Law, Phillip Garth (1912 - 2010)

Summary

Phillip Law was Director, Antarctic Division, Department of External Affairs and Leader of the Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions 1949-1966 and founded the Mawson, Davis and Casey bases in Antarctica. He was chairman of the Australian Academy of Science, National Committee on Antarctic Research from 1966 until 1980, and was President of the Royal Society of Victoria 1967-1968.

His distinguished contributions to Antarctic exploration, science research and education were recognised many times over his lifetime through a large number of awards, including appointment as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1960, and Companion of the Order of Australia in 1995. Many places in Antarctica are named in his honour including Law Dome; Law Promontory and related Law Island; Law Landing; and Law Plateau.

Details

Other awards include:
* Hon.DEd, Victorian Institute of Colleges;
* Hon.DSc, LaTrobe University;
* Hon.FRMIT, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology;
* Fellow, Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (FANZAAS);
* Fellow, Australian Institute of Physics.

Chronology

1939

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

1941

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

c. 1941 - c. 1945

Career position - Assistant Secretary and later Acting Secretary, Optical Munitions Panel

1943 - 1948

Career position - Lecturer in physics, University of Melbourne

1949 - 1966

Career position - Leader of many Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions (ANARE)

1949 - 1966

Career position - Director, Antarctic Division, Department of External Affairs

1953

Award - Coronation Medal

1957

Award - Commonwealth Professional Officers Association Award of Merit

1959

Award - Clive Lord Memorial Medal, Royal Society of Tasmania

1959 - 1977

Career position - Member of Council, University of Melbourne

1960

Award - Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) - Director, Antarctic Division, External Affairs Department

1960

Award - Founder's Gold Medal, Royal Geographical Society, London

1962

Award - John Lewis Gold Medal, Royal Geographical Society of Australia

1962

Award - Doctor of Applied Science (DAppSc), honoris causa, University of Melbourne

1964 - 1974

Career position - Member of Council, LaTrobe University

1964 - 1981

Career position - Member, Victorian Committee, Duke of Edinburgh Award

1966 - 1977

Career position - Executive vice-president, Victoria Institute of Colleges

1966 - 1980

Career position - Chairman, National Committee for Antarctic Research, Australian Academy of Science

1967 - 1968

Career position - President, Royal Society of Victoria

1968

Career position - Chairman, Committee on Marine Science, Royal Society of Victoria

1968 - 1983

Career position - Member of Council, Science Museum of Victoria

1971 - 1977

Career position - President, Graduate Union of Melbourne University

1975

Award - Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) - For service to science particularly in the field of Antarctic exploration and research and to education

1975 - 1987

Award - Foundation Fellow, Australian Academy of Technological Sciences (FTS)

1977 - 1980

Career position - President, Victorian Institute of Marine Sciences

1978 - 2010

Award - Fellow, Australian Academy of Science (FAA)

1979 - 1982

Career position - Deputy President of Council, Science Museum of Victoria

1987

Award - James Cook Medal, Royal Society of New South Wales

1987 - 2010

Award - Fellow, Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (FTSE) [Foundation Fellow AATS 1975]

1988

Award - Gold Medal, Australian Geographic Society

1995

Award - Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) - For service to science particularly in the field of Antarctic exploration and research and to education

1995 - 2010

Award - Fellow, Royal Society of Victoria (FRSV) [One of first four Fellows elected, known then as the 'Foundation Fellows']

1996

Award - Polar Medal [presented in 1996, awarded in the 1960s]

2001

Award - Clunies Ross Lifetime Achievement Award, Ian Clunies Ross Memorial Foundation

2001

Award - Centenary Medal - For service to Australia in Antarctic research and in the administration of tertiary education

Related entries

Archival resources

Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science

• Oral Collection, 1931 - 2003, MS 057; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details
• Phillip Garth Law - Records, 1966 - 1977, MS 123; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details

Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, University of Melbourne

• Audio of interview with P.G. Law, 4 September 1985, P001333; Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, University of Melbourne. Details

National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection

• Phillip Garth Law - Records, 1940 - 1980, MS 9458; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details

National Library of Australia Oral History Collection

• Phillip Garth Law - Records, 1975, TRC 351; National Library of Australia Oral History Collection. Details

The University of Melbourne Archives

• Phillip Garth Law - Records, 1940 - 1990; The University of Melbourne Archives. Details

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

• Exhibition Papers, A Bright Sparcs Exhibition, Australian Science Archives Project, 1997, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/exhib/papers/exhib_papers.htm. Details
• The Giant's Eye: the Optical Munitions Exhibition, Australian Science Archives Project, 1997, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/exhib/omp/omp.htm. Details
• Smith, Ailie, Adolph Basser Library Manuscript Collection, eScholarship Research Centre, 2012, http://www.eoas.info/basser_browse.html. Details

Books

• Bowden, Tim, The Silence Calling (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1997), 656 pp. [See pp.275-276, List of expeditions led by Law, p.277]. Details
• Law, Phillip, Australia and the Antarctic. John Murtagh Macrossan Memorial Lecture (Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, 1962). Details
• Law, Phillip, Antarctic Odyssey (Melbourne: Heinemann Australia, 1983). Details
• Law, Phillip, The Antarctic Voyage of HMAS Wyatt Earp (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1995), 152 pp. Details
• Law, Phillip; and Bechervaise, John, ANARE: Australia's Antarctic Outposts (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1957), 152 pp. Details
• Manhal, Oscar and McCarthy, Gavan, The records of Phillip Garth Law (1912 - ) (Parkville, Vic.: Australian Science Archives Project, 1989), 113 pp. Details
• Ralston, Kathleen, A Man for Antarctica: the Early Life of Phillip Law (South Melbourne: Hyland House, 1993), 236 pp. Details
• Ralston, Kathleen, Phillip Law: the Antarctic Exploration years, 1954-66 (Canberra: AusInfo, Department of Finance and Administration, 1998), 278 pp. Details
• Toohill, Ian, Dr Phillip Garth Law: his extraordinary life and times as told to Ian Toohill (Melbourne: Royal Societies of Australia and Ian Toohill, 2009), 237 pp. Details

Journal Articles

• Anderson, Fay, 'Phillip Garth Law: Explorer and Scientist', Australasian Science, 19 (2) (1998), 56. Details
• Bowden, Tim, 'Obituary: Phillip Garth Law', Polar Record, 46 (2010), 383-4. Details
• Flesch, Juliet and McPhee, Peter, '150 Years, 150 Stories: Phillip Garth Law', Uni News, 12 (11) (2003), 4. Details
• Law, Phillip, 'The Mawson story - no. 3: Antarctic triumphs to remember', Royal Historical Society of Victoria Journal, 57 (3) (1986), 14-24. Details
• Law, Phillip, 'The Mawson Story - No 1: 'a Powerful, Stubborn and Gentle Man'', Royal Historical Society of Victoria Journal, 57 (1) (1986), 3-13. Details
• Law, Phillip, 'The Mawson Story - Part 2: Hungry and Alone in the Antarctic', Royal Historical Society of Victoria Journal, 57 (2) (1986), 13-18. Details
• Lugg, Desmond, 'Phillip Garth Law AC, CBE 1912-2010', Australian Antarctic Magazine, 18 (2010), 22-4. Details
• McAuley, W. J. W., 'Dr Phillip Garth Law AC CBE, 21 April 1912-28 February 2010', Geographical Journal, 177 (2011), 92-3. Details
• McAuley, William J. M.; and others, 'The 95th Birthday of Dr Phillip Garth Law', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, 110 (2) (2007), xxxiii-xlv. Details
• Quilty, Patrick G.; and Lugg, Desmond J., 'Phillip Garth Law 1912-2010', Historical Records of Australian Science, 24 (1) (2013), 134-59, https://doi.org/10.1071/HR12026. Details
• Zillman, J. W., 'A tribute to Dr Phillip Garth Law AC CBE FAA FTSE FRSV', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, New Series, 119 (2) (2007), xiv-xvii, https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/59316099. Details

Newspaper Articles

• Law, Peter, 'A great explorer who left Australia's footprint in Antarctica [Obituary: Dr Phillip Law, Antarctic explorer, educationalist]', The Age (2010), 14. Details

Resources

• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/119835913. Details
• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q2088038. Details
• 'Law, Phillip Garth (1912 - 2010)', Fellows of the Academy, Australian Academy of Science, 2019, https://www.science.org.au/fellowship. Details
• Morgan, Helen, McCarthy, Gavan; Manhal, Oscar, Phillip Garth Law Guide to Records, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Melbourne, August 1999, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/guides/lawp/LAWP.htm. Details
• 'Law, P G', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-572148. Details
• 'Awarded honorary DAppSc, 1962', Honorary degree holders, University of Melbourne, 2023, https://about.unimelb.edu.au/notable-alumni-staff/honorary-degree-holders. Details

Resource Sections

• 'Law, Phillip Garth - Ms 123', in Listing of Adolph Basser Library holdings, Australian Academy of Science, 1994, http://www.science.org.au/basser/manuscript-collection/ms123.html. Details
• 'Law, Phillip Garth', in The Giant's Eye: the Optical Munitions Exhibition, A Bright Sparcs Exhibition, Australian Science Archives Project, 1997, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/exhib/omp/people/law.htm. Details
• 'Primary description of person CP 186; Phillip Garth Law', in RecordSearch, National Archives of Australia, 2000, https://RecordSearch.naa.gov.au/scripts/AutoSearch.asp?Number=CP%20186. Details
• Swan, John, 'Interview with Dr Phillip Law', in Interviews with Australian scientists, Australian Academy of Science, 28 October 1999, https://www.science.org.au/learning/general-audience/history/interviews-australian-scientists/dr-phillip-law-1912-2010. Details

See also

• Who's who in Australia 1998 (Melbourne: Information Australia Group, 1998), 1720 pp. Page 946. Details
• Science and the making of Victoria, with Royal Society of Victoria, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/smv/index_l.html. Details
• Bolton, H. C., 'Optical Instruments in Australia in the 1939-45 War: successes and lost opportunities', Australian Physicist (1990). http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/exhib/papers/bolton2.htm. Details
• Caro, D. E.; Martin, R. L., 'Leslie Harold Martin 1900-1983', Historical Records of Australian Science, 7 (1) (1987), 97-107. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9870710097. Details
• Chester, Jonathan, Going to extremes: Project Blizzard and Australia's Antarctic heritage (Sydney: Auckland: Doubleday Australia, 1986), 308 pp. Details
• Crompton, R. W., 'Leonard George Holden Huxley 1902-1988', Historical Records of Australian Science, 8 (4) (1991), 249-264. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9910840249.htm. Details
• Draper, W.J. ed., Who's who in Australia 1983 (Melbourne, Victoria: Herald and Weekly Times Ltd, 1983), 960 pp. Page 508. Details
• Flesch, Juliet and McPhee, Peter, 150 years, 150 stories: brief biographies of one hundred and fifty remarkable people associated with the University of Melbourne (Melbourne: Department of History, University of Melbourne, 2003), 168 pp. Details
• Mawer, Granville Allen, South by Northwest: the Magnetic Crusade and the Contest for Antarctica (Kent Town: Wakefield Press, 2006), 319 pp. Details
• Mentha, Janet L.; and Watson, Graeme F. eds, Education, Antarctica, marine science and Australia's future: proceedings of the Phillip Law 80th Birthday Symposium, 23 April 1992 (Melbourne: Royal Society of Victoria, 1992), 84 pp. Details
• Walsh, A.; and Willis, J. B., 'Albert Lloyd George Rees 1916-1989', Historical Records of Australian Science, 9 (1) (1992), 31-47. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9920910031. Details