Charles Albert Edward Fenner (18 May 1884 – 9 June 1955) was an Australian geologist, naturalist, geographer and educator.

History

Fenner was born in the town of Dunach, Victoria (near

Ballarat Ballarat ( ) is a city in the Central Highlands (Victoria), Central Highlands of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 Census, Ballarat had a population of 116,201, making it the third largest city in Victoria. Estimated resid ...

), the fifth child of German born Johannes Fenner and Mary Fenner, née Thomas, of Adelaide. After leaving school he embarked on an apprenticeship as compositor with the '' Talbot Leader'' a local newspaper. He won a scholarship to attend

Melbourne Teachers' College The Melbourne Teachers' College was an Australian tertiary training institution located on Grattan Street, Carlton. It was renamed the Melbourne State College and then the Melbourne College of Advanced Education. In 1989 it became part of the Un ...

, and graduated BSc with Honours and Dip. Ed. in 1913. Fenner taught at several Victorian schools before being appointed (joint?) principal of the

Ballarat School of Mines The University of Ballarat, Australia was a dual-sector university with multiple campuses in Victoria, Australia, including its main Ballarat campus, Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide that were authorized by the university to provide diploma, unde ...

in November 1914. He also had charge of the school's Geology department, the teaching of which was favorably commented on by examiners. He paid particular attention to

field work Field research, field studies, or fieldwork is the collection of raw data outside a laboratory, library, or workplace setting. The approaches and methods used in field research vary across disciplines. For example, biologists who conduct f ...

, which the students enjoyed, as well as being important to their education. Fenner also prepared students for the Geology examinations at

Melbourne University The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...

, with notable success. In 1916 he accepted the post of Superintendent of Technical Education in South Australia, a position he held until May 1939, when he was appointed acting Director of Education in place of W. J. Adey who was on the eve of retirement. :During that time he completed research work for his D.Sc and from 1929 lectured in geography at the University of Adelaide, and in 1937 went on an extended overseas tour. In September 1939 he succeeded Adey as Director of Education and held that position until 1946, when he retired due to ill health. He worked as a volunteer for the

South Australian Museum The South Australian Museum is a natural history museum and research institution in Adelaide, South Australia, founded in 1856 and owned by the Government of South Australia. It occupies a complex of buildings on North Terrace in the cultu ...

, pursuing his research into

tektites Tektites (from grc, τηκτός , meaning 'molten') are gravel-sized bodies composed of black, green, brown or grey natural glass formed from terrestrial debris ejected during meteorite impacts. The term was coined by Austrian geologist Franz ...

, among other interests, and contributed numbers of articles to ''

Walkabout Walkabout is a rite of passage in Australian Aboriginal society, during which males undergo a journey during adolescence, typically ages 10 to 16, and live in the wilderness for a period as long as six months to make the spiritual and traditiona ...

'', until 1954 when he suffered a

stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...

, and died a year later. His remains were buried in the

Centennial Park Cemetery Centennial Park Cemetery is a large, 40.5 hectare (or 100 acre) cemetery in the southern Adelaide suburb of Pasadena, located on Goodwood Road. It is the largest cemetery in the southern suburbs and one of the largest in the Adelaide metropolit ...

Other interests

Fenner was president of the

Royal Society of South Australia The Royal Society of South Australia (RSSA) is a learned society whose interest is in science, particularly, but not only, of South Australia. The major aim of the society is the promotion and diffusion of scientific knowledge, particularly in rel ...

in 1931, and a member of the board of governors of the

Public Library A public library is a library that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil service, civil servants. There are ...

. Most of his spare time is spent in research and on geology excursions. He was particularly interested in

australite Australites are tektites found in Australia. They are mostly dark or black, and have shapes including discs and bowls that are not seen in other tektites. NASA used the shape of "flanged button" australites in designing re-entry modules for the Ap ...

s, small glassy, often button-shaped, objects found on the

Nullarbor Plain The Nullarbor Plain ( ; Latin: feminine of , 'no', and , 'tree') is part of the area of flat, almost treeless, arid or semi-arid country of southern Australia, located on the Great Australian Bight coast with the Great Victoria Desert to its ...

and elsewhere in southern Australia, believed to be

ejecta Ejecta (from the Latin: "things thrown out", singular ejectum) are particles ejected from an area. In volcanology, in particular, the term refers to particles including pyroclastic materials (tephra) that came out of a volcanic explosion and magma ...

from a large

meteorite A meteorite is a solid piece of debris from an object, such as a comet, asteroid, or meteoroid, that originates in outer space and survives its passage through the atmosphere to reach the surface of a planet or Natural satellite, moon. When the ...

that landed in China.

Recognition

Fenner won the *Sachse gold medal in 1919 for a paper delivered to the

Royal Society of Victoria The Royal Society of Victoria (RSV) is the oldest scientific society in the state of Victoria in Australia. Foundation In 1854 two organisations formed with similar aims and membership, these being ''The Philosophical Society of Victoria'' (fou ...

, dealing with the geology of the

Werribee River The Werribee River is a perennial river of the Port Phillip catchment that is located on the Werribee Plain, expansive lowland plain southwest of Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. The headwaters of a tributary, the Lerderderg ...

basin. *

David Syme Research Prize The David Syme Research Prize is an annual award administered by the University of Melbourne for the best original research work in biology, physics, chemistry or geology, produced in Australia during the preceding two years, particular preference ...

in 1929 for a thesis, ''Adelaide, South Australia A Study in Human Geography'' *John Lewis Medal in 1947 for "South Australia; A Geographical Study." A portrait of Fenner by Beulah Symes Leicester was a finalist for the 1938 Archibald Prize. A portrait by his friend

Ivor Hele Sir Ivor Henry Thomas Hele, CBE (13 June 1912 – 1 December 1993) was an Australian artist noted for portraiture. He was Australia's longest serving war artist and completed more commissioned works than any other in the history of Austra ...

was held by Croydon Park College of Further Education.

Bibliography

Fenner was the author of six books, including: * * * * *

Other publications

: *Physiography of the Mansfield district, 1913–14 *Notes on the occurrence of Quartz in Basalt, 1915 *Physiography of the Glenelg River, 1918. *Physiography of the Werribee River Area, 1918. *The Bacchus Marsh Basin, Victoria, 1925

: *The craters and lakes of Mount Gambier, 1921 *Adelaide, South Australia: a study in human geography, 1927. *A geographical enquiry into the growth, distribution and movement of population in South Australia 1836–1927, 1929. *Major structural and physiographic features of South Australia, 1930. *The significance of the topography of Anstey Hill, South Australia, 1939 *Australites, Part 1, Classification of the W. H. C. Shaw collection, 1934Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia, vol. 58, pp. 62–79 *Australites, Part 2, Numbers, forms, distribution and origin, 1935 *Australites, Part 3, A contribution to the problem of the origin of tektites, 1938 *Australites, Part 4, The John Kennett collection, with notes on Darwin glass, bediasites, etc., 1940 *Australites, Part 5, Tektites in the South Australian Museum, with some notes on theories of origin, 1949 Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science *Notes on the advance of physiographical knowledge of Victoria since January 1913 (with Frederick Chapman). *Notes on the advance of physiographical knowledge of South Australia since January 1913 (with L. K. Ward). *The physiography of the Adelaide region, 1924. *The natural regions of South Australia, 1930 *Report of the Research Committee on the Structural and Land Forms of Australia and New Zealand, 1935.

Royal Geographical Society of Australasia On 22 June 1883, the Geographical Society of Australasia started at a meeting in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. A branch was formed in Victoria in the same year. In July 1885, both the Queensland and the South Australian branches started. In ...

, S.A. Branch *The growth and development of South Australia, 1934–35. *The value of geography to the community, 1937–38 *The Kybunga daylight meteor (with G. F. Dodwell), 1942–3 *The first discoverers of South Australia; the tercentenary of Nuyts, 1925–6. *Thebarton Cottage—the old home of Colonel William Light, 1926–7. *Two historic gumtrees associated with the Burke and Wills expedition of 1861, 1927–8 *Colonel Light's last diary, with introductory notes by Charles Fenner, 1933–4. Others *Physiography of Victoria, 1923 *The structural and human geography of South Australia, 1931 *The Bacchus Marsh Basin, Victoria, 1933 *The Murray River basin, 1934 *A sketch of the geology, physiography and botanical features of the coast between Outer Harbor and Sellicks Hill (with J. B. Cleland), 1935) *Geology and physiography of the National Parks near Adelaide, 1936 *Aboriginal records near Broken Hill (with A. B. Black) 1945 *The origin of tektites, 1933 *Australites: A unique shower of glass meteorites, 1938 *Sandtube fulgurites and their bearing on the tektite problem, 1949 *Chapter 2, Foothills, plains and streams, 1956, pp. 7–10 For 25 years he wrote an "unbroken series of weekly articles on science for two Victorian newspapers", perhaps alluding to his articles as 'Tellurian' for ''

The Australasian The ''Australasian Post'', commonly called the ''Aussie Post'', was Australia's longest-running weekly picture magazine. History and profile Its origins are traceable to Saturday, 3 January 1857, when the first issue of ''Bell's Life in Victoria ...

'' of whic
this
an
this
are examples. It appears however, that 'Tellurian' was not one single person.

Family

Fenner married teacher Emma Louise "Peggy" Hirt in Ballarat on 4 January 1911. Their five children were: *(Charles) Lyell Fenner (17 August 1912 – 25 May 1997) * Frank Johannes (later John) Fenner (21 December 1914 – 22 November 2010), famous biologist *Winifred Joyce "Winn" Fenner (26 August 1916 – ) taught at Walford Girls School. She never married. *Lieut-Cmdr Thomas Richard "Tom" Fenner R.A.N. (18 June 1918 – 21 September 1946) married Margaret Jane Legge Suter on 10 June 1948 *William Greenock "Bill" Fenner (11 March 1922 – ) "Greenock" was named for the volcanic hill behind Charles's boyhood home. Bill was author of ''Quality and Productivity for the 21st Century'' They had a home at 42 Alexandra Avenue, Rose Park. After Fenner's death Peggy moved to 10 Springbank Road,

Panorama A panorama (formed from Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography, film, seismic images, or 3D modeling. The word was originally coined in ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fenner, Charles 1884 births 1955 deaths Australian geographers Australian geologists Australian naturalists Australian educators Australian public servants