Editorial Team – Through Hitherto Impassable Ranges
Ian Abbott has in recent decades researched Western Australia’s ecological history, focusing on forest fauna, conspicuous vertebrates in the south-west, epizootic impacts, islands, Noongar fire regimes, and Aboriginal names of birds and mammals. The Royal Western Australian Historical Society has published his two papers outlining WA’s zoological history. Since joining the Western Australian Explorers’ Diaries Project in 2005, he has contributed discipline-based expertise about faunal and landscape ecology for 12 books published by Hesperian Press.
Phil Bianchi, OAM, has prepared the descriptions of the exploration routes and the lists of maps and place names for a number of Western Australian Explorers’ Diaries Project publications. He is a keen four-wheel driver with a long interest in Western Australian exploration and following up on explorers’ routes. Phil has published a number of books on Western Australian history, and been a contributor to a number of others. His areas of special interest include books on the woodlines in Western Australia, and the Canning Stock Route. He was the author of Work Completed, Canning, A Comprehensive History of the Canning Stock Route, the ninth book published by Western Australian Explorers’ Diaries Project.
Graeme Blake has worked, lived and travelled in many country areas of Western Australia and has developed a keen interest in the history of this state. Now retired he is pleased to be able to assist in the important work of Western Australian Explorers’ Diaries Project. His first colonial ancestors arrived on the HMS Sulphur and went on to become settlers in Western Australia. Members of the convict class who were sent to the colony also form part of his Western Australian background. He is passionate about the contribution made by the convicts to the advancement of Western Australia.
Peter Bridge, OAM, is a series editor of Western Australian Exploration and a founder of the project. He established Hesperian Press in 1969 and has produced over 800 publications, mainly on aspects of Australian history. His own published works include mineralogical research and geological indices for the mining industry, several books and many edited collections and reminiscences.
Celene Bridge is a designer, doing editing, typesetting and cover design for Hesperian Press.
Gail Dreezens is the project’s typist and made original transcriptions from hand written field notes, which was a difficult task. An amateur historian, her passion for Australian history has been further developed by travels throughout this country.
Kim Epton is a series editor of Western Australian Exploration and a founder of the project. He is the author of Get it Write; C.C. Hunt’s 1864 Koolyanobbing Expedition; and Rivers of the Kimberley. Since helping to establish the project, his role is now one of marketing, assisting in financing future volumes, and the determination of prescriptive documents for proofreading and editing of the diaries, and maintaining the Western Australian Explorations website.
Alex George, AM, is a retired consultant botanist, editor and indexer, and holds the position of Adjunct Associate Professor at the School of Veterinary and Life Sciences, Murdoch University. He worked at the WA Herbarium for 22 years and then spent 12 years in Canberra as the Executive Editor of the Flora of Australia project. He has also served at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, England, as Australian Botanical Liaison Officer. His taxonomic research has focused on the families Proteaceae, Myrtaceae and Gyrostemonaceae, resulting in naming many new species and several new genera. His main research interests are now Australian botanical history and bibliography. Professor George prepared the Appendix on plants, advised on the indexing and interpreted the Latin and French words and expressions.
Allan Harris has had a life-long interest in all aspects of Western Australian history and in particular explorers’ routes. A keen four wheel drive enthusiast, Allan has rekindled an earlier interest in researching family history since he retired to Albany.
Marion Hercock has a PhD from the University of Western Australia, where she is an Adjunct Research Fellow with the School of Agriculture and Environment. A geographer, her publications include works on environmental management and history, environmental resources, geographical thought and 19th century geographers, as well as tourism and recreation. She was the principal editor of Western Australian Exploration 1836–1845 and the Western Australian Expeditions of John Septimus Roe 1829–1849.
Zoe Inman has travelled extensively in Western Australia, as a child with family; working as a country relief medical scientist and as a 4WD tour company hostess/ cook. Her more recent travel includes sailing the Kimberley and greater southern coasts, desert walking with camels and four wheel driving with her partner. Her love of Western Australia’s flora, fauna and history was instilled at a young age and continues to flourish, so involvement with the WAEDP team was a natural and exciting progression. Her publications to date are science-based, as is her career.
Glenda Slarke was a Road Dental Clinic nurse, and in her course of work met and married a farming descendant of an original Lake Grace settler. Keen on Australian history, she loves reading of the explorer expeditions, which she was not taught at school. Until recent retirement to town, she lived on the original historic family farm in an early family home, and is a proofreader.
Allan Zweck is a native of Blyth, South Australia, who moved as a New Land farmer to Lake Grace. He has worked there from 1965 to retirement, when he became an enthusiastic family history researcher. He was a core compiler of the biography of William Rudall.