Accurate description and mapping of the highly biodiverse vegetation across the large state of Queensland is essential for effective planning, management, and conservation. The unique regional ecosystem framework was developed, sustained and improved over three decades by a well-managed and skilled scientific team to produce the robust outputs required by the government’s policy agenda. Strategic long-term investing in public service scientific programs are uniquely placed to develop robust scientific products that deliver multiple benefits to all stakeholders.

Adrian Horridge is famous for his pioneering studies of invertebrate vision. Born, raised, and educated in the United Kingdom, Horridge moved to Australia in the late 1960s to take up a position as a Founding Professor of the Australian National University’s Research School of Biological Sciences, to establish a thriving department of neurobiology, which became one of the world’s leading entities in this field. Photograph by Horridge family.

David Headley Green AM, FAA, FRS was an outstanding geologist and leader in experimental petrology and geochemistry whose research shaped our understanding of the composition of the Earth’s mantle and the origin of magmas. He also fostered Antarctic geology and marine and climate science, and contributed to science policy. His achievements were recognised with many international and national awards. Photographer unknown. Photograph courtesy of the Green family.

In October 2024, the largest optical telescope on Australian soil celebrated its fiftieth anniversary amid accolades that included a warm message from HM the King, who had opened it on 16 October 1974. Among the individuals most closely associated with the telescope’s conception, construction and commissioning one name stands out—that of Ben Gascoigne, a professor of astronomy at the Australian National University (ANU). With a second entirely different career flourishing in his later years, this extraordinary scientist’s life makes for a remarkable story.

Dr Michael (Mike) Raupach transformed our scientific understanding of how the Earth’s climate system operates. We describe the trajectory of Mike’s research from his early focus on the interactions between crops and forests and the atmosphere, to the bigger canvas of the biosphere’s influence on regional and global weather and climate. Mike’s lifetime of research continues to profoundly influence the science of Earth’s interconnected biosphere-climate system, and defines the role that humans must play in sustaining our planet’s health.

G. E. (Tim) Wall was one of the leading algebraists of the twentieth century. He was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 1971. This Memoir recounts his early years in Adelaide, some details of his family, the influence of Professor Schwerdtfeger, a German refugee, on his work, as well as giving an outline of his major research contributions. Photograph supplied by his family; photographer unknown.

Sev Sternhell DSc AO FAA FRACI CChem, 1930–2022, was a prominent figure in Australian organic chemistry, academia and public life for more than forty years. He held the Chair of Organic Chemistry at the University of Sydney from 1977 until his retirement in 1998. Sev was very influential through his science and his leadership in Australian chemistry. He is best known for his development of NMR spectroscopy as a tool to unravel the structures of organic compounds. Photographer unknown, supplied by his family.

Priority setting for publicly funded research is a continuing challenge. This is an account of the development and evolution of the method devised by CSIRO in 1990, and since adapted for use at different organisational levels by CSIRO and other agencies in Australia and overseas. It is an adaptable and robust method for ranking and displaying priorities with the potential for future use in public research decision making.

For more than seventy years, Professor Derek Denton investigated physiological and pathophysiological mechanisms regulating bodily salt and water balance. His groundbreaking work led to new treatments for patients suffering from fluid and electrolyte abnormalities. He played an important role in the establishment of the Howard Florey Institute of Experimental Physiology and Medicine, and was its founding Director (1971–89). On retiring as Director, he spent the final thirty years of his life studying the brain’s role in instinctive behaviours. Photograph by Sam Critchley.

Robert (Bob) Crompton, a towering figure in low energy electron and ion physics in Australia, passed away in June 2022. He was known internationally for his seminal publications on swarm physics, atomic and molecular physics and gaseous electronics, and for his widely-read monograph with Sir Leonard Huxley on the subject of charged-particle transport. He was the recipient of many personal and professional accolades and awards for his contributions to science, science policy and the general community. Although born and educated in Adelaide, Crompton spent the majority of his long career at the Australian National University in Canberra in the Research School of Physics and Engineering

Warning: This article discusses blood collecting in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It also contains the image of an unnamed Aboriginal man who may be deceased.

It is not without justification that the collecting of blood for genetic analysis is frequently associated with race science, but it is not solely or inevitably so. This history of Robert Kirk, a British–Australian population geneticist, provides nuance to twentieth century blood science. Once problematic, Kirk’s legacy collection now returned to Indigenous control provides a promising future. Photograph: 01P-02-27, NCIG Archive, ANU, Canberra © Kirk family.

In 1966 the ‘marriage bar’ was removed for women working in the Commonwealth public service in Australia. During that year the Astronomical Society of Australia (ASA) was founded. We consider the changes in the diversity of astronomers working in Australia, including male/female ratios, since the formation of the ASA, and the development of gender equity strategies in astronomy. As well, we examine the experiences of Australian women astronomers and those of people from marginalised groups in astronomy. Photograph reproduced with permission from the IDEA ASA website.

Dr Ferdinand von Sommer (~1800–49) served as Western Australia’s first government geologist and had ‘Mount Sommer’, north of Perth, named after him. Ferdinand also left behind three exceptional maps of his surveying and prospecting activities (1847–8) as well as reports to the government that can be considered impressive for their time and context, even by today’s standards. His scientific endeavours are worth re-discovering. Photograph of the author is by Matt Jelonek.

Beyond helping us to identify birds, field guides sharpen our environmental awareness, deepen our connectedness to nature and foster a commitment to conservation. These facets of the field guide inspired the efforts of the leading American innovator of the genre, Roger Tory Peterson, as well as the Australian field guide authors who came under his influence in the 1950s and after. This article explains how Peterson helped shape Australian birding guides, and hence the relationship between birds and people in this country. It also recounts Peterson’s birdwatching adventures on his visits Down Under. Photograph courtesy of the Roger Tory Peterson Institute.

Australian astronomical research has changed drastically since the formation of the Astronomical Society of Australia in 1966. Here, we look at the changes in the context of the membership of the society and explore how the advent of new research facilities has led to changes in the number and geographical location of Australian astronomers. In particular, locating new radio telescopes in Western Australia has resulted in a more even spread of astronomers across the country. Photograph by Nick Lomb.

Acclimatisation—that is, the introduction of plants and animals to Australia from other parts of the world—is often seen as a nineteenth-century phenomenon. Focusing on wild bird species, this article argues, on the contrary, that acclimatisation continued well into the twentieth century. This article provides a cultural and political explanation for Australians’ belated turn against so-called ‘invasive species’ in the 1930s, ascribing this shift in attitudes to settler nationalism and xenophobia. Photograph by Alan Schmierer, via Wikimedia Commons.

Global movement of plants and plant products brings risk of pests including weeds, invertebrates, and plant pathogens. Australia’s adaptive biosecurity system continues to mitigate these risks, using plant quarantine and modern diagnostics to isolate, detect and diagnose exotic pathogens. Photograph by Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.

This article belongs to the collection: Plant Pathology in Australasia.

Peter Pringsheim, professor of physics at the University of Berlin, has a unique connection with Australia. His attendance at the 1914 conference of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, held in Melbourne, coincided with the outbreak of World War 1, and he was interned as an enemy alien until July 1919. But with the support of key local scientists, Pringsheim used his internment to write a treatise on fluorescence and phosphorescence which established him as a world authority on this branch of atomic physics. Photograph: SP 421/4 4730 Peter Pringsheim, National Archives of Australia.