Mary Ann McHard (1825–1912), née Jones, was a pioneering Western Australian woman who contributed to Australian botany by collecting over 2000 plant specimens for

Ferdinand von Mueller Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (german: Müller; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Vict ...

and sending them to the newly created

National Herbarium of Victoria The National Herbarium of Victoria ( Index Herbariorum code: MEL) is one of Australia's earliest herbaria and the oldest scientific institution in Victoria. Its 1.5 million specimens of preserved plants, fungi and algae—collectively known a ...

Life

Mary Ann McHard arrived in Australia at the age of four; arriving together with her family in

Fremantle Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australian vernacular diminutive for ...

, Western Australia, on 29 October 1829 aboard the ''Lotus''. Within a year of the family's arrival, her mother died, and her father was left to look after the five young children. The family lived in Perth, where she married Thomas McHard in 1845, by whom she had four daughters. With the death of her husband in 1864, McHard, her children, her father and her two unmarried brothers, took up land near Balingup on the

Blackwood River The Blackwood River is a major river and catchment in the South West of Western Australia. Course The river begins at the junction of Arthur River and Balgarup River near Quelarup and travels in a south westerly direction through the tow ...

. After the death of their father, the two brothers and McHard continued working the property but with the death of R.T. Jones (a brother), she and her remaining brother moved to Bunbury, where she died in 1912.

Collections

She collected from

(1873–1895),

Preston River The Preston River is a river in the South West (Western Australia), South West region of Western Australia. The river has a total length of and rises near Goonac siding then flows in a north-westerly direction until discharging into the Lesch ...

(1876),

Geographe Bay Geographe Bay is in the south-west of Western Australia around 220 km southwest of Perth. The bay was named in May 1801 by French explorer Nicolas Baudin, after his ship, ''Géographe''. The bay is a wide curve of coastline extending from ...

(1881),

Busselton Busselton is a city in the South West region of the state of Western Australia approximately south-west of Perth. Busselton has a long history as a popular holiday destination for Western Australians; however, the closure of the Busselton ...

(1884), Augusta,

Cape Leeuwin Cape Leeuwin is the most south-westerly (but not most southerly) mainland point of the Australian continent, in the state of Western Australia. Description A few small islands and rocks, the St Alouarn Islands, extend further in Flinders Ba ...

and York (1885), Bayswater (1887), Gingin (1892–1893), Victoria Plains (1893), from near the Murchison River (1894) and from

Dardanup Dardanup is a small town in the South West (Western Australia), South West region of Western Australia. The town is in the fertile Ferguson valley and is near the Ferguson River (Western Australia), Ferguson River. The first European settlemen ...

. Some of her specimens were types: '' Pultenaea skinneri'' F.Muell. (187
MEL 2057199A
, ''Xerotes endlicheri'' F.Muell. (1874) (current name '' Lomandra odora''), and ''Boronia machardiana'' F.Muell. (1875) honouring her (current name '' Boronia crenulata'' subsp. ''viminea'' (Lindl.) Paul G.Wilson). In all, the

(MEL) still holds 2022 of the specimens she collected for Mueller (recorded under the various names of Mrs M. McHard / Mrs McHard / Mrs MacHard/ Mrs McHardy / Mrs M. Hard), while the website

Bionomia Bionomia (formerly Bloodhound Tracker) is a database and database entry tool which permits the name strings of collectors, and of taxonomists who determine specimen data, to be assigned to the unique person who collected or identified the specim ...

shows her as having collected at least 2072 extant specimens, and that 12 of these have contributed to a recent (2020) scientific paper. The seven surviving letters between Mueller and McHard do not indicate how McHard started to collect for

Mueller Mueller may refer to: People * Mueller (surname), a surname German in origin Places Antarctica * Mount Mueller (Antarctica) Australia * Mueller College, in Queensland * Mount Mueller (Victoria) *Mueller Park, in Western Australia * Mueller Rive ...

, but it is difficult not to believe that Mueller's extensive advertising in colonial papers was influential.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McHard, Mary Ann Australian women botanists 1825 births 1912 deaths Botanical collectors active in Australia 19th-century Australian botanists 19th-century Australian women scientists Scientists from Western Australia