Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria
Australian National Herbarium
Biographical Notes
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Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria |
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No birth or death dates for William J. O'Connell have been found.
In 1883 an expedition led by W. J. O'Donnell, on behalf of the Cambridge Downs Pastoral Association, left Katherine, NT, to explore the country around the Cambridge Gulf (WA-NT border) hoping to establish a sheep station. The party of six men, including a cook and an Aboriginal boy, with twenty-six horses and provisions for six months, left Katherine, on the 26 March.
O'Donnell named the impressive Carr Boyd Range, near the present day Lake Argyle, south of Kununurra, WA, after his companion on 26 May 1883.
The party consisted of Mr. O'Donnell, leader;
Mr. Carr-Boyd, second in command; Mr. A.
J. Wells, scientific observer; and Messrs.
Lennecre, O'Malley, and Wall.
Plant collections
The National Herbarium of Victoria in Melbourne holds 54 collections with "O'Donnell, W.J." as collector in 1887.
It also holds 166 collections with "O'Donnell, H.J." as collector in 1886.
No web searches identify an "O'Donnell, H.J." as having any connection with northern WA at that time and it is presumed to be an error.
There also appears to be no collections under the name of "J. Wells", the "scientific observer".
There is a digital version online of the actual expedition diary of W.J. O'Donnell in the National Library of Australia, although not OCR'd, a quick browse appears to show he had an interest in the flora and knowledge of plants, and it would be logical to assume all these collections date from the same expedition in 1883, perhaps being initially given to the Cambridge Downs Pastoral Association and later finding their way into the Herbarium's collection, perhaps in two different batches.
Source: Extracted from:
https://monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/people/settlement/display/98045-william-o%60donnell
Newspaper The Brisbane Courier (Qld.) Mon 17 Dec 1883 Page 5:
EXPLORATION OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA - MR, O'DONNELL's EXPEDITION.
https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-52759620/view?partId=nla.obj-87672355#page/n0/mode/1up (1 Jan 1884)
Portrait Photo: none found.
Data from 54 specimens
Data from 166 specimens
