Gillen, Francis James (Frank) (1855 - 1912)
Born on 28 October 1855 at Little Para, South Australia; died 5 June 1912 (aged 56) at
Woodville, SA.
Frank Gillen (1855-1912) was for
many years associated with the Overland Telegraph Line that ran
between Adelaide and Darwin, and in 1892 was appointed the post
and telegraph stationmaster at Alice Springs.
From an early age he
had interests in natural history and anthropology and in 1894, when
the Horn Scientific Expedition visited Alice Springs, his interests
were further stimulated. Sometimes he was assisted in collecting
specimens by Aboriginal people and undoubtedly the harnessing of
their skills was usually beneficial.
This was not always the case, as the
following extract from a letter of Gillen's to Professor Baldwin Spencer (12/10/1894)
shows.
". . . I am also trying to
raise a rare weed or two for the old savage.
Sorry the Simpson Gap
helic[h]rysum was not new - we are getting a very nice collection of
plants together but I am afraid nothing new.
My wind is not good
enough for climbing the high ranges. I have no taste for such violent
exercise even if my wind were right, I am however anxious to get a
good collection from the Mt Gillen Range & with that purpose in
view I sent one of my Boys out the other day and instructed him to
fill a bag with all sorts of different flowering plants and pretty
grasses.
He did so & upon returning emptied the contents of the bag
into the horse yard where one of my thoroughbreds happened to be
kept for the night.
An hour or two afterwards he grinningly
informed me, 'Me bin Giveum Grass longa Nanto'.
The atmosphere
was blue with profanity for half an hour afterwards . . ."
Although he collected biological and presumably botanical specimens, it is for his anthropological work that Gillen is most remembered.
Having first met
Spencer during the Horn Scientific Expedition, the two subsequently
collaborated in ground-breaking, anthropological work. "The old
savage" he referred to in this extract was Professor Ralph Tate, who
was responsible for botanical aspects of the expedition.
With Spencer they together wrote The Native Tribes of Central Australia (1899)
Gillen was transferred from Alice Springs to Moonta in 1899, but in 1901 he was given leave by the South Australian government to join Spencer in an expedition which took them up to the Gulf of Carpentaria. Their journey led to the publication of The Northern Tribes of Central Australia (1904).
Gillen's final fieldwork endeavour with Spencer was to the old Peake station, South Australia, where they camped for a number of weeks.
Gillen remained at Moonta until July 1908, when he became postmaster at Port Pirie. In that year Spencer was hoping to arrange to go with him to Western Australia, but Gillen's health began to fail and it was not possible.
In 1911 he was weakening physically, and he died on 5 June 1912.
Source: Extracted from:
Short, P. 'In Pursuit of Plants', UWA Press, 2003
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_James_Gillen
Portrait Photo: no date, claremuseum.com
Collecting localities for 'Gillen, F.J.' from AVH (2023)
Unfortunately there appear to be no specimens in Australian herbaria under F.J. Gillen's name, despite the above correspondence. Presumably any specimens collected by Frank Gillen were lodged under the name Balwin Spencer or Ralph Tate.
