Person

Everist, Selwyn Lawrence (1913 - 1981)

Born
22 April 1913
Tewantin, Queensland, Australia
Died
22 October 1981
South Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Occupation
Botanist and Museum director

Summary

Selwyn Everist was a botanist widely known for his expertise in Australia's poisonous plants. He spent his career with the Botany Branch of the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Stock (and its successors), joining in 1930 and later serving as Director of the Branch and the Queensland Herbarium. His work in identifying the plants involved in the Birdsville horse disease and the St George disease of sheep and cattle led him to a life-long study of poisonous plants. His book Poisonous plants of Australia (1974, revised edition 1981) is considered definitive in the field. As Government Botanist and later Director, Everist oversaw the modernisation of the Queensland Herbarium: during his tenure the Herbarium was the first in Australia to embark on a program of digitising its plant specimen records. The Herbarium is the principal repository of his collections.

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Details

Chronology

January 1929 -
Career event - Joined Queensland public service as cadet clerk
1930 - 1933
Career position - Clerk, Botany Section, Queensland Department of Agriculture and Stock
1933 - 1937
Career position - Botanist, Queensland Department of Agriculture and Stock
1937
Education - Bachelor of Science (BSc), University of Queensland
1937 - 1942
Career position - Assistant Research Officer, Queensland Department of Agriculture and Stock at Blackall
1942 - 1946
Military service - Second World War. Flight Lieutenant, Meteorologist, Royal Australian Air Force
1946 - 1954
Career position - Botanist, Queensland Department of Agriculture and Stock
July 1954 - 1971
Career position - Government Botanist, Queensland Herbarium
1958 - 1959
Career position - President, Queensland Naturalists' Club
1961
Career position - President, Royal Society of Queensland
1971 - 1976
Career position - Director, Botany Branch and Queensland Herbarium, Department of Primary Industries
1976
Life event - Retired
1977
Award - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), honoris causa, University of Queensland

Related Corporate Bodies

Archival resources

Queensland Herbarium

  • Selwyn L. Everist - Records, 1936 - 1979; Queensland Herbarium. Details

Published resources

Books

  • Selwyn, Selwyn L., Poisonous plants of Australia (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1974), 684 pp. Details

Book Sections

  • Everist, Selwyn L., 'The history of poisonous plants in Australia' in Plants and Man in Australia, Carr, D. J. and Carr, S. G. M., eds (Sydney: Academic Press, 1981), pp. 223-55. Details
  • Johnson, R. W., 'Everist, Selwyn Lawrence (1913-1981), Botanist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 17: 1981 - 1990 A-K, Diane Langmore, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2007), pp. 369-370. http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/everist-selwyn-lawrence-12470. Details

Journal Articles

  • Everist, S. L., 'Stanley Thatcher Blake - botanist extraordinaire 1911 - 1973', Queensland naturalist, 21 (1/2) (1974), 31-2. Details
  • Johnson, R. W., 'Obituary: Selwyn Lawrence Everist 1913 - 1981', Australian weeds, 1 (2) (1981), 42. Details
  • Johnson, R. W., 'Selwyn Lawrence Everist', Queensland naturalist, 24 (1983), 68-70. Details
  • Johnson, R. W., 'Selwyn Lawrence Eversit 1913-1981', Queensland Naturalist, 24 (1983), 68-71. Details

Resources

See also

  • Hall, Norman, Botanists of Australian Acacias: Short Biographies of People Who Have Named Australian Species, Whose Names Have Been Given to Species or Who Have Collected Type Material, But Excluding Any Who Are Included in 'Botanists of the Eucalypts' (Melbourne: CSIRO, 1984), 64 pp. Details

Gavan McCarthy [P004098] and Helen Cohn

Created: 20 October 1993, Last modified: 6 October 2023

EOAS ID: biogs/P001232b.htm

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