Gardner, Charles Austin   (1869 - 1970)

Appointed to the Western Australian Forests Department as a plant collector in 1920, Gardner transferred to the Department of Agriculture in 1924 as assistant to the Economic Botanist and Plant Pathologist. In January 1929 he became Government Botanist and Curator of the State Herbarium, a position he held until retirement in 1960. He published extensively on the Western Australian flora, the most important works being Botanical Notes, Kimberley Division of Western Australia (1923), the series Contributions to the flora of Western Australia in J. [Proc.] Roy. Soc. W. Australia from 1923, Enumeratio Plantarum Australiae Occidentalis (1930) and Flora of Western Australia Vol. 1, part 1, Gramineae (1952). Gardner was an enthusiastic collector, his first official expedition to the northern Kimberley in 1921 yielding 325 specimens. By 1946 he estimated his collections at 10 000 sheets.

He described eight genera and about 200 species of Western Australian plants in about 320 publications.

Gardner's personal herbarium was bequeathed to the Benedictine Community at New Norcia, but was transferred to PERTH in June 1970. Lesser numbers of specimens are in A, AIB, B, K, MEL and NSW.

Source: Extracted from: A.E.Orchard (1999) A History of Systematic Botany in Australia, in Flora of Australia Vol.1, 2nd ed., ABRS. [consult for source references]

Botanist and botanical illustrator was born in the United Kingdom and was appointed Government Botanist in Western Australia in 1929, a post he held for nearly forty years. He collected some 20,000 specimens and wrote a series of popular botanical books. Including Wild flowers of Western Australia.

He was however rather protective of his territory which he considered the whole of the local flora and was not helpful to other botanists who wished to research Western Australia's unique flora. As this is now known to be over 14,000 species it was a task which needed many researchers and recorders.

He was an accomplished artist and exhibited with the WA Society of Artists in 1920. These were watercolour scenes of Crawley, Perth and Mounts Bay Road, WA.
In 2002 an exhibition of his work was held at the museum attached to New Norcia monastry.

Source: pers.com. Dorothy Erickson (10/4/2013)

Example of botanical artwork:

Astrebla pectinata & Iseilema fragile
Crotalaria retusa
Gastrolobium heterophyllum

 

Collecting localities for Gardner, C.A. from AVH (24/3/2015)

22,496 specimens listed