Main, Barbara York (1929 - 2019)

Summary

Barbara Main is one of Australia's foremost experts on the taxonomy, biogeography and ecology of spiders, particularly trapdoors and funnelwebs. Her research included studies of spider longevity and arachnids as monitors of habitat, with implications for ecosystem management. Main collected specimens across Australia and made extensive studies of those in overseas collections. In the 1990s she was the Australian representative of the Centre International Documentation de Arachnologique. Her publications included works on the changing ecology of the Western Australian wheatbelt, the country in which she grew up. Main has been a member of the editorial boards of both the Fauna of Australia and the Zoological catalogue of Australia. The genera Bymainiella and Mainosa (spiders), and Barbarella (pseudoscorpion) were named in her honour.

Details

Chronology

1947 -

Career position - Member, Western Australian Naturalists Club

1950

Education - Bachelor of Science (BSc), University of Western Australia

1951

Career position - Assistant Lecturer, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

1953 -

Career position - Member, Royal Society of Western Australia

1956

Education - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), University of Western Australia

1958

Award - Alice Hamilton Fellowship, International Federation of University Women

1965 -

Career position - Member, Australian Entomological Society

1979 - 1996

Career position - Honorary Lecturer in Zoology (later Senior Honorary Research Fellow), University of Western Australia

1982 - 1996

Career position - Trustee, Western Australian Museum

1984 - 1989

Career position - Member, Advisory Committee, Australian Biological Resources Study

1996 -

Career position - Adjunct Professor, School of Animal Biology, University of Western Australia

1998 -

Career position - Member, Advisory Panel, International Centre for Landscape and Language, Edith Cowan University

2001 -

Award - Honorary Member, International Society of Arachnology

2002

Award - Butler Medal for Natural History Research

2011

Award - Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to science and conservation as a researcher and educator in the field of arachnology, and to the community of Western Australia

2018

Award - Medal of the Royal Society of Western Australia

Related entries

Published resources

Journal Articles

• Harvey, Mark, 'Professor Barbara York Main BSc, PhD (UWA), OAM 27th January 1929 - 14th May 2019', Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia, 102 (2019), 28-9. Details
• Hodgkin, Ernest P., 'Barbara York Main', Records of the Western Australian Museum, supplement, 52 (1995), vii-xv. Details
• Hughes-D'Aeth, T., 'Islands of yesterday: the ecological writing of Barbara York Main', Westerly, 53 (2008), 12-26. Details
• Mason, Leanda, 'Barbara York Main OAM 27 January 1929 - 14 May 2019', Western Australian naturallist, 32 (1) (2021), 35-40. Details
• Mason, Leanda D.; and Kennedy, Patricia L., 'Tribute to Dr Barbara York Main OAM, arachnologist and nature writer (27 January 1929 to 14 May 2019)', Pacific conservation biology, 26 (2020), iii-vi, https://doi.org/10.1071/PC20006. Details
• Mason, Leanda; and Kennedy, Patricia, 'Tribute to Dr Barbara York Main', Australasian arachnology, 89 (2020), 50-1. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q21338740. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/1611514/. Details
• Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-501814. Details

See also

• Medal (OAM) of the Order of Australia in the General Division [Australia Day 2011: M-R], Governor General's Office, Canberra, 2011, https://web.archive.org.au/awa/20130329080918mp_/http:/www.gg.gov.au/sites/default/files/files/honours/ad/ad2011/Media%20Notes%20OAM%20%28M-R%29%20%28final%29.pdf. Details