Leslie Gordon Chandler (1888–1980) was an Australian
jeweller
A bench jeweler is an artisan who uses a combination of skills to make and repair jewelry. Some of the more common skills that a bench jeweler might employ include antique restoration, silversmith, Goldsmith, stone setting, engraving, fabrica ...
,
vigneron
A winemaker or vintner is a person engaged in winemaking. They are generally employed by winery, wineries or :Wine companies, wine companies, where their work includes:
*Cooperating with viticulture, viticulturists
*Monitoring the maturity of grape ...
, bird
photographer
A photographer (the Greek language, Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs.
Duties and types of photographe ...
, writer and speaker on
natural history, and
ornithologist
Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...
. He became a member of the
Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union
The Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU), now part of BirdLife Australia, was Australia's largest non-government, non-profit, bird conservation organisation. It was founded in 1901 to promote the study and bird conservation, conservati ...
(RAOU) in 1911 and was Press Correspondent for the RAOU 1914-1916 and again in 1920, war service and disability intervening. From 1920 he was based at
Red Cliffs in the
Victorian
Victorian or Victorians may refer to:
19th century
* Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign
** Victorian architecture
** Victorian house
** Victorian decorative arts
** Victorian fashion
** Victorian literature ...
Mallee region. He was instrumental in the establishment of the
Hattah-Kulkyne National Park
The Hattah-Kulkyne National Park is a national park in the Mallee district of Victoria, Australia. The national park is situated adjacent to the Murray River, approximately northwest of Melbourne with the nearest regional centre being Mildura. ...
there.
Early life
Leslie Chandler (always known as 'Les') was born on January 11, 1888, in the
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
suburb of
Malvern
Malvern or Malverne may refer to:
Places Australia
* Malvern, South Australia, a suburb of Adelaide
* Malvern, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne
* City of Malvern, a former local government area near Melbourne
* Electoral district of Malvern, an e ...
, fourth child of English-born parents Robert Charles Chandler and Ellen, née Mead(e)s, moving with his family to
The Basin in the
Dandenong Ranges
The Dandenong Ranges (commonly just The Dandenongs) are a set of low mountain ranges, rising to 633 metres at Mount Dandenong, approximately east of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The ranges consist mostly of rolling hills, steeply weathere ...
where he was schooled locally. Later attending
Bayswater
Bayswater is an area within the City of Westminster in West London. It is a built-up district with a population density of 17,500 per square kilometre, and is located between Kensington Gardens to the south, Paddington to the north-east, and ...
State School, his love of nature was inspired as he walked nearly each day to school through the towering forests of the Dandenong Ranges on the outskirts of Melbourne, often making long detours to observe.
Ornithology and photography
![Nla](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Nla.obj-150672660-1.jpg)
Chandler was apprenticed at fifteen years old to a city
jeweller
A bench jeweler is an artisan who uses a combination of skills to make and repair jewelry. Some of the more common skills that a bench jeweler might employ include antique restoration, silversmith, Goldsmith, stone setting, engraving, fabrica ...
and following his greatest interest began to give
nature studies
The nature study movement (alternatively, Nature Study or nature-study) was a popular education movement that originated in the United States and spread throughout the English-speaking world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Nature study ...
presentations in schools from age eighteen. By 1907 he had taken up bird photography, joining the
Bird Observers' Club in 1908, of which he was once secretary, the
Royal Australasian Ornithologists' Union in 1911 on which he served as Press Secretary, and the
Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria in 1914. His experience as an
apprentice
Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...
jeweler enabled his production of hundreds of harmless
bands for the Bird Observers Club and Australasian Ornithologists Union to track birds in the first of such projects in Australia; of
Short-tailed Shearwaters on
Phillip Island
Phillip Island (Boonwurrung: ''Corriong'', ''Worne'' or ''Millowl'') is an Australian island about south-southeast of Melbourne, Victoria. The island is named after Governor Arthur Phillip, the first Governor of New South Wales, by explorer ...
and
White-faced Storm-Petrels on
Mud Islands
The Mud Islands reserve is located within Port Phillip, about south-west of Melbourne, Australia, lying inside Port Phillip Heads, north of Portsea and east of Queenscliff. The land area of about is made up of three low-lying islands sur ...
during 1912–14.
Staying with Charles Thompson, the owner of Kulkyne Station he came to love the Mallee district, where he was later to settle.
Writer on natural history
Periodicals including ''
The Emu
''Emu'', subtitled ''Austral Ornithology'', is the peer-reviewed scientific journal of BirdLife Australia (formerly the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union). The journal was established in 1901 and is the oldest ornithological journal publis ...
'', ''
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 ...
'', ''Riverlander'', ''
Wild Life'', ''Wildlife in Australia'', ''
Victorian Naturalist
''The Victorian Naturalist'' is a bimonthly scientific journal covering natural history, especially of Australia. It is published by the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria and is received as part of the membership subscription of that club. From ...
'', ''
Australasian Photo-Review
The ''Australasian Photo-Review'' was an English language magazine, published for photographers by Baker & Rouse and later Kodak (Australasia), and published in Sydney, Australia 1894–1956.
History
The magazine was first published in 1894 a ...
'', The School Magazine, and ''Victorian School-paper'' published Chandler's copious writings and pictures, as did newspapers ''
The Age
''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...
'', ''
Australasian
Australasian is the adjectival form of Australasia, a geographical region including Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continen ...
'', ''
Argus
Argus is the Latinized form of the Ancient Greek word ''Argos''. It may refer to:
Greek mythology
* See Argus (Greek myth) for mythological characters named Argus
**Argus (king of Argos), son of Zeus (or Phoroneus) and Niobe
**Argus (son of Ar ...
'', Leader, and as 'Oriole' he was nature correspondent for the ''
Sunraysia Daily
The ''Sunraysia Daily'' is a local newspaper in the north-western Sunraysia region of Victoria, Australia, it is published on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. From its first publication in 1920 until 14 September 2007, it was published ...
''. Whenever he had the time he would spend it in the field, sometimes for several days at a time, to make his observations, employing portable bird hides of hessian,
and often climbing high into trees to get his pictures.
His texts are often cited in current ornithological papers, with
Woinarski and
Recher for example noting the value of his observations, remarking that "Weather conditions following fire also influence bird responses, with Chandler (1973) noting that drought post-fire may accentuate the fire impact. Chandler's observation is astute and it is difficult to separate the effects of drought from that of fire as most wildfires tend to occur during dry periods"
WW1 service
Chandler signed up with the
Australian Imperial Force on 8 July 1915, taking his camera with him to the
Western Front Western Front or West Front may refer to:
Military frontiers
*Western Front (World War I), a military frontier to the west of Germany
*Western Front (World War II), a military frontier to the west of Germany
*Western Front (Russian Empire), a majo ...
, despite photography there being banned. Bayonet training at
Seymour Army Camp persuaded him that "he couldn't kill anybody, just couldn't face that," as his daughter Mary remembered. He volunteered instead as a
stretcher-bearer in the 15th Field Ambulance, in which he served on the Western Front, in Egypt, and Belgium.
Despite photography being an activity forbidden to Australian soldiers, Chandler recorded lighter moments, the French people and what was left of the natural landscape and used a
bulb release to include himself in the picture.
Gassed at
Villers-Bretonneux
Villers-Bretonneux () is a commune in the Somme department in Hauts-de-France in northern France.
Geography
Villers-Bretonneux is situated some 19 km due east of Amiens, on the D1029 road and the A29 motorway.
Villers-Bretonneux border ...
, France, in April 1918, he was invalided to the United Kingdom where he managed to photograph views of the English countryside. Arriving in Melbourne in January 1919 he was discharged medically unfit on 25 July, too ill to resume his trade as a jeweler. While convalescing he founded and led excursions of the Nature Photographers' Club of Australia in 1919 which contributed and shared their work via a portfolio circulated by mail.
Soldier-settler in the Mallee
To continue his recovery, Chandler went 'on holiday' in the
Mallee, recording his impressions in his diary, from which he quotes in a 1947 ''Walkabout'' article on the settlement of
Red Cliffs, near
Mildura
Mildura is a regional city in north-west Victoria, Australia. Located on the Victorian side of the Murray River, Mildura had a population of 34,565 in 2021. When nearby Wentworth, Irymple, Nichols Point and Merbein are included, the area had ...
:
The writer arrived at Red Cliffs in February, 1921, to take up work with a clearing gang and to gain initial knowledge in the surrounding, older settlements of vineyard work, before applying for a block. It was a scorching day of 115 degrees in the shade, with red dust flying, and on the previous day the heat had reached 119 degrees 8°C
As a
soldier-settler under the Victorian Government's "Act to make provision for the Settlement of Discharged Soldiers on the Land and for other purposes" of 22 October 1917,
Chandler was granted an allotment of
Crown Land
Crown land (sometimes spelled crownland), also known as royal domain, is a territorial area belonging to the monarch, who personifies the Crown. It is the equivalent of an entailed estate and passes with the monarchy, being inseparable from it. ...
of Mallee scrub which he cleared and fenced to create a vineyard for the production of dried sultana grapes and an orchard. A government loan of £500 (worth about $35,000.00 in 2021) on which interest was to be paid, provided the initial capital for returned servicemen, though the land they farmed was what was left over in a largely settled Victoria. On repayment of the initial investment, a further £500 could be granted provided the farming was successful,
especially tough in the Mallee where success came only where there was irrigation.
![Jacky The Butcher Bird by Les Chandler](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/Jacky_The_Butcher_Bird_by_Les_Chandler.jpg)
In addition to working to establishing his vineyard and a rudimentary canvas-roofed dwelling, Chandler wrote and photographed for ''Bush Charms'', and ''Jacky the Butcher-Bird'', both published 1922 and very early examples of children's books illustrated with photographs. The latter was reviewed in Table Talk, and The Queenslander notes that "Messrs. Whitcombe and Tombs, Ltd. have published a really choice selection of Australian nature story readers, including..."Jacky, the Butcher Bird," by L. G. Chandler...all thoroughly tested Australian stories, as Australian as the gum tree, and the cheap, well-printed re print brings them within the reach of everybody."
In addition to making photographs many of his activities, often making self-portraits with a bulb release, from 1900 Chandler kept a life-long diary in shorthand.
There, and in articles he wrote, he expresses sympathy for the plight of indigenous peoples of the region in which he settled; "In those early days before the white man came, the blacks little thought that their hunting-grounds that stretched away from the river into the forests of pine, belar, mallee-gums, sugar-wood and other vegetation, would be taken from them and one day cleared...". He had come to love the Mallee before the war, being guided around it by aboriginal princess Mary Woorlong (1879-1942) a
Latji Latji
The Latjilatji, sometimes spelt Latji Latji or Latje Latje are an Indigenous Australian people of the state of Victoria, Australia.
Name
The ethnonym Latjilatji consists of a reduplication of the word for "no" (''latja'').
Language
Latjilatji is ...
or
Muthi Muthi
The Muthi Muthi people are an indigenous Australian people whose traditional lands are located in the Riverina, Northern Riverina and Far West (New South Wales), Far West regions of New South Wales.
The Muthi Muthi are the traditional owners of ...
woman and daughter of King Wyrlong, a Muthi Muthi from the Euston area, descendants of
Mungo Man Mungo may refer to:
People
* Mungo (name), a list of people with the given name or surname
* Mungo people, an ethnic group in Cameroon
Places
* Mungo, Angola, a town and municipality
* Mungo National Park, Australia
* Lake Mungo, Australia
* M ...
, and who worked as a domestic servant. He learned much from her and made her portrait, and after her death was instrumental in marking her grave at Mildura Cemetery with a headstone.
His 1935 ''Walkabout'' article details evidence of Aboriginal occupation in north-west Victoria in kitchen-middens, and trees from which canoes, coolamons and shields have been cut and the method used to trap codfish under trees.
Conservationist
Naturalists Donald Macdonald and
Charles Barrett, and later his work with E. Brooke Nicholls and bird photographer
Arthur Mattingley
Arthur Herbert Evelyn Mattingley (1870-1950), noted Australian bird photographer and ornithologist, was a founding member of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU) in 1901. He worked for over 40 years with the Commonwealth Customs D ...
, influenced Chandler. He was a foundation member of the Mildura Historical Society in 1949 and, with the late Reverend C. L. Lang, formed the Sunraysia Naturalists' Club (now the Sunraysia Naturalists' Research Trust) being variously its president, Vice-president, Secretary, Treasurer and Editor. They agitated to have the
Hattah-Kulkyne area declared a National Park, with success coming in 1960.
Personal life
Among Chandler's friends were poet
C. J. Dennis
Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis (7 September 1876 – 22 June 1938), better known as C. J. Dennis, was an Australian poet and journalist known for his best-selling verse novel ''The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke'' (1915). Alongside ...
, literary patron Jack Moir, cartoonist
Hal Gye
Harold Frederick Neville Gye (22 May 1887 — 25 November 1967), who published under the name Hal Gye, was an author of cartoons, illustrations and articles for early Australian newspapers and journals. Gye provided the artwork for ''The Songs of ...
, sculptor
Web Gilbert
Charles Marsh Webb (Nash) Gilbert (18 March 1867 – 3 October 1925), known professionally as C. Web Gilbert, was a self-taught Australian sculptor renowned both within Australia and abroad.
Gilbert was born at Cockatoo in Victoria, between Talb ...
and painter
Tom Roberts
Thomas William Roberts (8 March 185614 September 1931) was an English-born Australian artist and a key member of the Heidelberg School art movement, also known as Australian impressionism.
After studying in Melbourne, he travelled to Europe i ...
.
He married Ivy Henshall at St Andrew's Presbyterian Church,
Mordialloc, Victoria
Mordialloc is a beachside suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 24 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Kingston local government area. Mordialloc recorded a population of 8,886 at the .
H ...
, 10 September 1931 and their daughter Mary was born in 1937. Mary Chandler, who died 2020, was an historian and writer whose publications include her edited volume of her father's letters ''Dear homefolks : letters written by L.G. Chandler during the First World War'' and of chronicles of their home town, ''Against the odds : the story of the Red Cliffs settlement'', and of environmental history in ''Tribal lands to national park'', with pictures by her father, on the Hattah/Kulkyne National Park.
Chandler sold his vineyard in 1956 and moved to Red Cliffs where he died on 25 January 1980.
[Kloot T (1980) Obituary. Leslie Gordon Chandler. ''Emu'' 80, 241-242.]
Awards
* 1950
Australasian Photo-Review
The ''Australasian Photo-Review'' was an English language magazine, published for photographers by Baker & Rouse and later Kodak (Australasia), and published in Sydney, Australia 1894–1956.
History
The magazine was first published in 1894 a ...
Recognition Medal
* 1961 Honorary Life Membership
Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union
The Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU), now part of BirdLife Australia, was Australia's largest non-government, non-profit, bird conservation organisation. It was founded in 1901 to promote the study and bird conservation, conservati ...
* Honorary Life Member, Sunraysia Naturalists' Research Trust
Publications
Books
*
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*
*
Journal articles
Chandler published hundreds of articles and photographs, in addition to his books.
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
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*
* Chandler, L.G. (1965). "Eileen Ramsay's story – four years after." ''Riverlander'' November 1965, 8–9.
Exhibitions
* 2021 ''Soldier Settler'', Magnet Galleries, Melbourne
* 2021 Mildura Arts Centre joint show with work of Eileen Ramsay, to 25 April (Anzac Day).
* 2016 Grief and Glory inclusion, Magnet Galleries, Melbourne
* 1932 Bolton Camera Club Annual International Exhibition of Pictorial and Scientific Photography, April 2 - April 9,
* 1931 Seventy-sixth Annual Exhibition of The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, September 12 - October 10,
* 1930 Seventy-fifth Annual Exhibition of The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, September 13 - October 11,
* 1929 Pacific International Salon of Photographic Art, September 18–28,
* 1929 Pacific International Salon of Photographic Art, October 5–15,
* 1929 Seventy-fourth Annual Exhibition of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, September 14 - October 12,
* 1929 Second International Invitation Salon of the Camera Club of New York, May 1–15, June 6–30, May 16 - June 5, 1929
* 1928 Seventy-third Annual Exhibition of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, September 17 - October 13
Bibliography
*Robin, Libby. (2001). ''The Flight of the Emu: a hundred years of Australian ornithology 1901-2001''. Carlton, Vic. Melbourne University Press.
See also
Further biographical details for Les Chandler appear in H. M. Whittell's ''
The Literature of Australian Birds
''The Literature of Australian Birds'' is a book published in 1954 by Paterson Brokensha in Perth, Western Australia. Its full title is ''The Literature of Australian Birds: A History and a Bibliography of Australian Ornithology''. It was autho ...
''
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chandler, Leslie Gordon
1888 births
1980 deaths
Australian ornithologists
Australian naturalists
Australian photographers
Australian conservationists
Australian children's book illustrators
Australian jewellers
20th-century Australian zoologists
Scientists from Melbourne
People from the City of Knox
Writers from Melbourne
Military personnel from Melbourne
Australian military personnel of World War I
Australian people of English descent
World War I photographers