Biographical entry Hedley, Charles (1862 - 1926)

Summary

Charles Hedley was a self-taught naturalist with a keen interest in shells and coral reefs. He eventually became Assistant Curator at the Australian Museum (1908 -1920) then Scientific Director of the Great Barrier Reef Committee. Hedley migrated first to New Zealand and then to Australia to help relieve his chronic asthma. He started oyster farming in Morton Bay, and later set up an orchard on Boyne Island. After injuring his arm, Hedley gave up his farming career and joined the Queensland Museum as a volunteer (1888). Within a year he was appointed to the Museum's staff. In 1891 Charles Hedley became Scientific Assistant at the Australian Museum where he remained until March 1924 when he resigned.

Details

Events

1881

Life event - Migrated to New Zealand

1882

Life event - Migrated to Australia (Queensland)

1888

Career position - Voluntary worker at the Queensland Museum in Brisbane

1889 -

Award - Fellow of the Linnean Society of London

1889 - 1891

Career position - Staff member of the Queensland Museum

1890

Career position - Collecting expedition to Papua

1891 - 1896

Career position - Scientific Assistant at the Australian Museum in Sydney

1896

Career position - Royal Society of London expedition to Funafuti Atoll in the Ellice Islands

1896 - 1907

Career position - Conchologist at the Australian Museum

1897

Career position - Collection expedition to New Caledonia

1908 - 1920

Career position - Assistant Curator at the Australian Museum

1909 - 1911

Career position - President of the Linnean Society of New South Wales

1914

Career position - President of the Royal Society - New South Wales

1916

Award - David Syme Research Prize received from the University of Melbourne

1921 - 1924

Career position - Principal Keeper of Collections at the Australian Museum

1924

Career position - Scientific Director of the Great Barrier Reef Committee

Related entries

Archival resources

Australian Museum

• Charles Hedley - Records, 1895 - 1919, Series 29; Australian Museum. Details
• Charles Hedley - Records, Series 71; Australian Museum. Details

Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales

• Baldwin Spencer - Records, 1880 - 1929, ML MSS 29; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details

Published resources

Book Sections

• Fairfax, Denis, 'Hedley, Charles (1862-1926), Naturalist', in Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle (eds), Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 9, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1983, pp. 252-253. Also available at http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A090259b.htm. Details

Journal Articles

• Australian Zoologist, vol. 4, no. 5, 1926, pp. 289-290. Details
• 'Charles Hedley, 1862-1926', Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, vol. 61, 1936, pp. 209-220. Details
• Archives of Natural History, vol. 15, no. 3, 1988, pp. 269-280. Details
• Hedley, Charles, 'The Australian Journal of Dr. W. Stimpson, Zoologist. With an Introduction by Charles Hedley', Journal and Proceedings of The Royal Society of New South Wales, vol. xlviii, 1914, pp. 140-151. Details
• Iredale, T., 'Charles Hedly's Papers Indexed', Proceedings of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, 1956, pp. 118-139. Details
• Iredale, T., 'Charles Hedley', Proceedings of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, vol. 88, 1967, pp. 26-31. Details

Online Resources

• 'Hedley, Charles', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-519725. Details

See also

• Hedley, Charles (England-Australia 1862-1926, Some Biogeographers, Evolutionists and Ecologists: Chrono-Biographical Sketches, http://www.wku.edu/~smithch/chronob/HEDL1862.htm. Details