Biographical entry Neumayer, Georg Balthasar von (1826 - 1909)

Summary

Georg Balthasar von Neumayer set up the Flagstaff Observatory, Melbourne in 1858 and completed a detailed magnetic survey of Victoria 1858-1864.

Details

von Neumeyer, a Bavarian Ship's Officer who had obtained his doctorate at Munich in 1849, first arrived in Melbourne in 1852. Convinced of the importance of meteorology, he returned to Europe in 1854 and obtained the instruments necessary to establish an observatory in Melbourne. Initially working as a private citizen, he established a number of observing stations throughout Victoria, mainly at lighthouses. In 1859, he was appointed as Government Astronomer. He gradually built up the observatory recruiting, inter alia, W. J. Wills who was subsequently to perish in the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition. Neumeyer played a leading role in the early scientific life of Melbourne before returning again to Europe in 1863. A Hundred Years of Science and Service, Bureau of Meteorology, 2001.

Archival resources

Public Record Office Victoria, Victorian Archives Centre

• Georg Balthazar Neumayer - Records, 1858 - 1863, VPRS 4680; Public Record Office Victoria, Victorian Archives Centre. Details
• Melbourne Observatory - Records, 1857 - 1880, VPRS 776; Public Record Office Victoria, Victorian Archives Centre. Details
• Melbourne Observatory - Records, 1854 - 1870, VPRS 868; Public Record Office Victoria, Victorian Archives Centre. Details
• Melbourne Observatory - Records, 1852 - 1943, VPRS 780; Public Record Office Victoria, Victorian Archives Centre. Details

Published resources

Books

• Gibbs, W. J., The Origins of Australian Meteorology , Metarch Papers No. 12, Bureau of Meteorology, 1998. Details
• Kremb, Klaus, Georg von Neumayer: Auf zum Südpol, 2001. Details

Book Sections

• Home, R. W., 'Georg von Neumayer and the Flagstaff Observatory, Melbourne', in David Walker and Jurgen Tampke (eds), From Berlin to the Burdekin: The German Contribution to the Development of Australian Science, Exploration and the Arts, New South Wales University Press, Sydney, 1991, pp. 40-53. Details
• Home, R.W., 'Emigrants or Scientific Travellers? Ferdinand Mueller and Georg Neumayer between Germany and Australia', in Ellen I. Mitchell (ed.), Baron von Mueller's German Melbourne, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, 2000, pp. 11-23. Details
• Swan, R. A., 'Neumayer, Georg Balthasar von (1826-1909), scientist, magnetician, hydrographer, oceanographer and meteorologist', in Douglas Pike (ed.), Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 5, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1974, pp. 329-331. Also available at http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A050377b.htm. Details
• Wiederkehr, K. H., 'Georg Neumayer und die Grundung eines geophysikalisch-nautischen Observatoriums in Melbourne, 1857', in Wilfried Schroder (ed.), Past, Present and Future Trends in Geophysical Research: Selected Papers from the Symposia of the interdivisional Commission on History of IAGA during the IUGG Assembly, held in Vancouver, 1987, Bremen, 1987. Details

Edited Books

• Luedecke, Cornelia (ed.), Steps of Foundation of Institutionalized Antarctic Research: Proceedings of the 1st SCAR Workshop on the History of Antarctic Research, Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Munich (Germany), 2-3 June 2005, Alfred-Wegener-Institut für Polar- und Meeresforschung, Bremerhaven, 2007, 560 pp. Details

Journal Articles

• 'Dr Neumayer's Projekt zur Wissenschaftlichen Erforschung Central-Australiens', Petermanns Georgaphische Mettheilungen, 1868, pp. 442-453. Details
• Barnard, F. G. A., 'Journeys of Dr. Neumayer in Victoria 1859-64', Victorian Naturalist, vol. 34, 1918, pp. 185-200. Details
• Kenyon, A. S., 'Extracts From the Diary of Dr Neumayer, in His 'The Story of the Mallee'', Victorian Historical Magazine, vol. 4, 1914, pp. 64-70. Details
• Neumayer, G., 'Address to the Royal Soc. Tasmania', Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania, Royal Society of Tasmania, Hobart, 1864, pp. 30-31. Details
• Wiederkehr, K. H., 'Alexander von Humboldt und Georg von Neumayers geophysikalisches Projekt in Australien', Mitteilungen Arbeitskreis Geschichte der Geophysik in der Deutschen Geophysikalischen Gesellschaft, vol. 7, October, 1988, pp. 1-24. Details
• Wiederkehr, K. H. and Schroder, W., 'Georg von Neumayers geophysikalisches Projekt in Australien und Alexander von Humboldt', Gesnerus, vol. 46, 1989, pp. 83-115. Details

Online Resources

• 'Neumayer, Georg Balthazar', in Physics in Australia to 1945, R.W. Home, with the assistance of Paula J. Needham, Australian Science Archives Project, June 1995, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/physics/P000104p.htm. Details
• Gibbs, W. J., 'The Origins of Australian Meteorology', in Federation and Meteorology, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/fam/0805.html. Details
• National Library of Australia, 'Neumayer, G', Trove, National Library of Australia and the Australian National Maritime Museum Darling Harbour, 2009, http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1283447. Details

See also

• Federation and Meteorology, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/fam/scripts/fam-dynindex.php3?EID=P000104. Details
• Science and the making of Victoria, with Royal Society of Victoria, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/smv/scripts/smv-dynindex.php3?EID=P000104. Details