William Branwhite Clarke

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
William Branwhite Clarke

William Branwhite Clarke (born June 2, 1798 in East Bergholt , Suffolk , † June 16, 1878 near Sydney ) was a British-Australian clergyman , geologist and paleontologist . He is considered the father of geology in Australia .

Life

Clarke was the son of a school principal, was at the Dedham Grammar School and studied theology at Cambridge (Jesus College from 1817) with a bachelor's degree in 1821 and the master's artium in 1824. From 1821 he was first curator in Ramsholt and then in other positions Anglican Church in Suffolk, but had been interested in geology since he had lectured with Adam Sedgwick and published on the geology of Suffolk and southeast Dorset , where he lived from 1833 (he was one of the chaplains of the Bishop of Salisbury). After he became seriously ill in 1839, he went to New South Wales in Australia because of the better climate and later decided to stay there for good. Here, too, his main occupation was initially headmaster and pastor, beginning in Parramatta , then in Campbelltown (New South Wales) and Willoughby (Sydney) , but also dealt with geology, partly on behalf of the government. In 1870 he retired from his church offices.

In 1841 he was one of those who found gold in New South Wales. Unlike some of its predecessors, he did not find it in rivers, but in a quartz vein west of the Blue Mountains, but was urged by the governor to keep the find a secret, as a gold rush was feared that did not begin until the 1850s. In 1849 he was the first to discover tin in Australia and in 1859 he announced the discovery of diamonds. He determined the age of the coal deposits in New South Wales and was the first to find rocks (and fossils) from the Silurian Mountains in Australia. In 1869 he found the remains of a moas (Dinornis) in Queensland. In addition to around 200 academic papers, he also published volumes of poetry and sermons.

From 1866 to 1878 he was Vice President of the Royal Society of New South Wales (which has awarded the Clarke Medal in his honor since 1878) and he was a trustee of the Australian Museum . In 1876 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society and in 1877 he received the Murchison Medal .

After his death, the state of New South Wales bought his extensive library and fossil collection for £ 7,000.

Fonts

  • On the Geological Structure and Phenomena of Suffolk . In: Trans. Geol. Soc. , London 1837
  • Researches in the Southern Gold Fields of New South Wales . 1860
  • Remarks on the Sedimentary Formations of New South Wales . 4th edition. 1878

literature

Web links

Commons : William Branwhite Clarke  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Clarke, William Branwhite
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British-Australian clergyman, geologist and paleontologist
DATE OF BIRTH June 2, 1798
PLACE OF BIRTH East Bergholt , Suffolk
DATE OF DEATH June 16, 1878
Place of death near Sydney