Presland, Gary

Summary

Gary Presland is an archaeologist and historian whose research interests are in the Aboriginal and natural history of Melbourne. He has worked for the Victorian Archaeological Survey, Victoria Police (where he set up the Police Historical Unit), and Museum Victoria. Among his publications are his edited transcriptions of the journals of George A. Robinson, books on the Aboriginal communities of Victoria, and histories of the Victorian Archaeological Survey and the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria (with Sheila Houghton). A long-time member of the Club, Presland was an editor of its journal, Victorian naturalist for 23 years, retiring in 2026. He also edited Artefact, the journal of the Archaeological and Anthropological Society of Victoria of which he was President 1984 - 1985. Presland is also an active member of local history societies in Melbourne.

Details

Chronology

1972 -

Career position - Member, Archaeological and Anthropological Society of Victoria

1976

Education - BA (hons), La Trobe University

1979

Education - MA, Institute of Archaeology, University of London

1983 - 1988

Career position - Site Registrar, Victorian Archaeological Survey

1984 - 1985

Career position - President, Archaeological and Anthropological Society of Victoria

1988 - 1995

Career position - Manager of the Police Historical Unit, Victoria Police

1995 -

Career position - Senior Curator, People and Environment, Museum Victoria

1995 - 2000

Career position - Head Curator, Technology Program, Museum Victoria

2000

Life event - Retired

2001

Career position - Thomas Ramsay Science and Humanities Fellow, Museum Victoria

2003 - 2026

Career position - Editor, Victorian naturalist

2005

Education - PhD, University of Melbourne

2019 - 2025

Career position - President, Box Hill Historical Society

Related entries

Published resources

Books

• Houghton, Sheila and Presland, Gary, Leaves from Our History: the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria, 1880-2005 (Box Hill: Field Naturalists Club of Victoria, 2005), 30 pp. Details
• Presland, Gary, The land of the Kulin: discovering the lost landscape and the first people of Port Phillip (Fitzroy, Vic. ; Ringwood, Vic.: McPhee Gribble/Penguin, 1985), 99 pp. Details
• Presland, Gary, Aboriginal Melbourne: the lost land of the Kulin people (Ringwood, Vic.: McPhee Gribble, 1994), 157 pp. Details
• Presland, Gary, Place for a Village: How Nature has Shaped the City of Melbourne (Melbourne: Museum Victoria Publishing, 2008), 265 pp. Details
• Presland, Gary, First People: the Eastern Kulin of Melbourne, Port Phillip and Central Victoria (Melbourne: Museum Victoria Publishing, 2010), 168 pp. Details
• Presland, Gary, Understanding our natural world: the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria 1880 - 2015 (Blackburn, Vic.: Field Naturalists Club of Victoria, 2016), 275 pp. Details

Edited Books

• Presland, Gary ed., Riding with Robinson: the field journals of George Augustus Robinson, 9 January 1840 - 11 March 1840 (Forest Hill, Vic.: [Gary Presland], 2022), 169 pp. Details

Journal Articles

• Morton, Anne, Presland, Gary and Gibson, Maria, 'Leaves from Our History: 125 Years of the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria Inc. - Symposium', Victorian naturalist, 122 (6) (2005), 254-378. Details
• Presland, G., 'One hundred and fifty years of Aboriginal studies in Victoria', The Artefact, 11 (1986), 13-28. Details
• Presland, Gary, 'A. S. Gallus and the Archaeological Society of Victoria', The artefact, 21 (1998), 9-13. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.003904107598829. Details
• Presland, Gary, 'Australian Natural History Medallion 2010: Don P. A. Sands OAM', The Victorian naturalist, 127 (6) (2010), 266-7, https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.700358472295984. Details
• Presland, Gary, 'Australian Natural History Medallion 2011: John C. Z. Woinarski', The Victorian naturalist, 129 (1) (2012), 20-1, https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.050298631630892. Details
• Presland, Gary, 'Arthur Wolfgang Thies, 10 October 1918 - 20 February 2013', The Victorian naturalist, 130 (2) (2013), 86, https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.333886767990561. Details
• Presland, Gary, 'Dr Noel Schleiger, 3 October 1926 - 14 April 2013', The Victorian naturalist, 130 (3) (2013), 137-8, https://search.informit.org/doi/abs/10.3316/informit.425616885494680. Details
• Presland, Gary, 'A Boggy Question: Differing Views of Wetlands in 19th Century Melbourne', The Victorian naturalist, 131 (4) (2014), 96-105, https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.651455757735054. Details
• Presland, Gary, 'Australian Natural History Medallion 2013: Marilyn Hewish', The Victorian naturalist, 131 (1) (2014), 30-1, https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.138750920594423. Details
• Presland, Gary, 'Sheila Houghton 18 March 1928 - 16 September 2014', Victorian naturalist, 131 (6) (2014), 219-20, https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.839499703207147. Details
• Presland, Gary, 'Australian Natural History Medallion 2014: Tom May', The Victorian naturalist, 132 (1) (2015), 16-7, https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.012003763906012. Details
• Presland, Gary, 'Australian Natural History Medallion 2016: Dr Max Moulds', The Victorian naturalist, 133 (6) (2016), 208-9, https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.674791498341310. Details
• Presland, Gary, '2015 Australian Natural History Medallion: Margaret MacDonald OAM', The Victorian naturalist, 133 (1) (2016), 26-7, https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.922354840202228. Details
• Presland, Gary, 'Alan Louey Yen 20 May 1950 - 20 March 2017', The Victorian naturalist, 143 (3) (2017), 84-5, https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.892033309775002. Details
• Presland, Gary, 'F. G. A. Barnard: naturalist, historian and committed Kewite', Victorian Historical Journal, 90 (1) (2019), 121-33. Details
• Presland, Gary, 'Helen Isobel Aston 26 March 1934 - 17 March 2020', The Victorian naturalist, 137 (3) (2020), 90-1, https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.343946035081566. Details
• Presland, Gary, 'Margaret Corrick: 11 October 1922 - 12 August 2020', The Victorian naturalist, 137 (5) (2020), 153-4, https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.504916273781156. Details
• Presland, Gary, 'Edmund John Grey 29 October 1930 - 4 January 2021', The Victorian naturalist, 138 (1) (2021), 30-1, https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.765628807160229. Details
• Presland, Gary, 'Barry John Cooper PhD FAIG FGSAust, 23 September 1948 - 13 October 2023', Victorian naturalist, 140 (6) (2023), 179-80, https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.492961166824381. Details
• Presland, Gary, 'Ian David Endersby 18 April 1941 - 19 April 2024', Victorian naturalist, 141 (4) (2024), 126-7, https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.T2024091700006291817347740. Details

Reviews

• First Fleet artist: George Raper's birds and plants of Australia
  Presland, Gary, Historical Records of Australian Science, 21 (2), (2010), 288-9, https://doi.org/10.1071/HR10012. Details
• Perry's Arcana
  Presland, Gary, Historical Records of Australian Science, 21 (1), (2010), 117-8, https://doi.org/10.1071/HR10005. Details
• Lunney, Daniel, Hutchings, Pat A and Hochuli, Dieter eds, The Natural History of Sydney (2010)
  Presland, Gary, Historical Records of Australian Science, 22 (2), (2011), 313-4, https://doi.org/10.1071/HR11013. Details
• Olsen, Penny, Upside Down World: Early European Impressions of Australia's Curious Animals (2010)
  Presland, Gary, Historical Records of Australian Science, 22 (1), (2011), 178, https://doi.org/10.1071/HR11005. Details
• Hateley, Ron, Victorian Bush: its Original and Natural Condition (2010)
  Presland, Gary, The Victorian naturalist, 129 (1), (2012), 27, https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.050242732717117. Details
• Waldron, David and Townsend, Simon, Snarls from the Tea-tree (2012)
  Presland, Gary, Historical Records of Australian Science, 24 (2), (2013), 348-9, https://doi.org/10.1071/HR13005. Details
• Joyner, Graham, Monster, Myth or Lost Marsupial?: the Search for the Australian Gorilla in the Jungles of History, Science and Language (2012)
  Presland, Gary, Historical Records of Australian Science, 24 (2), (2013), 348-9, https://doi.org/10.1071/HR13005. Details
• O'gorman, Emily, Flood Country: an Environmental History of the Murray-darling Basin (2012)
  Presland, Gary, Historical Records of Australian Science, 24 (1), (2013), 168-9, https://doi.org/10.1071/HR12024. Details
• Macinnis, Peter, Curious Minds: the Discoveries of Australian Naturalists (2012)
  Presland, Gary, The Victorian naturalist, 130, (2013), 218-9, https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.704589731172451. Details
• Clode, Danielle, The wasp and the orchid: the remarkable life of Australian naturalist Edith Coleman (2018)
  Presland, Gary, The Victorian naturalist, 135 (3), (2018), 89-90, https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.710803345593276. Details
• Bonyhady, Tim, The enchantment of the long-haired rat: a rodent history of Australia (2019)
  Presland, Gary, Historical Records of Australian Science, 31 (2), (2019), 175-6, https://doi.org/10.1071/HR20903. Details
• Chair, Fred, Clark, Ian D. and Clarke, Philip A., Aboriginal biocultural knowledge in south-eastern Australia: perspectives of early colonists (2018)
  Presland, Gary, The Victorian naturalist, 136 (1), (2019), 49-50, https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.418334542534435. Details
• Kiernan, Kevin, Eroding the edges of nature: Mount Field and the Florentine Valley: Tasmania's first national park and a century of lessons (2018)
  Presland, Gary, Historical Records of Australian Science, 30 (1), (2019), 63, https://doi.org/10.1071/HR19902. Details
• Jones, David; and Roös, Phillip B., eds., Geelong's changing landscape (2019)
  Presland, Gary, Victorian historical journal, 91 (1), (2020), 181-3. Details
• Cabouret, Mark R., Out from the shadows: John Mitchell Cantle 1849 - 1919, Australia's first native-born ornithological draughtsman (2023)
  Presland, Gary, Victorian naturalist, 141 (2), (2024), 62-3, https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.T2024061000000400442586152. Details