Augustus Frederick Oldfield

Augustus Frederick Oldfield (1821–1887) was an English botanist and zoologist who made large collections of plant specimens in Australia.

Oldfield was born on 12 January 1821 in London, England. He made botanical collections in Tasmania, the coastal regions of Western Australia, and on the Nullarbor Plain.[1] Records of his journey note him walking from Sydney to Melbourne, and collections at Twofold Bay, the Huon Valley and mountains in Tasmania, and other regions in the 1850s and 60s. The large body of material in the west of the country was collected from King George Sound to the Murchison River, and he travelled across the Nullarbor to Adelaide.[2] Oldfield published a paper 'On the Aborigines of Australia' in 1865,[3] a detailed survey of the cultural practices of the peoples living near Port Gregory.[4][5]

He died on 22 May 1887,[1] after returning to London in 1862.[6]

His main collection was deposited at Melbourne by Ferdinand von Mueller, other parts of his herbaria are held at Kew and Western Australia.[5]

Joseph Dalton Hooker notes his contribution in Flora Tasmaniae as "a zealous collector and as a careful and acute observer".[6] Charles Darwin communicated with Oldfield, through Hooker, on the subject of Indigenous Australians.[7] His name is commemorated in epithets of species such as Eucalyptus oldfieldii[1] and Hakea oldfieldii.[8]

References
  1. "Oldfield, Augustus Frederick". Biographical entry. Encyclopedia of Australian Science. 2010. Retrieved 26 December 2010.
  2. Powell, Robert; Jane Emberson, Jane; Hopper, Stephen; McMillan, Peter; Pieroni, Margaret; Patrick, Susan; Seddon, George (1990). Leaf and branch : trees and tall shrubs of Perth (2nd ed.). Perth, W.A.: Dept. of Conservation and Land Management. ISBN 9780730939160.
  3. Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London, n.s., vol. 3, 1865.
  4. Oldfield, Augustus (1861). H. Henderson. (ed.). On the Aborigines of Australia (limited ed. reprint, 2006 ed.). Perth: Hesperian Press. ISBN 0-85905-359-8.
  5. Orchard, A. E. "Oldfield, Augustus F. - botanical collector". Collectors & Illustrators (extract). Australian National Herbarium. Retrieved 26 December 2010.
  6. "Oldfield, Augustus Frederick (1820–87)". Hooker’s Australasian Collectors (Australia). jdhooker.org. Archived from the original on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 26 December 2010.
  7. Darwin, Charles; Burkhardt, Frederick (1999). "January 1863". The Correspondence of Charles Darwin: 1863. Cambridge University Press. pp. 9 n. ISBN 978-0-521-59033-4. Retrieved 26 December 2010.
  8. "Hakea oldfieldii Benth". FloraBase: Flora of Western Australia. Retrieved 26 December 2010.
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