Nancy Tyson Burbidge [1912-1977]
Biography
Nancy Burbidge was a systematic botanist and Curator of the Herbarium, CSIRO Division of Plant Industry. She published Flora of the ACT with Max Gray and several other books on Australian plants. Dr Burbidge was a founding member and twice President of the National Parks Association of the ACT and she was prominent in lobbying for the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve and Namadgi National Park.
Nancy Burbidge has been commemorated by an altar-front featuring banksias and honey-eaters in St Michael’s Anglican Church, Mount Pleasant, Perth and by the Nancy T Burbidge Memorial, an amphitheatre in the National Botanic Gardens, Canberra.
Career timeline
| 1976 | Member of the Order of Australia (AM) |
| 1973-77 | Director, Flora of Australia project |
| 1967-73 | Senior Principal Research Scientist at the CSIRO Division of Plant Industry |
| 1961 | Doctor of Science, University of Western Australia |
| 1953 | On secondment as Australian botanical liaison officer at Kew herbarium, London, England |
| 1946-73 | Curator of the Herbarium at the CSIRO Division of Plant Industry |
| 1946-67 | Systematic botanist at the CSIRO Division of Plant Industry |
| 1945 | Master of Science, University of Western Australia |
| 1943-46 | Assistant agronomist at Waite Agricultural Research Institute |
| 1940-43 | Field and herbarium work in Western Australia |
| Worked on the taxonomy of Australian plants at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, England | |
| 1937 | Bachelor of Science, University of Western Australia |
Honours and awards
In December 1991, CSIRO Archives received Nancy Burbidge’s 1976 Order of Australia Medallion and certificate as well as The Royal Society of New South Wales Medal for Researchers in Natural Science.