Mattingley, Arthur Herbert Evelyn   (1870 - 1950)

Born at North Melbourne, Vic, on 11 July 1870; died at Prahran (Melbourne), Vic, on 2 October 1950.

Arthur was born at North Melbourne, and educated at his father's (Albert Mattingley) North Melbourne School, and later at Scotch College, Hawthorn (Melbourne).

During most of his working career (from about 1891 until his retirement in 1933) he was employed by the Commonwealth Customs Department in Melbourne as the customs officer-in-charge of overseas parcel post.

Arthur married Zenobia Anne Fenton at North Melbourne on 22 March 1910 and they had four children.

He was very interested in ornithology and conservation management, was on the Victorian Advisory Council of Flora and Fauna, was elected a member of the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria, FNCV, in November 1895, and was made an honorary member in 1947. He was a founding member of The Gould League of Bird Lovers of Victoria and its President in 1933.

Arthur was also a pioneering bird photographer and published many pictures to accompany his numerous articles in the Emu and the Victorian Naturalist. Of particular interest were his detailed accounts of his experiences in the north-western Victorian mallee and his many trips to the wetlands around Mathoura in south-western New South Wales.

He founded the Wyperfeld National Park, and joined the commitee of management of Wilson's Promontory National Park. He also led a two-month expedition through central and northern Australia in 1934 and his glass negatives and lantern slides from this expedition, donated to the Education Department of Victoria, are now held by the State Library of Victoria, (La Trobe Library: Heritage Collections), Melbourne.

Source: Extracted from book: 'Passions in Ornithology: A century of Australian Egg Collectors' (2020), Mason & Pfitzner, Canberra. [consult for source references]
Portrait Photo: 1901, SAMA (Ornithology Dept) extracted from above book.