Fitzgerald, William Vincent (1867–1929)

Born on the Mangana goldfield, north-eastern Tasmania, on 21 July 1867; died on the Daru River, New Guinea, on 6 August 1929.

W.V.Fitzgerald collected in Tasmania, New Guinea and Western Australia and sent plants to both Ferdinand Mueller and Joseph Maiden. In 1904 he became chairman of the Forests Advisory Board of Western Australia. In April 1905 he was temporarily appointed to the Department of Lands and Surveys as naturalist to a survey expedition to the Kimberley region, which was led by Charles Crossland. In 1906 he returned to the Kimberley at the direction of the Minister for Lands to survey for arable lands in the Fitzroy, Ord and King River valleys. The majority of the botanical results of these expeditions were published in 1916 and 1918. Fitzgerald described five genera and about 210 species from Western Australia (Short, 1990c). His specimens are now in B, E, HO, MEL, NH, NSW and PERTH.

Sources: B.R.Maslin & R.S.Cowan, Nutysia 9(3): 387–398 (1994); A.E.Orchard (1999) A History of Systematic Botany in Australia, in Flora of Australia Vol.1, 2nd ed., ABRS. [consult for source references].
Portrait photograph by Greenham & Evans, Barrack St, Perth. Reproduced from The Western Mail, Saturday, 28 July, 1906, page 27.

Collecting localities for 'Fitzgerald, W.V.' from AVH (2021)

Data from 5,754 specimens