Moore, Philip William   (1939 - 2022)

Born 27 February 1939; died 26 June 2022.

Philip W. Moore, a self-educated botanist and author. He lived in the Menai area of Sydney, NSW, and the flora of this part of the country was his greatest passion. He often gave talks on how to identify the eucalypts and the pea flowers, among other genera.

Philip obtained a degree in Science at the University of New South Wales, while working as a lab technician, ultimately graduating with honours and then going to complete a PhD in 1978. From 1964 to 1994 Philip worked at ANSTO, Lucas Heights, in a variety of fields. From 1987 to 1990, he was appointed Counsellor for Atomic Energy at the Australian High Commission in London.

It was during this time that the first edition of Native Plants of the Sydney District, which he co-authored with Alan Fairley (1941-), appeared. It was largely a photographic version of the Plants of the Sydney Region by Beadle, Evans and Carolin but it was also notably different, the authors incorporating their own knowledge, experience and photographs.

Philip was a passionate flora photographer.

After he retired he bought a 4WD and, by taking driving courses, learnt how to drive and handle it properly, intent on obtaining first-hand knowledge of the plants of inland Australia on unaccompanied excursions.

These were conducted over several years and culminated in the publication of his Guide to Plants of Inland Australia in 2005. Ultimately Fairley and Moore expanded their first book, Native Plants of the Sydney District, into a new publication that hit the stands in 2010.

Source: Extracted from obituary by Peter M. Olde: https://asbs.org.au/newsletter/pdf/23-mar-193-4.pdf
Portrait Photo: by Peter M. Olde from above.

Collecting localities for 'Moore, P.' from AVH (2023)

Data from 51 specimens in National Herbarium of NSW