Western Australian Herbarium (1929 - )

Summary

The Western Australian Herbarium was established in 1929 with the amalgamation of government herbaria at the Western Australian Museum and Art Gallery, the Department of Agriculture, and that maintained by the Conservator of Forests. Remaining part of the Department of Agriculture until 1987, it has since then been part of several Departments in consequence of department reorganisation. The Herbarium is responsible for the description and documentation of Western Australia's botanical species diversity. Research undertaken includes taxonomy, conservation biology, evolution, genetics, ecology, history, forensic science, ethnobotany, archaeology and palynology. As the State's major repository of information of Western Australia's native and naturalised flora, holding over 845,000 specimens of plants, algae, fungi, lichens and slime moulds, these collections underpin the biodiversity conservation planning and management within the State. Details of these collections can be accessed through the Herbarium's portal Florabase and through the Australasian Virtual Herbarium (AVH).

Details

Journals published by the Herbarium include:
Nuytsia (ISBN 0085-4417) vol. 1 (1970 - ):
Western Australian Herbarium research notes (ISBN 0155-7165) vos 1-12 (1978 - 1986): superdceded by:
Kingia (ISBN 0819-1247) vol, 1, nos1-4 (1988 - 1991).

Related entries

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

• 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

• Underwood, Roger, A Botanical Journey: the Story of the Western Australian Herbarium (Perth: Department of Environment and Conservation, 2011), 282 pp. Details

Conference Papers

• Green, J.W., 'History of Early Western Australian Herbaria', in History of Systematic Botany in Australasia: Proceedings of a Symposium Held at the University of Melbourne, 25-27 May 1988 edited by Short, P.S. (Melbourne: Australian Systematic Botany Society, 1990), pp. 23-28.. Details

Journal Articles

• Gardner, C. A., 'The Western Australian State Herbarium', Australasian herbarium news, 1 (1947), 19-21. Details
• Marchant, Neville, 'Documenting a flora: a History of the Western Australian Herbarium and its Collections', Early Days: Journal of the Royal Western Australian Historical Society, 12 (2005), 566-83. Details
• Parker, Cheryl M.; Percy-Bower, Julia M.; and James, Shelley A., 'From Engler to APGIV: a short history of the botanical arrangement of the Western Australian Herbarium collections', Nuytsia, 33 (2022), 113-41, https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/nuytsia/article/1027. Details

Resources

• FloraBase: the Western Australian Flora, Department of Environment and Conservation (WA), 1998, http://florabase.dec.wa.gov.au/. Details
• Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-581032. Details

Reviews

• Underwood, Roger, A Botanical Journey: the Story of the Western Australian Herbarium (2011)
  Briggs, Barbara G., Australian Systematic Botany Society Newsletter, 150, (2012), 56-7. Details
• Underwood, Roger, A Botanical Journey: the Story of the Western Australian Herbarium (2011)
  Cohn, Helen M., Historical Records of Australian Science, 23 (2), (2012), 228-9, https://doi.org/10.1071/HR12014. Details

See also

• Cowley, K. J.; West, J. G, Resources of Australian Herbaria: a Guide to Herbaria Located in Australia (Canberra: Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research, 1999), [84] pp. Details
• Cowley, K. J.; West, J. G, Resources of Australian Herbaria [online], with Council of Heads of Australian Herbaria, Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research, 2002, http://www.anbg.gov.au/chah/resources/intro/index.html. Details
• Perry, Michael, 'Obituary - Gillean Perry (Née Jenkins), 1943-2011', Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia, 96 (2013), 31. Details