worldsciencefestival

"Dr Kelvin Kong and Dr Mark Wenitong are two prominent leaders in Indigenous health, but they say they faced several obstacles throughout their journey of studying western medicine while keeping true to their culture." Source: www.sbs.com.au/topics/voices/culture/article/2016/10/21/m...

The Japanese occupied Nauru for three years (26th August 1942 - 13 September 1945). Nauru is a Pacific Island which was under Australian administration. The population of Nauru was decimated by several diseases against which they had no immune defences. The Island was mined for phosphate and was a valuable source of income for Australia. Nauru is still in the process of recovering from the decimation of the Island by mining from Colonial powers as well as by the Japanese Occupied Force. (source Wikipedia)

Quite possibly from 1924 and certainly by mid-1925, Dudley Eglinton had lost his eyesight and could no longer observe. He still wrote articles which were published and indeed his final article ‘The Southern Cross’ for the Queensland Agricultural Journal was published in December 1936. He managed this by dictating to his third wife Anna Catherine Sophie Cordes Eglinton (born 1860 but one source states 1880). But Anna was not a mere helper. She was very competent, and as later described, considerably ameliorated the shortcomings brought about by his blindness. John Henry Nicholson and his wife Anna Cordes Anna Cordes and John Henry Nicholson – State Library of Queensland. (wrongly ascribed as 1890… but must be after 1905 when married.) Dudley Eglington had married Anna on 4th August 1926 when he was already blind. She was the widow of John Henry Nicholson – schoolmaster, poet and author of ‘Halek’ and other works (1838 -1923). Nicholson’s first wife had died in 1901. Anna had married him in 1905 but after three months suffering from ‘melancholia’, Nicholson had spent much of his remaining time at the Goodna Mental Hospital7. Anna had a German background, was intellectually accomplished, and perhaps she enjoyed the mental stimulation even though living in a position of a carer for old men. She survived Eglinton by 11 years, dying in 1948, and together with Eglinton and his family members is buried in Toowong Cemetery, Brisbane. In his final decade, his wife attended to his secretarial work and he would dictate correspondence, articles and papers. From at least one article that appeared under both their names, she appears to have collaborated with him. You may well visualise an intelligent articulate person able to perform the research, collaborating with a person with the experience and background knowledge, but whose blindness severely limited him. His wife attended for him and presented a paper to the first official meeting of the newly formed Astronomical Society of Queensland on 3rd October 1927. An interesting snippet is that Mrs Eglinton (Anna) was in receipt of a literary pension from the Government – undoubtedly as the widow of J. H. Nicholson. This amounted to £52 in 1932/33. It only appeared in a listing in the newspaper9 because there was a controversy about a political inclusion of three persons in the grant including the Prime Minister’s chauffeur and a typist. Another recipient was Mrs G. Essex-Evans (widow of the poet). She was a sister of Dudley Eglinton and received an identical amount of £52. Source: www.aaq.org.au/dudley-eglinton/

A CORAL reef off Mission Beach has been named after a respected marine scientist in recognition of his pioneering research into crown-of-thorns starfish and ecotoxicology. Dr Robert “Bob” Endean was a fierce advocate for the protection of the Great Barrier Reef and played a key role in the 1960s environmental movement, which led to the formation of the marine park authority in 1975. He was one of the first people to use scuba gear to dive on the Reef and spent more than 40 years working in the University of Queensland’s Zoology Department before retiring in 1990. “Bob was a leader in marine science and a key player in getting to where we are today in reef management,” said GBRMPA general manager Bruce Elliot. “Recognising and advocating the significant threat posed to coral ecology, Bob pioneered crown-of-thorns starfish research, and his research forms the basis of the work we are still doing today.” The reef was officially named by GBRMPA, the Royal Australian Navy’s Australian Hydrographic Office and the Queensland Government. Source: www.cairnspost.com.au/news/cairns/marine-scientist-dr-bob...