Edinger, Daphne Joan Choules (1927 - 2020)

Summary

Daphne Edinger was a naturalist who made significant contributions to the study of Western Australia's flora and fauna. Her initial career as an entomologist was cut short when she married and was required to resign from the public service. She became Head teacher of biology at the Presbyterian Ladies College in Perth, retiring in 1982. Edinger's life-long interest in natural history prompted her in 1979 to join the first expedition organised by the Australian and New Zealand Scientific Exploration Society to the Fitzgerald River National Park. On a subsequent expedition a fellow participant was Kevin Kenneally: they forged a fruitful collaboration of over 35 years. In 1986 Edinger became Honorary Research Associate at the Western Australian Herbarium where she provided invaluable support to Kenneally, Bruce Maslin and other botanists. She was often in the field with these colleagues. The Herbarium holds over 400 specimens of which Edinger was the sole collector, and over 7,000 collected with others. Many of these were of poorly known or collected plants, often geographically restricted, and a number of types. Edinger frequently took part in field work organised by Landscope Expeditions, a citizen science joint venture between the Western Australian Department of Conservation and Land Management and the University of Western Australia. From 1995 to 1996 Edinger was President of the Western Australian Naturalists Club, and organised for the Club many of its excursions to remote parts of Western Australia.

Details

Chronology

1949

Education - BSc, University of Western Australia

1950 - 1951

Career position - Entomologist, Western Australian Department of Agriculture

1967 - 1972

Career position - Head teacher of biology, Presbyterian Ladies college

1974 - 1982

Career position - Head teacher of biology, Presbyterian Ladies college

1979

Life event - Participated in Australian and New Zealand Scientific Exploration Society inaugural expedition, to Fitzgerald River National Park

1982

Life event - Retired

1983

Life event - Participated in Australian and New Zealand Scientific Exploration Society expedition, Walcott Bay, Kimberley, Western Australia

1986 - c. 2006

Career position - Honorary Research Associate, Western Australian Herbarium

1990

Award - Outstanding Service Award for work at Herbarium, Western Australian Department of Conservation and Land Management

1993

Career position - Foundation Member and Secretary, Kimberley Society

1995 - 1996

Career position - President, Western Australian Naturalists Club

1996

Award - CSIRO External Medal for Research Achievement (shared with Kevin Kenneally and Tim Willing), for the book Broome and beyond

2000

Career event - Joined Landscope Expeditions, Western Australian Department of Conservation and Land Management and University of Western Australia

2004

Career event - Participated in vegetation surveys of the of Black Range and Lake Mason with Gilbert Marsh and Mark Cowan

2007

Award - Conservation Volunteer of the Year (for contributions to the Landscope program), Western Australia Department of the Environment and Conservation

2007 - 2008

Career event - Participated in taxonomic and genetic population sampling of Mulga wattles in the Pilbara, Goldfields, Murchison and Ashburton regions with Bruce Maslin and Gilbert Marsh

Related entries

Published resources

Books

• Kenneally, Kevin F., Edinger, Daphne Choules and Willing, Tim, Broome and beyond: plants and people of the Dampier Peninsula, Kimberley, Western Australia (Como, W.A.: Department of Conservation and Lands, 1996), 256 pp. Details

Journal Articles

• Cowan, Mark A., Edinger, Daphne and Coate, Kevin, 'Biodiversity in the southern rangelands: variation in biota over time and space on the Black Range and Lake Mason stations, Murchison Bioregion, Western Australia', Conservation Science Western Australia, 12 (1) (2017), 40, https://library.dbca.wa.gov.au/static/Journals/080559/080559-12.001.pdf. Details
• Edinger, Daphne Choules, 'An autumn survey of vascular flora, birds, fungi, myxomycetes and lichens of Baledjie Lake Nature Reserve and Baladjie Rock', Western Australian naturalist, 29 (2) (2013), 126-41. Details
• Kenneally, Kevin, 'Daphne Joan (Choules) Edinger 13 December 1927 - 18 March 2020', Australasian Systematic Botany Society newsletter, 185 (2020), 57-9. Details
• Kenneally, Kevin F., 'Daphne Edinger 13 December 1927 - 18 March 2020', Western Australian naturalist, 31 (4) (2020), 265-74. Details
• Kenneally, Kevin F. and Edinger, Daphne Choules, 'A botanical survey of Walcott Inlet, Kimberley, Western Australia', Western Australian naturalist, 19 (2) (1993), 84-139. Details