Person

McLennan, William Rae (1882 - 1935)

Born
20 August 1882
Sandford, Victoria, Australia
Died
22 September 1935
Casterton, Victoria, Austalia
Occupation
Natural history collector and Ornithologist

Summary

William McLennan was one of Australia's most prolific ornithological collectors. He learned to skin birds and make field notes from Ernest D'Ombrain while living in Casterton, Victoria, and working in blacksmith's shop. McLennan moved to broken Hill on 1906, where he started to collect for local medical practitioner William MacGillivray. For the next 16 years (except while serving with the Australian Imperial Force in WWI) McLennan was an ornithological collector for both MacGillivray and Henry White in northern Queensland, particularly in the Gulf of Carpentaria and Cape York Peninsula, including the Torres Strait islands. Occasionally he was in the field with MacGillivray and his son. Fieldwork was at times difficult for McLennan (he suffered from beri beri and malaria): occasional loss of field notes was also problematic. Specimens collected by McLennan are now in the Australian Museum, the National Museum of Victoria and the South Australian Museum, deposited as part of the collections of both MacGillivray and White. Other specimens collected for Gregory Mathews are in the American Museum of Natural History. From 1922 McLennan was prospecting for gold until his health deteriorated, probably as a result of being gassed during the war. Mathews named the bird genus Maclennania after him in 1917.

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Details

Chronology

1909 - 1915
Career position - Collector for William MacGillivray, Cape York Peninsula, Queensland
1915 - 1916
Career position - Collector for Henry White, Gulf of Carpentaria
1916 - 1918
Military service - Served with the Australian Imperial Force
1917
Event - Specimens deposited in the National Museum of Victoria as part of the Henry White collection
1919 - 1922
Career position - Collector for Henry White, northern Queensland

Related Corporate Bodies

Published resources

Books

  • Mason, Ian J, and Scrambler, Elinor C., A review of bird specimens (egg clutches and study skins) collected by William Rae McLennan (1882 - 1935) (Canberra: Ian J. Mason, 2024), 453 pp, https://www.ianmason.online/. Details

Book Sections

  • Noske, R., 'A history of ornithology in the Top End of the Northern Territory' in Contributions to the history of Australasian ornithology, volume III, Davis, William E.; Boles, Walter E.; and Recher, Harry F., eds (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Nuttall Ornithological Club, 2017), pp. 429-551. Details

Journal Articles

  • D'Ombrain, E. A., 'Obituary: William Rae McLennan', Emu, 35 (3) (1936), 291-3, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1071/MU935291. Details
  • MacGillivray, W., 'Notes on some north Queensland birds', Emu, 13 (1914), 132-86. Details
  • MacGillivray, W., 'Ornithologists in north Queensland (part I - III)', Emu, 17 (1917-1918), 63-87, 145-8, 180-212. Details
  • Markwell, Kevin and Shine, Richard, 'Science meets the taipan: the discovery and description of an iconic venomous snake', Australian Journal of Zoology, 73 (5) (2025), 1-21, https://doi.org/10.1071/ZO25009. Details
  • Paton, P., 'William Rae McLennan (1882-1935)', VORG notes, 15 (1979), 11-7. Details
  • Scambler, Elinor C., Barram, Mary, Barram, Margie and Enright, Rebecca, 'Tracing William Rae McLennan's 1,000-brolga swamp in north-west Queensland', Queensland history journal, 25 (6) (2023), 511-24, https://search.informit.org/doi/epdf/10.3316/informit.275998849493900. Details
  • White, H. L., 'North Australian birds, observed by William McLennan', Emu, 16 (1917), 205-31. Details
  • White, H. L., 'North Australian birds', Emu, 16 (1917), 117-58. Details
  • White, H. L., 'A collecting trip to Cape York Peninsula', Emu, 22 (1922), 9-116. Details

Resources

See also

  • Mason, Ian J.; and Pfitzner, Gilbert H., Passions in ornithology: a century of Australian egg collectors (Canberra: Ian J. Mason, 2020), 572 pp. Details
  • Robin, Libby, The Flight of the Emu: a Hundred Years of Australian Ornithology 1901-2001 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2001), 492 pp. Details

Rosanne Walker and Helen Cohn

Created: 22 March 2001, Last modified: 29 October 2026

EOAS ID: biogs/P003170b.htm

This Edition: 2026 November - Keith Boardman (1926-2026) Memorial Edition
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