Person
Crommelin, Minard Fannie (1881 - 1972)
MBE
- Born
- 29 June 1881
Bombala, New South Wales, Australia - Died
- 14 February 1972
Pearl Beach, New South Wales, Australia - Occupation
- Conservationist and Postmistress
Summary
Minard Crommelin, generally known as "Crommy", was educated at SCEGGS at Darlinghurst. She began work at fourteen as an unpaid assistant to the postmistress at Mittagong and eventually became an official member of the Postal Service. She worked as a postmistress for over 25 years and was one of the early operators of the "Morse Telegraph Key". She was the first postmistress at Woy Woy (1906-1910) and it was during this period that she grew to love the bush of the New South Wales central coast area. After her retirement in the mid 1930s she visited England and Europe, contacting many conservation and natural history societies (she was a member of 154 of them). On her return to Australia she bought seven acres of land at Pearl Beach, which she donated to the University of Sydney in 1946 to establish the Crommelin Biological Field Station, known as Warrah. She continued to be interested and active in nature conservation and from 1960 onwards donated a total of $17,768 to the Australian Academy of Science, some of which still exists as the Crommelin Conservation Fund. A road in Campbelltown has been named in her honour. She was appointed MBE - Member of The Order of the British Empire (Civil) - 1 January 1959 for flora and fauna.
Archival resources
Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales
- Minard Fannie Crommelin - Records, 1947 - 1954, A3637; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
University of Sydney, Archives
- Minard Fannie Crommelin - Records, 1881 - 1970, P 51; University of Sydney, Archives. Details
Published resources
Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions
- McCarthy, Gavan; Morgan, Helen; Smith, Ailie; van den Bosch, Alan, Where are the Women in Australian Science?, Exhibition of the Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation, First published 2003 with lists updated regulary edn, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, 2003, https://eoas.info/exhibitions/wisa/wisa.html. Details
Book Sections
- Teale, Ruth, 'Crommelin, Minard Fannie (1881-1972)' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 8: 1891 - 1939 Cl-Gib, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1981), pp. 155-156. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A080172b.htm. Details
- Teale, Ruth, 'Minard Crommelin (1881-1972) conservationist' in 200 Australian Women: A Redress Anthology, Heather Radi, ed. (Sydney: Women's Redress Press Inc, 1988). Details
Edited Books
- Radi, H. ed., 200 Australian Women: a Redress Anthology (Sydney: Women's Redress Press Inc, 1988), 268 pp. Details
Resources
- Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q6863187. Details
- VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/26307081. Details
- 'Crommelin, Minard Fannie (1881-1972)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-743065. Details
Resource Sections
- 'Crommelin, Minard Fannie (1881-1972), Biographical Entry', in Australian Women's Archives Project, National Foundation for Australian Women, 2002, http://www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/IMP0269b.htm. Details
McCarthy, G.J.
Created: 20 October 1993, Last modified: 28 February 2018
- Foundation Supporter - Committee to Review Australian Studies in Tertiary Education