Branwhite, Peter Gordon (1956 - 2017)
Born 1956; died in his sleep on 10 September 2017 at Lavington (Albury), NSW.
One of three Branwhite brothers with significant involvement in Australia's 'orchid world':
They grew up in Wodonga town, NSW, where their father was a radio engineer and newspaper editor, then farmer, and their mother (a florist in her youth) was involved in the Girl Guides and encouraged the boys to join the Gould League.
Peter lived on a farm in the Chiltern area of N Victoria and spent much of his youth in the local bush, particularly the Mt Pilot area.
He worked closely with orchid expert David Jones from the Australian National Herbarium, who organised a collecting permit for him. David found him very helpful and met him in the field several times. They got into out-of-the-way areas, especially in NE Victoria and in places where you would not expect to find orchids.
He was especially active around Chiltern, especially Chiltern State Forest, which he knew like the back of his hand!
He was an ardent conservationist and used to 'rescue' orchids from areas of development before they got wiped out. In 1986 he wrote to David Jones about rescuing thousands of orchids from part of the Chiltern State Forest that was about to be impacted by duplication of the Hume Freeway. According him at least 7,000 orchids were saved and distributed to growers and tuber banks of orchid societies, with a nod from the local ranger.
He worked closely with with the Albury City Council, especially in his conservation work with Caladenia concolor.
Peter was not wealthy but still spent a lot of money that he could not really afford chasing orchids, so David organised several support grants from the Australian Orchid Foundation.
Peter could not handle bureaucracy and because he had very strong conservation values he regularly battled with local councils and even National Parks over all sort of issues that impacted orchid populations.
In 2024, 'Boris' Branwhite wrote about the three brothers:
"The Branwhite families interest in nature was driven by our mother Val [Valerie Jean] during our childhood and when I introduced the family into the world of orchids in the early 70s, both Philip and Peter got the bug. They travelled extensively in QLD, NSW, VIC, SA, and WA collecting specimens for Canberra, tubers for Peters tuber bank, Peter took the pics, Phillip did the pressings and line drawings.
The extensive tuber bank was destroyed by fumes from the 'clean-up' of a nearby old fuel and asphalt depot.
I did most of my orchid research in the NSW Central Coast area, finding a number of new species, and causing Wyong Council to take orchid matters seriously. Shire records in 1996 showed 12 orchid species in the shire –
now they have recorded over 160 species, many of which have stopped clearing for development."
The orchid records in AVH are confusing for two Branwhite brothers because the collectors are listed as:
Branwhite, P. 1,281 collections
Branwhite, P.J. 1,834 collections
Branwhite, P.G. 834 collections
David Jones thinks that the majority of 'Branwhite, P.' collection were made by Peter, and that Philip might have assisted with the physical pressing.
Caladenia branwhitei was named by David Jones after Peter Branwhite in 2006.
Genoplesium branwhiteorum (named after the three brothers) was described by Renner & Weston in 2022.
Source: Extracted from:
Pers. com. 'Boris Branwhite (2024)
Pers. com. David Jones (2024)
Portrait Photo: 2008, supplied by 'Boris' Branwhite.
Collecting localities for 'Branwhite, P.G.' from AVH (2024)
Data from 834 specimens
Collecting localities for 'Branwhite, P.' from AVH (2024)
Data from 1,281 specimens
