Contributing Authors – ‘The Finest Goldfields in the World’
The Introduction
Dr J.M.R. (Jim) Cameron is a graduate of the University of Western Australia. He is an Adjunct Professor of History at Murdoch University. As the Foundation Dean of Education at Charles Darwin University he worked with a number of educational systems in Asia and the Pacific before returning to Western Australia. He combines an interest in teacher education and the historical geography of the European occupation of Australia, and has published widely in both fields. His books include Ambitions Fire: The Colonization of Pre-convict Western Australia; Letters from Port Essington; and The Millendon Memoirs. He previously wrote the Introduction for Evidences of an Inland Sea.
Appendix on Fauna
Dr Ian Abbott, ecologist, Senior Principal Research Scientist, Science Division, Dept of Conservation and Environment. Has wide field experience and expertise in biogeography and historical ecology, as well as trees, birds and invertebrates. Since his first publication in 1970 he has published more than 200 papers.
Appendix on Flora
Dr Alex George worked at the Western Australian Herbarium from 1959 to 1981 and then spent twelve years in Canberra as Executive Editor of the Flora of Australia project. In 1993 he returned to Perth where he has his own consultancy as a botanist, editor and indexer. He has served twice at Kew as Australian Botanical Liaison Officer (ABLO)—in 1968 and 2004–05—and spent another year there when his partner Roberta Cowan was ABLO in 2002–03. His taxonomic research has focused on the families Proteaceae, Myrtaceae and Gyrostemonaceae, resulting in naming many new species and several new genera. He has also studied the botanical history of Australia.