Kathleen McArthur (1915–2000) was an Australian naturalist,

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...

botanical illustrator Botanical illustration is the art of depicting the form, color, and details of plant species, frequently in watercolor paintings. They must be scientifically accurate but often also have an artistic component and may be printed with a botanical ...

and conservationist. She was born in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...

, Queensland, to Catherine and Daniel Evans. Her mother was a daughter of the Durack pastoral family, her father a co-founder of the engineering firm

Evans Deakin and Company Evans Deakin & Company was an Australian engineering company and shipbuilder. In 2019, the company was inducted into the Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame in recognition of its major contributions to the Queensland economy for nearly a ce ...

. She married Malcolm McArthur in 1938 and had three children before divorcing in 1947. From 1942 she lived at

Caloundra Caloundra ( ) is a coastal town and the southernmost town in the Sunshine Coast Region in South East Queensland, Australia. Geography Caloundra is north of the Brisbane central business district. Caloundra is accessible from Landsborough ...

on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland.

Environmental activist

McArthur was a strong environmentalist and a co-founder, with

Judith Wright Judith Arundell Wright (31 May 191525 June 2000) was an Australian poet, environmentalist and campaigner for Aboriginal land rights. She was a recipient of the Christopher Brennan Award. Biography Judith Wright was born in Armidale, New So ...

David Fleay David Howells Fleay (; 6 January 1907 – 7 August 1993) was an Australian scientist and biologist who pioneered the captive breeding of endangered species, and was the first person to breed the platypus (''Ornithorhynchus anatinus'') i ...

and Brian Clouston, of the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland in 1962, and served as vice-president from then until 1965. In 1963 she founded the

branch of the society. She was involved in several campaigns during the 1960s and 1970s to preserve landscapes threatened by economic development, including the

Pumicestone Passage Pumicestone Channel, also known as the Pumicestone Passage, is a narrow waterway between Bribie Island and the mainland in Queensland, Australia. The northern extent of the passage is at Caloundra, while at the south is Deception Bay. The ...

, the

Great Barrier Reef The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over over an area of approximately . The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, ...

and the Cooloola section of the

Great Sandy National Park Great Sandy National Park is a coastal national park in the Fraser Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. Geography The park features untouched beaches, large sand dunes, heathlands, rainforests, swamps, creeks, freshwater lakes and mangrove fore ...

. Much campaign work was funded through her growing and selling native plants as well as through exhibitions of her wildflower paintings. She was especially concerned for the

Wallum Wallum, or wallum country, is an Australian ecosystem of coastal south-east Queensland, extending into north-eastern New South Wales. It is characterised by flora-rich shrubland and heathland on deep, nutrient-poor, acidic, sandy soils, and re ...

country of

South East Queensland South East Queensland (SEQ) is a bio-geographical, metropolitan, political and administrative region of the state of Queensland in Australia, with a population of approximately 3.8 million people out of the state's population of 5.1 million. Th ...

, a habitat characterised by floristically-rich coastal heath and swamps on deep sandy soils. The spider, '' Ozicrypta mcarthurae'', was named after her for her outstanding contribution to conservation. In 1996 she was awarded an honorary

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''li ...

by James Cook University of North Queensland. Currimundi Lake (Kathleen McArthur) Conservation Park is named after her.

Writing

McArthur wrote a weekly column, "Wildlife and Landscape", for her local paper. She also started the Lunch Hour Theatre in Caloundra, a monthly event for which she wrote scripts based on environmental, biographical and historical subjects. Books authored (and illustrated) by McArthur include: * 1959 – ''Queensland Wildflowers – A Selection''. Jacaranda Press: Brisbane. * 1978 – ''Pumicestone Passage: A Living Waterway''. Bacchus Printing: Brisbane. * 1981 – ''Bread and Dripping Days: An Australian Growing Up in the 20s''. Kangaroo Press: Kenthurst. * 1982 – ''The Bush in Bloom: A Wildflower Artist’s Year in Paintings and Words''. Kangaroo Press: Kenthurst. * 1985 – ''The Little Fishes of Pumicestone Passage''. Artworks: Brisbane. * 1986 – ''Looking at Australian Wildflowers''. Kangaroo Press: Kenthurst. * 1989 – ''Living on the Coast''. Kangaroo Press: Kenthurst.

Environmental activist

Writing

See also

Footnotes

Further reading