Biographical entry Ellery, Robert Lewis John (1827 - 1908)

Summary

Robert Lewis J. Ellery, who was born in England and trained as a surgeon, arrived in Melbourne 1852. He was the founder of the Williamstown Observatory, Melbourne in 1853 and was the Victorian Government Astronomer 1853-1895. President of the Royal Society of Victoria 1866-1884.

Details

Ellery arrived in Melbourne in 1852 and set up practice as a doctor at Williamstown where he established an observatory in 1853. Following Neumayer's departure from Australia in 1863, he was appointed as Government Astronomer and Meteorologist. He expanded the Victorian observing networks and began collecting observations by telegraph from further afield as a basis for the preparation of daily synoptic charts which first appeared in the Melbourne Argus in September 1881. Ellery became a leading figure in the Melbourne scientific community and served for almost 20 years as President of the Royal Society of Victoria. A Hundred Years of Science and Service, Bureau of Meteorology, 2001.

Related entries

Archival resources

Public Record Office Victoria, Victorian Archives Centre

• Melbourne Observatory - Records, 1857 - 1880, VPRS 776; Public Record Office Victoria, Victorian Archives Centre. Details
• Melbourne Observatory - Records, 1854 - 1870, VPRS 777; 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, 1859 - 1863, VPRS 779; Public Record Office Victoria, Victorian Archives Centre. Details
• Melbourne Observatory - Records, 1852 - 1943, VPRS 780; Public Record Office Victoria, Victorian Archives Centre. Details
• Melbourne Observatory - Records, 1859 - 1862, VPRS 869; Public Record Office Victoria, Victorian Archives Centre. Details
• Melbourne Observatory - Records, 1859 - 1919, VPRS 775; Public Record Office Victoria, Victorian Archives Centre. Details
• Melbourne Observatory - Records, 1860 - 1904, VPRS 781; Public Record Office Victoria, Victorian Archives Centre. Details
• Melbourne Observatory - Records, 1881 - 1917, VPRS 866; Public Record Office Victoria, Victorian Archives Centre. Details
• Melbourne Observatory - Records, 1860 - 1937, VPRS 783; Public Record Office Victoria, Victorian Archives Centre. Details
• Melbourne Observatory - Records, 1870 - 1895, VPRS 782; Public Record Office Victoria, Victorian Archives Centre. Details

Royal Society of Tasmania

• Robert Lewis John Ellery - Records, 1881 - 1882, RSA/B.10; Royal Society of Tasmania. Details

Published resources

Books

• Gibbs, W. J., The Origins of Australian Meteorology , Metarch Papers No. 12, Bureau of Meteorology, 1998. Details

Book Sections

• Gascoigne, S. C. B., 'Ellery, Robert Lewis John (1827-1908), astronomer and public servant', in Douglas Pike (ed.), Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 4, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1972, pp. 135-137. Also available at http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A040137b.htm. Details
• Holland, Julian, 'Robert Lewis John Ellery, 1827-1908', in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2004. Details

Journal Articles

• Ellery, R.L.J., 'On the Application of Galvanic Electricity to Practical Astronomy', Transactions of the Royal Society of Victoria, vol. 5, 1860, pp. 145-152. Details
• Ellery, R.L.J., 'Abel's Fuses and Wheatstone's Exploder', Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, vol. 6, Wilson & Mackinnon, Melbourne, 1865, pp. 167-168. Details
• Ellery, R.L.J., 'On Ozone', Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, vol. 7, Wilson & Mackinnon, Melbourne, 1866, pp. 131-135. Details
• Ellery, R.L.J., 'On Gun Cotton as an Explosive Agent', Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, vol. 10, Wilson & Mackinnon, Melbourne, 1874, p. 78. Details
• Ellery, R.L.J., 'On Various Forms of Galvanic Battery', Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, vol. 14, Wilson & Mackinnon, Melbourne, 1878, p. 65. Details
• Gascoigne, S. C. B., 'Robert LJ. Ellery, His Life and Times', Proceedings of the Astronomical Society of Australia, vol. 10, 1992, pp. 170-176. Details

Online Resources

• 'Ellery, Robert Lewis John', 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/P001387p.htm. Details
• National Library of Australia, 'Ellery, R L J', Trove, National Library of Australia and the Australian National Maritime Museum Darling Harbour, 2009, http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-612517. Details
• Newell, Jennifer and Sutherland, Denise, 'Scientists and Colonists', Australasian Science, vol. Summer, 1997, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/exhib/journal/as_colonists.htm. Details

See also

• Federation and Meteorology, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/fam/scripts/fam-dynindex.php3?EID=P001387. 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=P001387. Details