P008081 revised AU-VU:EOAS Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation

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 English AACR2 Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules Person created 2026-06-23 human Helen Cohn updated 2026-06-25 human https://www.eoas.info/biogs/P008081b.htm person Phillips Marie Elizabeth AACR2 7 June 1917 1977 Place of Birth Brighton, Victoria, Australia Place of Death Goulburn, New South Wales, Australia Botanist Plant collector Ecologist Betty Phillips had a varied career, including establishing a consultancy providing educational services to private schools and as ecologist with the Snowy Mountains Hydroelectric Authority, before joining the Canberra Botanic Gardens as Botanist in 1960. In this role she was responsible for maintaining and developing the Gardens' herbarium. This included implementing a rigorous cross-referencing system which tied the living collections in the Gardens to voucher specimens in the herbarium. She collected widely across the southern and eastern states and in Western Australia. On these excursions, her companions included some of Australia's best-known botanists, such as Maisie Carr, Murray Fagg and John Wrigley. By the time of her retirement she had collected approximately 18,000 herbarium specimens and 6,000 batches of propagating material for the Gardens. In the transfer of the herbarium to the Australian National Herbarium, CSIRO, in 1994, most of Phillips specimens were also transferred. 1937 1937 Education - BSc (petrology), University of Sydney 1940 1942 Career position - Research Assistant, Department of Botany, University of Sydney 1943 1945 Career position - Scientific Officer, Scientific Liaison Bureau, Commonwealth of Australia 1945 1947 Career position - Partner, Phillips & Jones 1947 1947 Education - MSc (botany), University of Sydney 1947 1960 Career position - Teaching Fellow, Department of Botany, University of Sydney 1952 1952 Education - PhD, University of Manchester, United Kingdom 1960 1973 Career position - Botanist, Canberra Botanic Gardens December 1973 December 1973 Life event - Retired Fagg, Murray Allan (1947 - ) Wrigley, John Walter (1934 - 2014) Carr, Stella Grace Maisie (Maisie) (1912 - 1988) Australian National Herbarium (1984 - )

Includes specimens collected for the Canberra Botanic Gardens

 The University of Sydney (1850 - )

Teaching fellow, Department of Botany 1947 - 1960

 Canberra Botanic Gardens (1930s - 1978)

Botanist 1960 - 1973

 Scientific Liaison Bureau, Commonwealth of Australia (1942 - 1945)

Scientific Officer 1943 - 1945

 'Phillips, Marie Elizabeth (Betty)', in Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation, History of Australian Science Research Group Phillips, Marie Elizabeth (Betty) Swinburne University of Technology, Office of the Chief Scientist Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Resource: Australian Plant Collectors and Illustrators Fagg, Murray Australian Plant Collectors and Illustrators Council of Heads of Australian Herbaria (CHAH) 2010