The Australian National Wildlife Collection (ANWC) is a collection of almost 200,000

zoological Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and dis ...

specimens, including skeletons, skins, spirit specimens, birds’ eggs, frozen tissue samples and a wildlife sound library, mainly of

vertebrate Vertebrates () comprise all animal taxa within the subphylum Vertebrata () (chordates with backbones), including all mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Vertebrates represent the overwhelming majority of the phylum Chordata, with c ...

animals from Australia and

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

, which are stored in a secure, climate-controlled facility. It is based at CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems Division in the

Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory (commonly abbreviated as ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) until 1938, is a landlocked federal territory of Australia containing the national capital Canberra and some surrounding townships. I ...

History

The ANWC was established in 1966, though its origins date from the late 1950s when scientists in the CSIRO's Wildlife Survey section were collecting specimens in the course of their work and were concerned that their individual collections should not be dispersed and should be accessible at a central location for long-term security and so that comparative studies could be made. The decision to establish a central facility was made by Harold Frith, Chief of the Division of Wildlife. The founding Curator, later Director, was

Richard Schodde Richard Schodde, OAM (born 23 September 1936) is an Australian botanist and ornithologist. Schodde studied at the University of Adelaide, where he received a BSc (Hons) in 1960 and a PhD in 1970. During the 1960s he was a botanist with the CSI ...

, who held the post for nearly thirty years. It was formally recognised and named the Australian National Wildlife Collection in 1976 through gazettal by the Government of Australia.

References

Australian National Wildlife Collection
Biological research institutes Zoology organizations 1966 establishments in Australia CSIRO {{Australia-org-stub