Person

Carr, Stella Grace Maisie (Maisie) (1912 - 1988)

Born
1912
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Died
9 September 1988
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Occupation
Botanist and Ecologist
Alternative Names
  • Fawsett, Maisie (maiden name)

Summary

Maisie Carr was an ecologist best remembered for her work on the Bogong High Plains during the 1940s. Her study plots, the first established in 1945, constitute Australia's longest-running ecological experiments. Using these plots, she studied plant species diversity and abundance, soil erosion, and the impact of grazing cattle. Still actively studied by ecologists, the plots were added to Victoria's Heritage Register in 2022. She also spent many years studying Eucalyptus. With her husband, Denis John Carr, she edited People and Plants in Australia and Plants and Man in Australia. Denis and Maisie Carr named many eucalypts, particularly bloodwoods (Corymbia species). Their species concept was very fine and many of their species have subsequently been incorporated into others. Nonetheless, many have withstood scrutiny and are still accepted.

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Details

Chronology

1935 - 1938
Career position - Demonstrator in Botany, University of Melbourne
1936
Education - Master of Science (MSc), University of Melbourne
1938 - 1941
Career position - Senior Demonstrator, University of Melbourne
1941 - 1948
Career position - Ecological studies for the Soil Conservation Board of the Hume catchment
1949 - 1952
Career position - Lecturer in Plant Taxonomy and Ecology
1952 - 1960
Career position - Senior Lecturer
1960 - 1967
Career position - Belfast
1967 - 1988
Career position - Visiting Fellow, Australian National University
1970
Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus roycei S.G.M.Carr, D.J.Carr & A.S.George.
1988
Life event - Interred Gungahlin Cemetery

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
  • McCarthy, Gavan; Smith, Ailie; Moje, Christine; Rigby, Rebecca, The Study of Australian Eucalypts, eScholarship Research Centre, 2013, http://www.eoas.info/eucalypts/index.html. Details

Books

  • Carr, Denis John; and Carr, Stella Grace Maisie, Eucalyptus II. The rubber cuticle and other studies of the Corymbosae (Canberra: Phytoglyph Press, 1987), 372 pp. Details
  • Gunning, Brian; Jahnke, Roland; Manifold, Marion; and Wellington, Bruce, First know the nature of things: celebrating the life and work of Denis John Carr (1915 - 2008): botanist, scholar, mentor (Canberra: Phytoglyph Press, 2021), 390 pp. Details
  • Hooker, Claire, Irresistible Forces: Australian Women in Science (Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 2004), 215 pp. Details
  • Johnson, Dick, The alps at the crossroads : the quest for an alpine national park in Victoria (Melbourne: Victorian National Parks Association, 1974), 207 pp. 'Masie Fawsett', pp.86-7. Details
  • Wrigley, J.; and Fagg, M., Eucalypts: a Celebration (Crows Nest Australia: Allen & Unwin, 2010), 344 pp. Details

Book Sections

  • Carr, D. J.; and Carr, S. G. M., 'Karl Goebel in Australia and New Zealand' in People and Plants in Australia, Carr, D. J. and Carr, S. G. M., eds (Sydney: Academic Press, 1981), pp. 167-79. Details
  • Carr, D. J.; and Carr, S. G. M., 'The botany of the first Australians' in People and Plants in Australia, Carr, D. J. and Carr, S. G. M., eds (Sydney: Academic Press, 1981), pp. 33-44. Details
  • Carr, S. G. M.; and Carr, D. J., 'A charmed life: the collections of Labillardiere' in People and plants in Australia, Carr, D. J. and Carr, S. G. M., eds (Sydney: Academic Press, 1981), pp. 79-115. Details
  • Gillbank, Linden, 'Into the Land of the Mountain Cattlemen: Maisie Fawcett's Ecological Investigations on the Bogong High Plains' in On the Edge of Discovery: Australian Women in Science, Farley Kelly, ed. (Melbourne: Text Publishing Company, 1993), pp. 133-154. Details
  • Gillbank, Linden, 'Carr, Stella Grace Maisie (1912-1988), Botanist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 17: 1981 - 1990 A-K, Diane Langmore, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2007), pp. 191-192. http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/carr-stella-grace-maisie-201. Details

Edited Books

  • Carr, D. J. ed., A Book for Maisie: Celebrating the Life and Work of S. G. M. Carr, née Fawcett, Pioneer Australian Alpine Ecologist, 1912-88 (Canberra: 2005), 356 pp. Details
  • Carr, D. J.; Carr, S. G. M. ed., Plants and Man in Australia (Sydney: Academic Press, 1981). Details
  • Carr, D. J.; Carr, S.G.M. ed., People and Plants in Australia (Sydney: Academic Press, 1981). Details

Journal Articles

  • Carr, D. J., 'Obituary: Stella Grace Carr (1912-88)', Australasian Systematic Botany Newsletter, 58 (1989), 21-27. Details
  • Carr, S. G.; and Carr, D., 'Oil glands and ducts in Eucalyptus L'Herit. I. The phloem and the pith.', Australian Journal of Botany, 17 (3) (1969), 471-513. Details

Resources

Reviews

  • Carr, D. J., ed., A Book for Maisie: Celebrating the Life and Work of S. G. M. Carr, née Fawcett, Pioneer Australian Alpine Ecologist, 1912-88 (2005)
    Gillbank, Linden, Historical Records of Australian Science, 17 (2), (2006), 288-290, https://doi.org/10.1071/HR06009. Details

See also

  • 'List of eucalypts published under author abbreviation search '% D.J.Carr %' (include wildcards) and family 'Myrtaceae'', Australian Plant Name Index (APNI), Australian National Botanic Gardens, 2012, http://www.anbg.gov.au/cgi-bin/apni. Details
  • Ashton, D. H.; Ducker, S. C., 'John Stewart Turner 1908-1991', Historical Records of Australian Science, 9 (3) (1993), 278-290. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9930930278. Details
  • Griffiths, Tom, Hunters and Collectors: the Antiquarian Imagination in Australia (Cambridge/Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 430 pp. Details
  • Hall, Norman, Botanists of the Eucalypts: short biographies of people who have named eucalypts, whose names have been given to species or who have collected type material (Melbourne: CSIRO, 1978), 101 pp. Details

Rosanne Walker; Neville Walsh

Created: 30 June 1997, Last modified: 16 May 2024

EOAS ID: biogs/P002289b.htm

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