Person

MacGillivray, William David Kerr (1867 - 1933)

Born
27 November 1867
Kallara Station, New South Wales, Australia
Died
25 June 1933
Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia
Occupation
Naturalist, Physician and Ornithologist

Summary

William McGillivray was a medical practitioner in Broken Hill 1901-1933, where he had a good reputation as a surgeon. He was a keen amateur ornithologist, who wrote a number of articles and papers on birds. At the time of his death he was working on a book on Australian birds for use in schools.

Details

Born Killara Station, Darling River, New South Wales, 27 November 1867. Died Broken Hill, New South Wales, 25 June 1933. Educated University of Melbourne (medical degree 1890). Practised Kanwa and Bendigo, Victoria, Launceston, Melbourne (where he was on the staff of the Children's Hospital for two years), Coloraine, western Victoria 1895-97, Hamilton, Victoria 1897-1901, Broken Hill 1901-33 (particularly in surgical practice); war service, France 1916-18. President, Royal Australasian Ornithologists' Union 1916-18. Made a number of trips to the Great Barrier Reef, studying migrant and shore birds. As his hearing deteriorated towards the end of his life, he could no longer hear some bird notes, and turned his attention to native flora, establishing his own herbarium. Wrote articles on birds for The Emu and for the Great Barrier Reef Commission.

Chronology

1888 -
Career event - Original [founding] member, Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science

Related Corporate Bodies

Archival resources

Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science

  • Australian Botanists - Biographies, MS 064; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details

Published resources

Resources

See also

  • Robin, Libby, The Flight of the Emu: a Hundred Years of Australian Ornithology 1901-2001 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2001), 492 pp. Details

Gavan McCarthy

EOAS ID: biogs/P001910b.htm

This Edition: 2026 February - 1926 Centenaries
Kooyang - Gariwerd calendar - Late summer: late January to late March - season of eels
Reference: https://www.bom.gov.au/resources/indigenous-weather-knowledge/indigenous-seasonal-calendars/gariwerd-calendar#bom-anchor-list__item-kooyang-season-of-eels

Publisher: Swinburne University of Technology.

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Cite this page: https://www.eoas.info/biogs/P001910b.htm

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"... the rengitj, as a visible mark or imprint on the land, is characterised as a place of origin, the repository of all names, as well as a kind of mapped visual expression of the connection between people and places which is to be carried out in the temporal sequence of the journey." Fanca Tamisari (1998) 'Body, Vision and Movement: In the footprints of the ancestors'. Oceania 68(4) p260