Charles Denison (Deny) King (12 September 190912 May 1991) was an Australian

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

ornithologist Ornithology, from Ancient Greek ὄρνις (''órnis''), meaning "bird", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", is a branch of zoology dedicated to the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related discip ...

, environmentalist, painter and tin miner. He spent 55 years living in

Melaleuca ''Melaleuca'' () is a genus of nearly 300 species of plants in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, commonly known as paperbarks, honey-myrtles, bottlebrushes or tea-trees (although the last name is also applied to species of '' Leptospermum''). They ...

Port Davey Port Davey is an embayment, oceanic inlet located in the South West Tasmania, south west region of Tasmania, Australia. Port Davey was named by explorer James Kelly (Australian explorer), James Kelly in honour of Thomas Davey (governor), Thomas ...

, part of the remote

South West Wilderness The South West Wilderness of Tasmania, Australia is a remote and inaccessible region of South West Tasmania containing unspoilt scenery, rugged peaks, wild rivers, unique flora and fauna, and a long and rugged coastline. Parts of the wilderness ...

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

where he discovered the extinct shrub, '' Banksia kingii'', among other major exploits.

Biography

King was a tin miner by profession and followed his father, Charlie, to Melaleuca in 1936, where he built a house, which was accommodation for himself and workers as well as the airstrip which opened up tourism for the South West Wilderness. On 6 June 1940, Deny King enlisted in the

Australian Army The Australian Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of Australia. It is a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF), along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. The Army is commanded by the Chief of Army ...

where he served through World War II being discharged on 15 October 1945. On 5 November 1949, Deny King married Margaret Ann Cadell at

St David's Cathedral, Hobart The Cathedral Church of St David is the Anglican Church of Australia, Anglican cathedral Church (building), church located in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. The cathedral is the mother-church for the Anglican Diocese of Tasmania, Diocese of Tasman ...

. The couple had two daughters, Mary and Janet. He was instrumental in preserving the habitat of the

orange-bellied parrot The orange-bellied parrot (''Neophema chrysogaster'') is a small parrot endemic (ecology), endemic to southern Australia, and one of only three species of parrot that bird migration, migrate. It was described by John Latham (ornithologist), John ...

and it was in Melaleuca that he discovered the extinct tree or shrub ''Banksia kingii''. King also discovered a species of

eyebright ''Euphrasia'', or eyebright, is a genus of about 215 species of herbaceous flowering plants in the family Orobanchaceae (formerly included in the Scrophulariaceae), with a cosmopolitan distribution. They are hemiparasitic on grasses and other pl ...

, ''Euphrasia kingii'' (nowadays known as ''Euphrasia gibbsiae'' subspecies ''kingii''), as well as a flowering evergreen in the

Protea ''Protea'' () is a genus of South African flowering plants, also called sugarbushes (Afrikaans: ''suikerbos''). It is the type genus of the Proteaceae family. About 92% of the species occur only in the Cape Floristic Region, a narrow belt of mo ...

family (

Proteaceae The Proteaceae form a family (biology), family of flowering plants predominantly distributed in the Southern Hemisphere. The family comprises 83 genus, genera with about 1,660 known species. Australia and South Africa have the greatest concentr ...

): King's Lomatia (also known as King's holly, '' Lomatia tasmanica''). In 1971, the King family's life at Melaleuca was the subject of an episode of the

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

television series " A Big Country". In 1975, King was appointed as a Member of the

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honours and awards system, Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarch ...

for his community service. On 12 May 1991, Deny King died suddenly of a heart attack at the home of his daughter Mary King in Hobart. He was cremated and his ashes scattered at Melaleuca.

Biography

References

Further reading