Stocker, Geoffrey Charles (Geoff)   (1941 - 2021)

Born May 28, 1941 in Maitland, NSW; died 25 January 2021 in Upper Barron, near Cairns, QLD.

He was raised on the family dairy farm, Hunter Valley, NSW.

He earned a scholarship from Maitland Boys High, to commence a forestry degree, Armidale 1957, then at the Australian Forestry School, Yarralumia ACT (Diploma of Forestry) graduating with a BSc(Forestry) University New England in 1963.

Appointed to the Forestry and Timber Bureau, Berrimah NT, Geoff's early focus was with establishment of Pinus plantations on Melville Island and elsewhere in the top end and made several visits to Central America to collect Pinus caribaea seed for the Australian Government during 1968.

Geoff was a crack pistol shot and was Northern Territory champion for ten years and in 1968 represented the NT in the Australian Championships and Olympic trials in Melbourne.

In 1971 Geoff and wife Jacquie moved to the Atherton Tablelands for Geoff's position as Director of the then Queensland Regional Station (QRS) of the Forest Research Institute, an arm of the Commonwealth Forestry and Timber Bureau. Geoff was Principal Research Scientist and Head of QRS, thence to become CSIRO tropical Forest Research Station in Atherton from 1971- 1985.

In the 1970s several expeditions led by Geoff, Bernie Hyland, and Aleck Dockrill visited the Mcllwailth Range and made extensive collections. Many un-described species were found and a reasonably comprehensive plant list was made.

Moving from CSIRO, Geoff extended his professional interests to PNG, being appointed Professor and head of the Forestry School at the University of Technology in Lae, and Director of the Forestry Institute, PNG.

By this time Geoff had become very interested in orchids and bromeliads as a private hobby. Geoff and Jacquie already had an established orchid and bromeliad nursery at their 'los Cerros' farm at Jaggan near Malanda and Geoff was able to introduce numerous species new to horticulture especially several spectacular high altitude plants from PNG. He was still working with these until a few weeks before he died.

He co-authored (with Bill Lavarack and Wayne Harris) the book 'Dendrobium and its Relatives', had a eucalypt (Corimbia stockeri) and two orchids (Dendrobium stockeri and Bulbophyllum stockeri) named in his honour - a fitting professional recognition of his love of botany, tropical forestry and orchids.

Source: Extracted from:
The Ryerson Index - STOCKER, Geoffrey Charles
https://australianorchidfoundation.org.au/geoff-stocker-phd-bscfor-dip-for/
Portrait Photo: https://australianorchidfoundation.org.au/geoff-stocker-phd-bscfor-dip-for/

Collecting localities for 'Stocker, G.C.' from AVH (2025)

Data from 3,899 specimens