Ellery, Robert Lewis John (1827 - 1908)

Summary

Robert Ellery, who was born in England and trained as a surgeon, arrived in Melbourne 1852. He was the founder of the Williamstown Observatory, Melbourne in 1853 and was the Victorian Government Astronomer 1853-1895. President of the Royal Society of Victoria 1866-1884.

Details

Ellery arrived in Melbourne in 1852 and set up practice as a doctor at Williamstown where he established an observatory in 1853. Following Neumayer's departure from Australia in 1863, he was appointed as Government Astronomer and Meteorologist. He was the founding President of the Victorian Institute of Surveyors, from 1874-1877, and was elected Fellow of the Victorian Institute of Surveyors, in 1877, the first to be awarded the honour. He expanded the Victorian observing networks and began collecting observations by telegraph from further afield as a basis for the preparation of daily synoptic charts which first appeared in the Melbourne Argus in September 1881. Ellery became a leading figure in the Melbourne scientific community and served for almost 20 years as President of the Royal Society of Victoria. A Hundred Years of Science and Service, Bureau of Meteorology, 2001.

Chronology

1853 - 1863

Career position - Superintendent, Williamstown Observatory, Victoria

1858 -

Career position - Director, Geodetic Survey of Victoria

1863 - 1895

Career position - Director, Melbourne Observatory, and Victorian Government Astronomer

1866 - 1884

Career position - President, Royal Society of Victoria

1873 - 1908

Award - Fellow, The Royal Society, London (FRS)

April 1874 - April 1877

Career position - President, Victorian Institute of Surveyors

1876

Award - Elected as an Honorary Member, Adelaide Philosophical Society

April 1877

Award - Elected Fellow, Victorian Institute of Surveyors

1881

Career event - Member (MSTE), Society of Telegraph Engineers , London

1885

Career position - Inaugural President, Victorian Beekeepers' Club

1888 -

Career position - Original [founding] member, Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science

1888

Career position - President, Section A (Astronomy, Mathematics and Physics), Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science

1889

Award - Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG)

1889

Award - Clarke Medal, Royal Society of New South Wales

1898 - 1900

Career position - President, Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science

Related entries

Archival resources

Public Record Office Victoria, Victorian Archives Centre

• Melbourne Observatory - Records, 1857 - 1880, VPRS 776; Public Record Office Victoria, Victorian Archives Centre. Details
• Melbourne Observatory - Records, 1854 - 1870, VPRS 777; Public Record Office Victoria, Victorian Archives Centre. Details
• Melbourne Observatory - Records, 1854 - 1870, VPRS 868; Public Record Office Victoria, Victorian Archives Centre. Details
• Melbourne Observatory - Records, 1859 - 1863, VPRS 779; Public Record Office Victoria, Victorian Archives Centre. Details
• Melbourne Observatory - Records, 1852 - 1943, VPRS 780; Public Record Office Victoria, Victorian Archives Centre. Details
• Melbourne Observatory - Records, 1859 - 1862, VPRS 869; Public Record Office Victoria, Victorian Archives Centre. Details
• Melbourne Observatory - Records, 1859 - 1919, VPRS 775; Public Record Office Victoria, Victorian Archives Centre. Details
• Melbourne Observatory - Records, 1860 - 1904, VPRS 781; Public Record Office Victoria, Victorian Archives Centre. Details
• Melbourne Observatory - Records, 1881 - 1917, VPRS 866; Public Record Office Victoria, Victorian Archives Centre. Details
• Melbourne Observatory - Records, 1860 - 1937, VPRS 783; Public Record Office Victoria, Victorian Archives Centre. Details
• Melbourne Observatory - Records, 1870 - 1895, VPRS 782; Public Record Office Victoria, Victorian Archives Centre. Details

Royal Society of Tasmania

• Robert Lewis John Ellery - Records, 1881 - 1882, RSA/B.10; Royal Society of Tasmania. Details

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

• Australasian Science, A Bright Sparcs Exhibition, Australian Science Archives Project, 1997, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/exhib/journal/journal.htm. Details
• Collins, David, Chemistry in 19th Australia - Select Bibliography, An exhibition of the Encyclopedia circa 2005 with assistance from Ailie Smith and Gavan McCarthy., eScholarship Research Centre (original publisher), Melbourne, 2009, https://eoas.info/exhibitions/ciab/ciab_ALL.html. Details

Articles

• Newell, Jennifer and Sutherland, Denise, 'Scientists and Colonists', Australasian Science, Summer (1997), http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/exhib/journal/as_colonists.htm. Details

Books

• Gibbs, W. J., The Origins of Australian Meteorology, Metarch Papers No. 12 (Bureau of Meteorology, 1998). Details

Book Sections

• Gascoigne, S. C. B., 'Ellery, Robert Lewis John (1827-1908), astronomer and public servant' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 4: 1851 - 1890 D-J, Douglas Pike, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1972), pp. 135-137. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A040137b.htm. Details
• Holland, Julian, 'Robert Lewis John Ellery, 1827-1908' in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004). Details

Journal Articles

• Anon, 'Obituary: Robert Lewis John Ellery', Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 69 (1909), 245-5. Details
• Clark, Barry A. J., 'Influences of German science and scientists on Melbourne Observatory', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, 127 (1) (2015), 43-58, https://doi.org/10.1071/RS15004. Details
• Ellery, R., 'Preliminary spectroscopic survey of southern stars, made at Melbourne Observatory with a MacLean direct-vision spectroscope on the 8-inch equatorial', Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 49 (1889), 439-45. Details
• Ellery, R. J., 'A brief history of the beginnings and growth of astronomy in Australasia. [President's Address]', Report of the eighth meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, 8 (1901), 1-17, https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/14536626. Details
• Ellery, R. L. J., 'Account of operations connected with the advancement of commercial astronomy in Australia', Monthly notes & records of the Royal Astronomical Society, 15 (1855), 153-6. Details
• Ellery, R. L. J., 'On the Method of obtaining True Bearings in Surveying', Transactions and Proceedings of the Victorian Institute of Surveyors, 1 (1874-1880) (1876), 53-62. Details
• Ellery, R. L. J., 'Notes on the Construction and Management of Theodolites', Transactions and Proceedings of the Victorian Institute of Surveyors, 1 (1872-1880) (1881), 81-90. Details
• Ellery, R. L. J., 'Address by [...] President of Section A - Astronomy, Mathematics, Physics and Mechanics [On the present position of astronomical knowledge]', Report of the first meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, 1 (1889), 26-38, https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/15813114. Details
• Ellery, R. L. J., 'Brief Sketch of the Geodetic Survey of Victoria', Transactions and Proceedings of the Victorian Institute of Surveyors, 4 (1891-1899) (1900), 13-20. Details
• Ellery, R.L.J., 'On the Application of Galvanic Electricity to Practical Astronomy', Transactions of the Royal Society of Victoria, 5 (1860), 145-152. Details
• Ellery, R.L.J., 'Abel's Fuses and Wheatstone's Exploder', Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, 6 (1865), 167-168. Details
• Ellery, R.L.J., 'On Ozone', Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, 7 (1866), 131-135. Details
• Ellery, R.L.J., 'On Gun Cotton as an Explosive Agent', Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, 10 (1874), 78. Details
• Ellery, R.L.J., 'On Various Forms of Galvanic Battery', Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, 14 (1878), 65. Details
• Gascoigne, S. C. B., 'Robert LJ. Ellery, His Life and Times', Proceedings of the Astronomical Society of Australia, 10 (1992), 170-176. Details
• Ross, C. Stuart, 'Our Observatory: the story of its establishment', Victorian historical magazine, 6 (4) (1918), 134-44. Details

Resources

• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/63066279. Details
• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1312632. Details
• Institution of Electrical Engineers, London, 'Application: 66, 1880', Electrical Engineer Membership Forms, 1871-1901, ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com.au/search/collections/9058/. Details
• 'Ellery, R L J (1827-1908)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-612517. Details

Resource Sections

• 'Ellery, Robert Lewis John', 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/P001387p.htm. Details
• Gibbs, W. J., 'The Origins of Australian Meteorology', in Federation and Meteorology, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/fam/0805.html. Details

See also

• Federation and Meteorology, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/fam/index_e.html. Details
• Science and the making of Victoria, with Royal Society of Victoria, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/smv/index_e.html. Details
• Lomb, Nick, 'Australian solar eclipse expeditions: the voyage to Cape York in 1871', Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 19 (1) (2016), 79-95. Details
• Lomb, Nick; and Stevenson, Toner eds, Eclipse chasers (Clayton South, Vic: CSIRO Publishing, 2023), 216 pp. Details
• MacLeod, Roy, 'Organizing Science Under the Southern Cross' in The Commonwealth of Science: ANZAAS and the Scientific Enterprise in Australasia, 1888-1988, Roy MacLeod, ed. (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1988), pp. 19-39. Details
• Orchiston, Wayne; Clark, Barry A. J.; Frew, David; and Andropoulos, Jenny, 'The development of astronomy and the foundation of astrophysics in Australia' in The emergence of astrophysics in Asia: opening a new window on the Universe, Nakamura, T.; and Orchiston, W., eds (Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2017), pp. 395-452. https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-3-319-62082-4_17.pdf. Details
• Perdrix, John, 'The Last Great Speculum: the 48-inch Great Melbourne Telescope', Australian Journal of Astronomy, 4 (3) (1992), 149-163. Details
• Rücker, Arthur, 'Note on the polarity of magnetic rocks', Report of the first meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, 1 (1889), 94, https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/15813182. Details
• Serle, Percival, Dictionary of Australian biography (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1949). Details