Although Australia has a productive history in plant and animal breeding, fundamental genetics was late in becoming established. Before the 1950s there was no separate department of genetics in any university in the country. Reasons for the delay include geographical isolation, Australian and British colonial science policy, and the lack of a 'critical mass' of researchers. Through the efforts of Ian Clunies Ross and the CSIR several prominent scientists were induced to come from overseas to set up the framework for an Australian-based genetics community. Since that time fundamental genetics in Australia has flourished with high quality graduates in genetics being produced at a number of universities, and many local research programs being initiated. This period has seen the gradual internationalization of Australian genetics and increased collaboration with overseas researchers taking place. This paper provides an historical overview of the origins and progress of genetics in Australia beginning with plant breeding in the first decades of this century to the present era of molecular genetics. Significant personalities, institutions, policies, reports and publications are discussed in order to make sense of the current structures.
Researchers looking into the remaining dispersed-and largely overlooked-records of Burke and Wills' expedition have discovered fascinating and meticulously collected scientific data. The records provide a valuable baseline perspective on Australia's environment 150 years ago, and shed new light on the remarkable achievements of the explorers under extreme conditions. Credit: CSIRO Publishing When Robert Burke led the Victorian Exploring Expedition out from Melbourne's Royal Park on 20 August 1860, the organisers-the Royal Society of Victoria-anticipated that it would result in a huge increase in knowledge of a large area of Australia's unknown interior. Leaving from the settled districts of Victoria, the explorers were instructed to enter terra incognita proper, beyond Menindee on the Darling River in southwestern New South Wales. If possible, they were to continue in a more-or-less direct line across the continent, from south to north. They were to set up a depot in the arid centre at Cooper Creek, from which a northern party could then attempt to reach the Gulf of Carpentaria. Three scientists were attached to the expedition: William Wills, as navigator and astronomical observer; Ludwig Becker, as scientific illustrator, zoologist and geologist; and Hermann Beckler, as botanist. Physicist George Neumayer accompanied the expedition on part of the journey, from Swan Hill to the Darling River, making magnetic, meteorological and astronomical observations. Once the party left Melbourne, the general public viewed the expedition more as a bold adventure and a race to the north coast against the rival colony of South Australia. But for the organisers, such as botanist-explorer Ferdinand Mueller, the pursuit of 'geographical science'-including documenting the landscape and returning natural history specimens-was the highest priority.
Michael White put chromosomes into evolutionary thinking and made a primary contribution to the emerging neo-Darwinian evolutionary synthesis. He emphasized cytogenetic systems and argued that genic and chromosomal evolution were of seminal importance in the process of speciation and evolution. His major scientific contribution was Animal Cytology and Evolution (1945), a book that summarized, analysed and synthesized current information on animal chromosomes. White held a somewhat parallel place in cytogenetics to C.D. Darlington whose book Recent Advances in Cytology (1932, 1937) had earlier synthesized observations on plant chromosomes. For many years from the late 1930s there was a lively competition between these two industrious, innovative and self-assertive figures. Undoubtedly, White found satisfaction greater than that of science alone when ( contra Darlington) he described an achiasmate meiosis in a mantid during his first period of research in the United States in the late 1930s.
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