A. L., 'Miscellaneous notes on the culture of the Tasmanian Aboriginal', Memoirs of the National Museum of Victoria, 20 (1956), 191-200. Details
• Plomley, N.J.B., 'Thomas Bock's Portraits of the Tasmanian Aborigines', Records of the Queen Victoria Museum (Tasmania), 18 (1965), 1-24. Details
• Plomley, N.J.B., 'The Baudin Expedition and the Tasmanian Aborigines in 1802', Margin, 22 (1990), 4-12. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q55766693. Details
• 'Plomley, N J B (19121106-19940408)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-516905. Details

Resource Sections

• 'Plomley, Norman James Brian', in Physics in Australia to 1945, R.W. Home, with the assistance of Paula J. Needham, Australian Science Archives Project, June 1995, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/physics/P001201p.htm. Details

See also

• Pybus, Cassandra, A very secret trade: the dark story of gentlemen collectors in Tasmania (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2024), 318 pp. https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Cassandra-Pybus-Very-Secret-Trade-9781761066344. Pages 237. Details
• Sagona, Claudia, An annotated bibliography of the Tasmanian Aborigines, 1970 - 1987 ([Melbourne]: Art School Press, Chisholm Institute of Technology, 1989), 290 pp. Details