Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria |
Grosvenor was a
quiet, unassuming man who confided that he
had discovered his true passion (Botany) after he
had retired from working for Shell in places like
Paris and Iran. Grosvenor had a pivotal role in the
development of both the gardens and herbarium
at Kings Park.
Grosvenor's accession books (held at KPBG)
commence in 1966, and I assume he commenced
working for Kings Park Herbarium in an honorary capacity. However, in 1970,
the Director recommended that Grosvenor be
paid $1.50 per hour for his work in the Herbarium. In 1972 Pauline Fairall
asked for a review of the hours and rates of
pay of the part time botanists and it was agreed
that Grosvenor would receive $1.75/hour for a
maximum of 24 hours per week and Pauline $2.75
for a maximum of 20 hours per week. Both were employed as casual labour,
which probably accounts for the lack of records.
In 1976 the board voted to increase Grosvenor’s
guide fees conducted outside working hours to
$4.00 per hour!
When Grosvenor resigned on 30/9/1976, because
of his wife's illness, it was noted that he was "Part-
time botanist in charge of herbarium, trained by
Mrs P. Fairall, undertakes identifications and
liases with State Herbarium and acts as a guide"
(Kings Park Board Minutes, October, 1976).
It is assumed that Grosvenor retired from his
paid role as he continued his association with the
Park, both as a Kings Park Guide and in 1978 he
prepared an index to the Herbarium collections.
Grosvenor also worked outside the Herbarium
as he re-labelled all plants along the nature trail, checked labels for most trees and new
plantings and lead bushwalks during spring.
He
also made collections (see below), co-ordinated
identifications of the labelled specimens for the
Annual Wildflower Show with botanists from
the WA State Herbarium and prepared an herbarium
display for the show.
Grosvenor Selk's Herbarium Curation and
Collections
When Grosvenor left the Kings Park Herbarium,
he noted in the Annual Report of 1977 that it
contained 18,316 mounted specimens. These
included the following sets of plant specimens:
16,263 native Western Australia, 14 exotic
trees, 374 horticultural exotics, 264 Kings Park
Arboretum, 302 Kings Park bushland (natives and
weeds) and from the gardens - 170 Californian,
166 Mediterranean, 381 South African and 308
Eastern Australian species.
Seventy five collections of Grosvenor's are held
in PERTH, but his collection numbers range up to
2,982, from 1966–1978. Grosvenor's herbarium
accession books are held at KPBG and record his
first collection as Melochia pyramidata made on
10 April 1966 from The Nursery at Kings Park
and his final collections were from the gardens at
Hollywood Village Retirement Centre on 30 June
1979. During this period Grosvenor collected
mainly from the gardens and bushland of Kings
Park to enable plants grown in the Botanic Garden
to be identified and labelled. However, he also
collected at Boya (1967), Mandurah (1967, 1971,
1972), Safety Bay (1968) and Bushmead (1967,
1968).
Grosvenor is commemorated with Hibbertia selkii,
a lovely plant endemic to the Stirling Ranges.
Source: Extracted from: 'Grosvenor Selk - Kings Park Herbarium Curator and Volunteer', by Greg Keighery
Australian Systematic Botany Society Newsletter 142 (March 2010) p.6-9
Portrait Photo: none known.
Data from 79 specimens in PERTH, excluding Kings Park