A GREATER PRIZE THAN GOLD IBD

Sinopse

Augustus Oldfield trekked throughout southern Australia from 1845 to 1862 amassingáplant specimens that would be used to describe over 700 species new to science, includingátwenty-one that would ultimately bear his name.On the lower Murchison River, Western Australia he encountered and travelled extensivelyáwith an Indigenous group, the Watchandie and his paper on these Australian Aborigines is theáonly ethnographic record of them at the onset of European settlement.Not confined to the west of the continent, he also undertook botanical expeditions ináTasmania, New South Wales, South Australia, and Victoria. Yet, despite these achievements, the published historiography is virtually devoid of information about him, mainly due to him being an outsider to the ranks of the eraâÇÖs âÇÖGentlemen naturalistsâÇÖ.Never appropriately recognised in either Australia or his native Britain, this comprehensive biographical work, twenty years in the making, fills that gap and places OldfieldâÇÖs career within the context of his immediate family and the scientific, environmental and broader socio-cultural contexts of the time. Starting with his childhood, raised in the gambling dens of London, through his amazing journeys on the far-flung shores of BritainâÇÖs Australian colonies, to his untimely death, this book finally tells the story of a man who, driven by his love ofánature, turned his life over to the pursuit of a greater prize than gold.