McMichael, Jessie

Summary

Jessie McMichael suggested the formation of the Gould League of Victoria.

Details

A teacher in the Education Department of Victoria, who wrote to the Director of Education in 1908 suggesting that some effort should be made, on the lines of the Junior Audubon Society of America, to foster an interest in birds in Victorian children. The suggestion was followed up by the Organising Inspector of nature-study in schools, J.A. Leach (q.v.) and the result was the Gould League of Victoria, launched on the first Bird Day, 29 October 1909. In the first year 25,000 members were enrolled. Miss McMichael donated the cost of a prize for boys, the Jessie McMichael Prize, increased by a legacy at her death to allow the award to continue in perpetuity.

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 regularly edn, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, 2003, https://eoas.info/exhibitions/wisa/wisa.html. Details

Resources

• 'McMichael, Jessie', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1476494. Details

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