Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria |
Des was George Chippendale's assistant in the Northern Territory Administration's herbarium at Alice Springs, established by George in 1954.
In 1956 a deal was signed between the USA and Australia for 50 acres of land at Pine Gap (near Alice Springs) to be transferred to joint Aust/US management for what was later called 'Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap'. Prior to the signing Des Nelson, "a well respected botanist", was called in to assess "how valuable the proposed space base acreage was".
After some years working with George
he was transferred to the government chemistry laboratory in 1965. When George left for a position
in Canberra in July 1966, Des was asked to return
to duties in the herbarium pending the arrival of
a new botanist, and to complete some projects
for George.
In April 1967 John Maconochie
came to take the position of
senior botanist. Des's duties
were divided between chemistry and botany. He then
assisted John as much as possible. In March 1973 Des transferred
to the Plant Ecology unit of
CSIRO Alice Springs but
maintained contact with
John and the herbarium,
always willing to be of help
to fulfil requests.
Bruce Maslin named Acacia nelsonii in his honour, but the name proved to be nom. illeg. so it was renamed Acacia desmondii.
Des received an Order of Australia (General Division) Honour in 2013.
The citation reads:
Source: Extracted from: ASBS Newsletter 150 (March 2012)
'Working with John Maconochie (1941-1984)' by Des Nelson
Pers. com. Margaret Friedel (2023)
'Spies in the Outback - selling a space base' Episode 1, ABC Podcast 2024
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/expanse/selling-a-space-base/103729416
Portrait Photo: 1978, George Chippendale collection held by ANBG.
Data from 3,359 specimens