Boland, Douglas John (1947 - 2001)

Summary

Douglas Boland graduated in 1968 from the Australian Forestry School and the Australian National University. He then completed a master's degree in botany, writing on the taxonomy of Eucalyptus leucoxylon. His first position was with the CSIRO Australian Tree Seed Centre, formerly the Seed Section of the Forest Research Institute, in Canberra. He was curator of the CSIRO herbarium collection of eucalypts, and described 10 new taxa of Eucalyptus. His research lead him to the studies of species native to Africa and Asia. A prolific writer, his books include Forest Trees of Australia, Eucalyptus Seed and Eucalyptus Leaf Oils.

Details

His 1983 paper Selection of Australian trees other than eucalypts for trials as fuelwood species in developing countries lead to research collaborations between CSIRO Forestry and Forest Products, the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research and overseas partners to identify useful Australian tree species.

Boland's travels to Brazil, Spain and South Africa in 1984 were the basis for new approaches to seed-collecting for the Australian Tree Seed Centre to suit the requirements of the Australian forestry industry. From 1991-1995, Douglas Boland was appointed to the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry in Nairobi. His inclusive thinking combined concerns for the requirements of a community with conventional studies of forest genetic resources. Developing and applying rapid survey methods, he successfully investigated priorities for use and conservation of forest genetic resources in villages in Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands.

Douglas Boland introduced the concept of tree domestication to the CSIRO Australian Tree Seed Centre. Tree domestication involves bringing a species from the wild into cultivation and productive use. This new approach to conserving and harvesting forest genetic resources involves ordinary people such as farmers as well as scientists.

Chronology

1968

Education - Graduated from the Australian Forestry School and the Australian National University

1979

Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus leucoxylon F.Muell. subsp. megalocarpa Boland

1979

Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus leucoxylon F.Muell. subsp. pruinosa (F.Muell. ex Miq.) Boland

1979

Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus leucoxylon F.Muell. subsp.petiolaris Boland

1984

Travels to Brazil, Spain and South Africa

1985

Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus delegatensis subsp. tasmaniensis Boland

1991 - 1995

Career position - International Centre for Research in Agroforestry, Nairobi

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

• [various], Forest tree series (1970 - 1984) (Canberra: Forestry and Timber Bureau, CSIRO Division of Forest Research, 1970). Details
• Boland, D.J.; Brooker, M.I.H,; Chippendale, G.M.; Hall, N, Hyland, B.P.M.; Johnston, R.D.; Kleinig, D.A.; McDonald, M.W.; and Turner, J.D., Forest Trees of Australia (East Melbourne: CSIRO, 1984), 687 pp. Details
• Boland, D.J.; Brooker, M.I.H.; and Turnbull, J.W.: with scanning electron microscopy by Kleinig, D.A., Eucalyptus seed (Canberra: Division of Forest Research, CSIRO, 1980), 191 pp. Details
• Boland, D.J.; Brophy, J.J.; and House, A.P.N., Eucalyptus leaf oils: use, chemistry, distillation and marketing (Melbourne: Inkata Press, 1991), 252 pp. Details
• Midgley, S.J.; and Bolan, D.J., An assessment of the current use and potential of Australian woody species in conventional and non-conventional forestry systems in Zimbabwe (Canberra: CSIRO Division of Forest Research, 1983), 34 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Boland, Doug and Brooker, Ian, 'Yellow gum : Eucalyptus leucoxylon F. Muell.' in Forest tree series ; no. 187 (Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service, 1975), p. 4. Details
• Kleinig, David; and Boland, Doug, 'Faulconbridge mallee ash, Eucalyptus burgessiana L. Johnson et Blaxell' in Forest tree series; no. 221 (Melbourne: CSIRO Division of Forest Research, 1983), p. 3. Details

Edited Books

• Boland, D.J. ed., Trees for the tropics: growing Australian multipurpose trees and shrubs in developing countries (Canberra: Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, 1989), 247 pp. Details

Journal Articles

• Boland, D., 'Abnormal Eucalyptus leucoxylon F. Muell. seedlings.', Australian Forest Research, 7 (1976), 151-162. Details
• Boland, D. J., 'Geographic variation in Eucalyptus leucoxylon F. Muell.', Australian Forest Research, 8 (1) (1978), 25-46. Details
• Boland, D. J.; and Turnbull, J. W., 'Selection of Australian trees other than eucalypts for trials as fuelwood species in developing countries', Australian Forestry, 44 (4) (1981), 235-246. Details
• Boland, D.J., 'A taxonomic revision of Eucalyptus leucoxylon F. Muell.', Australian Forest Research, 9 (1979), 65-72. Details
• Boland, D.J., 'Taxonomic revision of Eucalyptus delegatensis R.T. Baker (Myrtaceae)', Australian Forest Research, 15 (2) (1985), 173-181. Details

Newspaper Articles

• Midgley, Stephen, 'Forester Of Many Talents Was Widely Honoured', Canberra Times (2001). Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q21339944. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/277927007. Details
• 'Boland, Douglas (19470507-20010531)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-468788. Details

Theses

• Boland, D. J., 'A biosystematic study of Eucalyptus leucoxylon F. Muell.', M.Sc., Author, 1974, 119 pp. Details

See also

• 'See the list of eucalypts published under this authority using abbreviation search '% Boland %' (include wildcards %) and family 'Myrtaceae'', Australian Plant Name Index (APNI), Australian National Botanic Gardens, 2012, http://www.anbg.gov.au/cgi-bin/apni. Details
• Hall, Norman, A Supplement to Botanists of the Eucalypts (CSIRO, 1978) (Canberra: CSIRO Division of Forest Research, 1979), 19 pp. Details