Western Australian Herbarium - History

History

The Herbarium was formed as the amalgamation of three separate government department herbaria: those of the Western Australian Museum, the Department of Agriculture, and the "forest herbarium" maintained by the Conservator of Forests. The first of these was formed by Bernard Henry Woodward, Director of the Museum and Art Gallery, probably around 1895; the second was probably formed with the appointment of Alexander Morrison as botanist to the Department of Agriculture in 1897. In 1906 the Department of Agriculture handed its herbarium over to the Museum, but reclaimed it in 1911. The "forest herbarium" commenced in 1916. Around 1928, the Government took the decision to amalgamate the three into a single State Herbarium, to be managed by the Department of Agriculture. The "forest herbarium" was handed over more or less immediately, but the Museum was opposed to the merger, and did not finally hand over its specimens until around 1959. In 1988 departmental responsibility was shifted from the Department of Agriculture to the Department of Conservation and Land Management (now the Department of Environment and Conservation).