Robert Logan Jack

Robert Logan Jack

Robert Logan Jack (born September 16, 1845 in Irvine , Ayrshire , † November 6, 1921 in Sydney ) was an Australian explorer, geologist and paleontologist .

Life

Jack attended Irving Academy and the University of Edinburgh and then spent around ten years on the Geological Survey of Scotland. In 1877 he became a state geologist in Queensland in northern Australia. He first examined the coal deposits in the Cooktown district, but his main task was to find gold fields. Although he did not find any significant deposits, he researched the geology of the country on arduous expeditions, during which he was injured by an Aboriginal spear. Later he also found new mineral resources (gold, silver, tin, sapphires), mapped coal deposits and initiated the first drilling in the Great Artesian Basin . In 1899 he resigned. In 1900 he led an expedition in China from Shanghai up the Yangtze , but was caught by the Boxer Rebellion , from which the expedition to Burma was able to escape. He wrote a book about it that appeared in 1904. From 1901 to 1904 he was in England and then again in Australia, where he worked for the government of Western Australia. From 1907 he lived in Sydney. In 1921 his book appeared about the far north of Australia, which he had explored and in which he also reports on the indigenous people.

In 1870 he became a Fellow of the Geological Society of London and was an honorary doctorate (LLD) from the University of Glasgow. With Robert Etheridge junior he received the Clarke Medal of the Royal Society of New South Wales in 1895 .

His son Robert Lockhart Jack was also a geologist in Australia.

Fonts

• Handbook to Queensland Geology 1886
• with Robert Etheridge junior : The Geology and Palaeontology of Queensland and New Guinea 1892
• The Back Blocks of China 1904
• Northmost Australia, London 1921

Web links

• Dictionary of Australian Biography